Damaged buildings, burnt vehicles, missing people- Tale of Hamas' attack on Israel's Be'eri community
Oct 13, 2023
By Ashoke Raj
Tel Aviv [Israel], October 13 : The Kibbutz Be'eri located in southern Israel, very close to the Gaza border, has witnessed horrific atrocities by the terrorist group Hamas during their October 7 attack on Israel.
Bullet-riddled buildings, burnt vehicles and shattered windowpanes are seen strewn about in the community, testimony to the suffering inflicted by the incursion. Arms and ammunition abandoned by the terrorists are also seen lying about.
Israel's defence forces equipped with military tanks are now positioned across the town after regaining control over it, following the "surprise" attack.
Visuals from Kibbutz Be'eri show the aftermath of the atrocities carried out by Hamas terrorists who reportedly went door to door killing residents or taking them hostages.
A resident Gili said that members of his family were taken hostage by Hamas terrorists. He breaks down while speaking about his sister but adds resolutely that they will "get her back."
Speaking to ANI, Gili said, "My sister with her husband and three-year-old daughter came to visit her parents-law and meet her sister-in-law for Sabbath dinner. She has been taken. They've been captured from their house, they have taken from the shelter of their house on Saturday morning and were taken in a car towards Gaza. They were kidnapped."
"My sister and her husband along with the baby managed to run out of the car and managed to save their lives from four terrorists who were shooting at them," the man said.
"...My sister gave her kid to her husband in order for him to run faster and save their life and he managed to do that he was here for 24 hours, hiding, until he got back to the Kibbutz and saved their lives. But since then he has not seen her because she was slower and had to hide from the bullets."
Gili said he has been extensively trying to track his sister for the last five days.
"For the last five days we were just extensively searching for looking for any tracks, any signs that we can see if she's still here in Israel or been recaptured. We understand now about because of the findings that we have, that she's most probably not here, been recaptured, now been held hostage inside Gaza, probably with her sister-in-law Carmel, mother-in-law," he said.
Gili said that his sister is a German citizen also. "So we're talking about three women here from our only from our family along 100 of other hostages being inhumanely taken to Gaza to expand the most inhumane massacre that happened in this Kibbutz in this area."
In an emotional message that he shared for his sister, he called her the best mother and said that the most precious thing in her life is alive.
He said, "My message to my sister that will get her back. I think she know that we are strong. I think she knows that she has something to look forward to and want to tell her that the sacrifice that she has made has succeeded, that her little child, the most precious thing in her life is alive, she's safe, she's with us, she's waiting for her.
"I think she's the best mother in the world. No one can do a higher motherly act than the one that she did and it would be worth it. This is what I want to tell her," Gili said visibly choking up.
On Saturday, Hamas terrorists stormed Be'eri and caused a devastation of unimaginable scale, CNN reported. The community of about 1,100 people was woken up at 6:30 am (local time) when the alarm indicating an imminent rocket attack went off.
Meanwhile in New York, massive images of Israeli hostages, including of babies, elderly men and women were projected on the side of the United Nations headquarters.
The images of the hostages projected at the UN headquarters, by a group of Israelis living in the US, included 4-year-old Ariel, 85-year-old Yaffa among others. A message projected at the UN headquarters read, "Abducting Israelis civilians is a crime against humanity," "Hamas is ISIS," "Bring them home now."
The Command Centre in the US for the families of the hostages called for the release of all hostages, whose captivity they noted is against international law. It demanded for immediate facilitation of humanitarian corridor to provide medicine and essential provisions. In addition, the Command Centre called for the intervention of world leaders, particularly Arab World.
Command Centre activists in New York said, "The world must know. The world needs to wake up. We will not rest until our brothers and sisters, who were violently and murderously kidnapped, will come home to their families."
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli Defence Forces spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, on Friday said the country Israel aims to strip Hamas, of all its military capabilities. He noted that Israeli Defence Forces will continue to operate with significant force in Gaza, adding that they aim to minimize the damage to civilians.