‘The one constant is death’: Bel Trew reports from Israel-Gaza border after Hamas militants commit massacre in Kafr Aza
The ‘smell of death’ dominates the air in Kfar Aza after Hamas breached the nearby Gaza border and committed a savage massacre in the village.
The Independent’s Bel Trew is on the ground in Israel after Hamas militants launched a brutal attack early Saturday 7 October.
“They came with one mission, to kill more and more Jews”, said Major David Ben Zion as he stands among the wreckage.
The IDF described how they entered homes and found residents’ bodies “decapitated” the rural farming community of around 800 people left decimated by the attack.
At least 900 Israelis and almost 800 people in the Gaza Strip have lost their lives in the attack.
The Independent’s Bel Trew is on the ground in Israel after Hamas militants launched a brutal attack early Saturday 7 October.
“They came with one mission, to kill more and more Jews”, said Major David Ben Zion as he stands among the wreckage.
The IDF described how they entered homes and found residents’ bodies “decapitated” the rural farming community of around 800 people left decimated by the attack.
At least 900 Israelis and almost 800 people in the Gaza Strip have lost their lives in the attack.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 There are still open gun battles between Israeli forces and Hamas militants here in this village
00:12 that we're walking into right now. Soldiers are positioned there on the hills and the
00:17 road is littered with dead bodies of militant fighters. There may still be militants here
00:37 in this village in the last 10-15 minutes. There has been exchange of gunfire. We've
00:41 also heard rockets overhead. We're very close to the border here so it's not much warning
00:46 when there is a rocket attack. As you can see behind me, Israeli soldiers are combing
00:49 this area door to door to see if they can find any of the militants that are still here.
00:54 We left our families on Saturday morning and we came straight to Pukfar Gaza to save the
00:59 family that was right here. Unfortunately, we succeeded to save some of them but we found
01:06 a lot of them in the houses. They cut heads. They cut heads of children. They cut heads
01:11 of women. We saw babies too, etc. They came with just one mission to kill more and more
01:19 Jewish without any heart. The one constant is the smell of death. There are a lot of
01:25 bodies here which are rotting in the sunshine. Most of them are militants and as you can
01:31 hear there are still constant rocket fire and interceptions. This is a family home just
01:36 behind me. They can't enter it because there are grenades. It's still mined which is apparently
01:40 a problem here as they are clearing through the villages. It's pretty eerie scenes here
01:46 being in people's homes. There are actually piles of dead blood in the corner of this
01:51 home that's right opposite a completely destroyed house.
02:04 This is a quiet farming community called Pukfar Gaza. It's about 800 people, men, women and
02:10 children, mostly farmers, who live here. Very peaceful life. There were at times mortar
02:16 shells that came in. They never thought there would be an invasion. On Saturday morning,
02:22 Hamas terrorists came from Gaza which we can see behind me. It's only a few kilometers
02:27 away, broke through the fence. They flew in from the air. Their paragliders are not far
02:32 from us and carried out a massacre. Just behind me is one of the breach points where Hamas
02:39 militants came in on Saturday morning to this quiet rural farming community. Just behind
02:44 it is the Gaza border. There's pretty near constant explosions happening at the moment.
02:49 Obviously, this is incredibly close to militant positions from the Gaza Strip.
02:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]