Horror of Hamas nothing to celebrate as Israel faces more attacks

Barbaric, cruel, inhumane. Words barely describe what has unfolded in Israel in the past couple of days. Yet some in Australia were celebrating a ‘day of courage, a day of pride, a day of victory’. It was anything but, writes Mark Furler.

Barbaric, cruel, inhumane. Words barely describe what has unfolded in Israel in the past couple of days.

More than 260 people gunned down at a music festival. Dozens, including women and children, taken hostage by Hamas terrorists.

A half-naked woman on the back of a pick-up truck being paraded through the streets as those ‘celebrating’ the efforts spit on her.

This is rightly described as Israel’s 9/11 – an attack so brutal that the loss of lives in a day has not been seen since the Holocaust when Hitler’s Nazis wiped out 6 million Jews – 1.5 million of them children.

The terrifying scenes emerging out of Israel are more potent when you have been there – and know people caught up in the middle of it all right now.

A message from one friend said: “Please continue to pray as we have so much unknown ahead. We have never known anything like this.”

As the Israel Defence Force calls up thousands of reservists, you can only imagine the real fear facing the baby-faced young soldiers we saw in our travels.

A salvo of rockets is fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

In the two weeks we were in Israel there were something like 1100 rockets fired into the region. Thanks to Israel’s Iron Dome, few hit their target. Living with sirens and taking cover in bomb shelters has become almost just a way of life for those in Israel.

But the raid on civilians inside of Israel took things to a whole new level – as does the threat of Hezbollah firing off some of the estimated 150,000 rockets aimed at Israel from the north.

We overlooked the place near the border with Lebanon where the rockets would come from, while the music festival where 260 bodies had been found is not far from a place we visited in May.

Shani Louk, a German national, is believed to have been killed by Palestinian militants during their large scale incursion into Israel. Picture: Instagram

Back then, Jewish and Arab families were enjoying a picnic while watching their children swim in the Besor brooks in the Eshkol National Park.

It’s an oasis in the desert near the Gaza Strip made famous by King David and his men refreshing themselves while in pursuit of an army who had raided David’s camp, kidnapping women and children and carrying off valuables.

The remains of a festival site where rescuers have found 260 bodies at a music festival in Israel after witnesses say Hamas terrorists cut the power and opened fire.

On the weekend, harrowing footage on social media showed festival-goers, most aged in their 20s and 30s, fleeing as Hamas gunmen pursued them, gunning them down.

What was meant to be a night celebrating the end of the Sukkot religious holiday ended in absolute terror.

Shocking footage showed terrified ravers fleeing a festival in Israel. Rescuers have found 260 bodies at a music festival in Israel after witnesses say Hamas terrorists cut the power and opened fire.

Among those taken was German national Shani Louk, 30, who was paraded in the back of the truck as people spat on her while the terrorists chanted “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is Great”.

As one news channel host put it: “I cannot imagine how horrific a massacre this must have been. 260 people gunned down. To put that in context, that’s the equivalent of more than five Pulse nightclub shootings.”

In Australia, the celebration of Hamas’ actions were deeply disturbing.

People in their hundreds flocked to Lakemba Station on Sunday night just a day after at least 700 people were killed in Israel and another 2000 injured.

Australian onlookers were seen cheering and shouting as a series of speakers preached their praises for the Palestinian attacks.

“I’m smiling and I’m happy. I’m elated,” Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun said to the crowd.

“It’s a day of courage, it’s a day of resistance, it’s a day of pride, it’s a day of victory.

“This is the day we’ve been waiting for.”

Protesters rally in favour of Palestine at Lakemba. Picture: TNV

Sheikh Dadoun said the attacks were a fitting response to years of occupation and blockade.

“75 years of occupation and 15 years of blockade that Palestinians have faced since the instatement of Israel,” he shouted.

“What happened yesterday is the first time our brothers and sisters break through the largest prison on earth.

Later NSW Premier Chris Minns said no one should be celebrating “atrocious acts of violence”.

“There is nothing to celebrate in the killing of innocents, the firing of rockets at civilians, or the taking of hostages. The actions of Hamas must be condemned,” he said.

“Far from celebrating this violence – the only appropriate response is to denounce these atrocious acts of violence that have killed so many innocent people.”

They are sentiments that will be shared by many Australians as they stand with a nation that has already has too many dark days in its 75 years as a nation.

* Mark Furler travelled to Israel earlier this year as part of a tour group of the Holy Land.

Originally published as Horror of Hamas nothing to celebrate as Israel faces more attacks