There are so many atrocities committed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, it’s hard to document them all. We’ve touched on some of them in our daily updates, and also these posts:
Here’s another atrocity we haven’t posted before:
Hamas regularly went far beyond killing people, and deliberately tried to humiliate and torture people with rape, execution of loved ones, killing and kidnapping children and the elderly, and parading victims through the streets of Gaza through depraved crowds who beat and defiled the bodies.
Hamas gave Gaza what Gazans wanted and enjoyed. They are not enjoying it now that Israel is retaliating. To use a popular phrase, Gaza f-d around, and is finding out.
All of these crimes strike at the heart, but some bring back memories of places I visited. In 2015 my wife and I traveled to Israel, focusing on the borders and security issues, which I documented at Legal Insurrection.
We made a trip to the north, to Moshav Avivim. That Moshav was hit by Hezbollah rockets today in a relatively-minor flare up at the Lebanese border. We’ll see if the north turns into a major second front.
We also visited the Gaza border towns, including Sderot. We visited the town security center, and were given a tour by the security chief.
Sderot was captured for a time by Hamas, the police force wiped out, and the security building taken over. In order to flush out the terrorists, Israel had to destroy the building.
We also visited Kibbutz Be’eri, 4 kilometers (less than 3 miles) from the border. The Israeli government made a major effort to reinforce buildings and build “safe rooms” in each house. In this photo, you can see how a children’s classroom has had a superstructure built over it; it is less obvious, but the walls also are reinforced and the windows changed.
It seemed that in Sderot and Kibbutz Be’eri, the main perceived threat was rockets. But it wasn’t just rockets that came on October 7, 2023.
Kibbutz Be’eri was the scene of one of the worst massacres by Hamas. Over 100 bodies have been recovered, and an unknown but substantial number of children and parents were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. The attack is documented in security camera and body camera footage that has been recovered.
Here is when the terrorists entered the Kibbutz:
Here they are going door to door in Nazi-like fashion hunting for Jews:
They even looted the dead bodies:
This appears to be someone affiliated with the terrorists sent to report “live” from the scene. Hamas is very media savvy, and took extensive footage of their atrocities to please their supporters and taunt Israel:
Here are more scenes of the carnage and aftermath:
And the heartbreaking stories of kidnappings and killings:
They even killed a dog for the fun of it. (Note: I’ve seen various accounts of whether this was at Kibbutz Be’eri or another Kibbutz.)
Hamas killed at least four of the hostages, The Washington Post is reporting:
At least four Israelis taken hostage by Hamas during their unprecedented incursion into Israel on Saturday were killed soon after being taken captive, according to videos reviewed by The Washington Post. Graphic video shared on Telegram on Oct. 8, and verified by The Post, shows multiple bodies in the street in Be’eri, a kibbutz in southern Israel, just yards from where Hamas militants were filmed walking with several civilians who appear to be those same hostages.Initial video of the hostages, which was filmed roughly an hour and a half after the attack began, was among the first pieces of visual evidence showing Hamas militants taking Israeli civilians captive.In the video, the civilians appear to have their hands tied behind their backs and are being led by men in military clothing carrying AR-style weapons down a residential street. Some walk barefoot. Black smoke billows in the distance. The person filming shouts toward the group as they approach an intersection that is guarded by a gate, leading out of Be’eri toward Gaza.At least four bodies are visible near that gate, in a second graphic video shared on Telegram on Oct. 8, which was independently verified by The Post and first geolocated by Rollo Collins and Benjamin den Braber of the Center for Information Resilience. The Post was not able to immediately verify exactly when this video was filmed, though burned cars and smoke are visible in both videos.The videos are extremely disturbing, and contain graphic material showing corpses.
Israel is now bombing Gaza in retaliation, and it looks like there will be a ground invasion. The goal is to destroy the terrorist groups in a way, as the Israeli Defense Minister said, that will be remembered for 50 years.
My thoughts are only with the hostages kidnapped and the Israeli families suffering.
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