Days after Hamas mounted an all-out offensive against Israel, tales of horror continue to emerge from Israel as rescuers and security services access more areas.
The State of Israel on Tuesday shared that over 100 bodies have been recovered from the Be'eri community in southern Israel. The dead also include children.
In the worst-attack ever on Israel, Hamas attackers invaded Israel on Saturday via land on bikes and trucks, via air on gliders, and via sea in boats in the cover of thousands of rockets fired into Israel from Gaza Strip. So far, at least 1,000 dead and over 2,800 injured people have been confirmed.
The southern Israel bore the brunt of the attack by Hamas, which is a designated terrorist organisation. Saturday was the day of Shabbat at the end of a holy Jewish week and the region had minimal security presence as most of the security services were also observing religious holidays.
The Be'eri community is the second major centre of Hamas's carnage in the region after the Supernova Music Festival near the Re'im community in the region where at least 260 revellers were killed and dozens were taken as hostages and transported to Gaza where they are being held captive.
Noting the extent of the carnage at the Be'eri community, Israel Policy Forum (IPF) Middle East Analyst Eli Kowaz said that the dead represented more than 10 per cent of the entire population of the community.
The CNN reports that the Be'eri community was one of the first that the Hamas attackers struck after invading Israel. Their entry into the community has been captured in footage that has surfaced in the public domain. The attack at Be'eri took place around the same time as the music festival in the region was attacked.
Residents have told media that the Hamas attackers went door-to-door to kill residents.
"Heavily armed militants arrived in Be’eri on motorbikes around 7 a.m...A bloodbath followed. Footage shows militants pulling three bodies out of a car, before stealing the vehicle and driving north...Another video shows armed militants taking five Israeli civilians captive, with the bodies of four later seen lying on the ground nearby in another video verified by CNN," reports CNN.
The Be'eri community was a 'kibbutz', which is a unique type of an Israeli community rooted in socialist values where the community lives a whole unit. A kibbutz is an agricultural and often also an industrial community in which all wealth is held in common, says The Britannica Encyclopaedia.
"Profits are reinvested in the settlement after members have been provided with food, clothing, and shelter and with social and medical services. Adults have private quarters, but children are generally housed and cared for as a group. Cooking and dining are in common," says Britannica further.
As the region had minimal security presence, a number of community and even a military base were overrun by Hamas attackers and it took more than two days for the Israeli forces to regain control of all the territories. The CNN reports that as many as 107 bodies were recovered from Be'eri.
A British-Israeli man living in East Asia, whose father and two sisters live in Be'eri, told GB News that around 90 attackers entered the community. He was on a call with one of his sisters at the time of the attack when she abruptly disconnected the call out of the fear of being discovered.
The man, identified as Ahal Besorai, said that he understands that his father, sister, brother-in-law, and their children were taken away alive by the attackers. He said that they could be held captive in Gaza, where the authorities have said over 100 Israelis are in captivity.
"From my understanding, they were taken. They were pulled out alive. Witnesses saw them being taken away. The teenage children and my sister and her husband and dad were dragged away," said Besorai to GB News.
The Hamas and fellow designated terrorist organisation Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have said they are holding at least 130 hostages in Gaza, at least some of whom appear to have been executed. In one of the most widely condemned footages, Hamas paraded a seemingly dead woman in a semi-naked in a truck amid celebratory cheers in Gaza.
