Horrifying scenes of Hamas massacre aftermath

The survivors of an Israeli kibbutz that was targeted by Hamas fighters in a cold-blooded killing spree have returned to their burnt and bullet-riddled homes. See the haunting photos.

Residents of an Israeli kibbutz targeted by Hamas fighters in a massacre on the first day of fighting have returned to their homes, sifting through the horror left behind.

One in seven people who lived in Kfar Aza, a small farming community just 1.6 kilometres from the Gaza Strip, were murdered in the early morning raids after Hamas militants broke through a security fence and went from house to house in a cold-blooded killing spree.

One hundred people were killed in Kfar Aza on October 7, including children, Israeli authorities said.

It was one of more than 20 towns and military bases hit by the militants that day in highly-targeted operations.

Israeli army soldiers patrol near damaged houses in kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip on October 18, 2023. Picture: AFP

Israeli soldiers patrol in kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel, where Hamas fighters killed 100 people including children on October 7. Picture: AFP

The Hamas fighters carried maps of the kibbutzim they attacked and in some cases had plans to round up hostages in community halls.

Images of Kfar Aza showed simple dwellings, burnt out and ransacked by the militants, riddled with bullet holes or crumbling from missile blasts.

Vehicles and farming structures were also torched during the massacre, which lasted several hours.

Local factory worker Amnon Tal was one of the first to return to Kfar Aza.

“We’re the survivors,” he said. “Whoever comes back is still alive.”

A motorcycle left behind by a Hamas militant lies next to a wrecked car in kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip on October 18, 2023. Picture: AFP

During the attack, the 55 year old, his wife and son hid in the anti-rocket shelter at their house, armed only with a 30 centimetre butcher’s knife.

The room has a reinforced armoured door which can be opened from the outside as well as inside.

But as soon as the first shots were fired, Mr Tal had the presence of mind to remove the outside handle of the shelter.

“I stayed like that with the knife in my hand for four hours,” he said.

An Israeli army soldier looks on during a patrol in kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel on October 18. Picture: AFP

Funerals for those killed in Kfar Aza have taken place over the past few days, including for all five members of the Lutz family, who died while huddled in an embrace.

“The people who did this aren’t human, they’re animals, they killed without a problem, as if for fun,” said Mr Tal.

He pointed to the stone from the garden used by Hamas attackers to break the window of his door to get inside.

“There, look how they shot from the window with a Kalashnikov,” he says, pointing to bullet holes on the fridge.

His 16-year-old son’s bedroom is also riddled with bullet holes, including the screen of his games console.

A heavily damaged barn stands in kibbutz Alumim, following the October 7 attack by Hamas fighters. Picture: AFP

An armed resident walks amid the ashes of a heavily damaged building in kibbutz Alumim. Picture: AFP

Charred debris and objects are scattered inside a building in kibbutz Alumim, following the October 7 attack by Hamas fighters. Picture: AFP

While Kfar Aza and other communities were being overrun, details have emerged about another kibbutz in Mefalsim, where residents fought back against two dozen Hamas militants.

With families taking cover in their homes, thanks to an early warning shared by WhatsApp, a dozen army veterans and security volunteers armed with M16s took it upon themselves to fight off the invaders.

Members of the kibbutz who spoke to the Wall Street Journal said they kept up their gunfire for 90 minutes until Israeli soldiers arrived.

Ten Hamas militants were killed, one was captured, and the rest retreated. No residents of Mefalsim were killed or captured.

“There is a feeling of discomfort that we survived, and others did not,” the Journal quoted local security chief Moshe Kaplan as saying.

The remains of a building in kibbutz Alumim, following the October 7 attack by Hamas fighters. Picture: AFP

The remnants of a home in an Israeli kibbutz after Hamas fighters attacked on October 7. Picture: AFP

FAMILY THAT DIED IN LAST EMBRACE LAID TO REST

An Israeli family of five who died in a last embrace at the hands of Hamas militants have been buried in Gan Yavne, near the Gaza Strip.

Media outlets around the world reported on the murder of Aviv and Livnat Kutz and their three teenage children, who were found huddled together in a bed in their home in Kfar Aza after the surprise attack by Hamas militants on October 7.

The New Yorker reported that the five members of the family, who had lived in the US for a number of years, were buried together in a row of graves at a funeral attended by hundreds of people. Each coffin was draped in the Israeli flag.

The Kutz family – including daughter Rotem (19) and sons Yonatan (17) and Yiftach (15) – were among 1400 Israelis killed on the first day of the now 10-day-old war, when Hamas militants from Gaza broke through border gates and gunned down Israeli civilians.

Aviv Kutz, 54, was found embracing his wife, Livnat, 49, daughter Rotem, 19, and sons Yonatan, 17, and Yiftach, 17,

The family were initially reported missing, feared kidnapped by the militants, but workers on a neighbouring kibbutz later discovered their bodies huddled in a tight embrace.

Fifty-four-year-old Aviv was employed for a consulting firm and also did some work in agriculture. His wife Livnat, who was shortly to turn 50, was a graphic designer.

Rotem was a soldier with the Israel Defense Forces while Yonatan and Yiftach were high school students and keen basketball players.

“They were all amazing kids with huge hearts. They had their whole lives ahead of them,” their aunt Adi Levy Salama told the Times of Israel.

“On the day they were murdered, we were supposed to visit them. Aviv organised an annual kite festival along the fence with Gaza to show them that we just want to live in peace,” the Times quoted her as saying.

Aviv Kutz (L), 54, was found embracing his wife, Livnat (R), 49, daughter Rotem, 19, and sons Yonatan, 17, and Yiftach, 17,

Livnat, a graphic designer who was about to turn 50, was born during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and her husband was deputy director of a consulting firm and worked in agriculture.

Rotem was an Israel Defense Forces soldier who trained new recruits, while Yonatan and Yiftach attended the Kfar Hayarok boarding school in Ramat Hasharon near Tel Aviv and played basketball in the Hapoel youth program.

“They were all amazing kids with huge hearts. They had their whole lives ahead of them,” their aunt said.

Meanwhile, the lives of another couple from Kfar Aza – IDF officer Niral Zini, 31, and his girlfriend Niv Raviv, 27 were murdered just prior to their planned engagement, New York Post reports.

Niv Raviv (L), 27, and boyfriend Niral Zini, 31. The ring he was going to propose to her with was found in their burned-out house after they were killed by Hamas. Picture: Facebook

Zini planned to propose to Niv on October 10, with the ring he planned to give to her found in the burned house at the kibbutz, according to the outlet.

On the day of the invasion, Zini sent his family a chilling message: “They’re here. I’m putting the phone down – pray.”

He grasped a knife as he defended the door to the shelter while Raviv hid under a bed, but their bodies were found after the massacre.

A MOTHER’S HEARTBREAKING PLEA

A distraught Israeli mother described listening to her 12-year-old son beg Hamas fighters not to kidnap him because he was “too young”, in their last telephone call.

Renana Gomeh broke down recounting in a media conference organised by the Israeli Foreign Affairs, how she was on the phone with the 12-year-old and his 16-year-old brother trying to calm them after their home in the kibbutz Nir Oz was attacked.

Ms Gomeh was not home at the time and the boys rang to tell her what was happening.

“They heard voices and the noises of the door breaking,” she said.

“I was on the phone with them and trying to calm them down. I told them the military would get there – they were safe and in their home.

“When they heard the noises of the door breaking, I asked them to be quiet. To stay quiet.

“They were in the safe room... which is the bedroom of the eldest. He is 16 years old. Then about 10 minutes later I could hear people speaking in Arabic outside their door and they broke in and the last thing I heard was my youngest who is 12 saying I am too young don’t take me.

“And that was it, that was the last time I heard from them. I don’t know if they eating or sleeping or if they are being tortured or if they are alive.”

Renana Gomeh, an Israeli mother, has appealed for help from the international community to finding her two boys, aged 12 and 16. Picture: Supplied

Not far away in the kibbutz Kfer Aza, Israeli singer Shay-Lee Atary had to run for her life clutching her one month daughter while her filmmaker husband Yahav Wiener sacrificed himself to save them. Ms Atary said her daughter Shaya didn’t eat for 27 hours while they hid with neighbours who took them in.

“Every time she cried, the terrorists shot at the house where we were hiding,” Ms Atary said.

She described how after hearing explosions and gun shots at 6.30 in the morning she and her husband grabbed the baby got to the bomb shelter and closed the door.

She said they started hearing voices and shouts in Arabic and they agreed silently with hand actions if their attackers came into the bomb shelter, her husband would hold the door while she took their daughter and ran away.

“They opened the window and a hand came in and started to push the window open.

“I ran out the door of the shelter with her in my arms. Without shoes, limping. We barely had time to say goodbye.

“Shaya was asleep and did not wake up. Yehev was holding the window. I hid in the bushes and trees and behind doors.”

She hid in garden shed and when she heard the terrorists approaching she covered herself and Shaya with garden pots and sand bags.

After Shaya started crying, she grabbed a hammer and a chisel and put them in her pyjama pockets to defend herself and she ran again this time to a neighbours’ laundry room. They saw them on the cameras and let them in.

Together with their three children, they hid for 27 hours with nothing to eat but sour milk and water.

“Instead of a pacifier I gave Shaya my finger.”

Ms Atary later discovered her husband had been killed in the terror attack. She has told the media she begged officials to speed up the identification procedure so that she could retrieve his sperm and preserve his dream of having siblings for daughter.

But Ms Atari was told the procedure was unsuccessful because his body had been exposed to the elements for too long.

Ms Gomeh, whose sons have not been heard from since they were abducted, lashed out after being asked by a journalist what she thought of the Israeli counter attack saying they were trying to create a false equivalency.

“I can’t be empathetic anymore. I can’t sympathise with animal humans — well, they’re not really human — who came into my house and smashed everything,” she said.

“They stole everything, took my children from their bedrooms and took them to the Gaza Strip.

“I’m sorry. It is against the laws of war. It is against humanity. It’s against anything we all believe in.”