A top official with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) described the aftermath of the attacks from Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, as being “a massacre.”
Major Gen. Itai Veruv informed journalists who had been allowed into Kfar Aza, an Israeli kibbutz, what he saw when IDF had arrived to rescue the people in the border towns near the Gaza Strip, according to i24News.
Hamas carried out a surprise attack on the southern part of Israel with rockets raining down on cities and Hamas militants paragliding into a music festival near the Gaza Strip.
As a result of the attack from Hamas, Israel declared war on the group.
“It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. It’s a massacre,” Veruv said of the attack on Kfar Aza. “It’s a terror activity.”
'It's not a war, it's not a battle. It's a massacre'
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 10, 2023
Journalists are let into Kfar Aza for the first time, four days after the community came under the shock attack by Hamas terrorists
IDF Major General Itai Veruv describes the scene of brutal violence, where whole families… pic.twitter.com/HJzoMKj2Ta
“It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield,” Veruv continued. “You see the babies, the mother, the father, in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms, and how the terrorists killed them.
Dozens of dead bodies of both could be seen on video as reporters walked around the kibbutz, which is reported to have been liberated from Hamas control. IDF reportedly discovered the dead bodies of 40 babies.
i24NEWS Correspondent @Nicole_Zedek reports from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a quarter-mile from the Gaza border, and recounts the atrocities that were committed in the small community which remains an active scene as soldiers clear booby traps and recover the bodies of dozens of victims pic.twitter.com/J4ZfWZQYHp
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) October 10, 2023
“You can look about it yourself, it’s something that I’ve never seen in my life,” Veruv continued. “It’s something that we used to imagine as our grandfather, grandmother in pogroms in Europe and other places. It’s not something that happened in the new history.” Veruv was recalling Jewish history involving deadly pogroms, when entire villages would often be massacred.
As the war between Israel and Hamas stretched into day four, the death toll was reported to be at 800 with more than 250 of the dead having been people attending the music festival. More than 100 people were reported to have been taken hostage in Gaza, including the elderly and children, according to The Times of Israel.
Nine Americans are reportedly among the dead.
