The IDF took dozens of foreign journalists on Tuesday to see for themselves the death and destruction wrought by Hamas terrorists this week, informs the times of israel.
With explosions and artillery fire in the background, the crews, wearing helmets and flak jackets, picked through the destroyed Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where the bodies of Palestinian terrorists still lay outside of fire-scarred homes.
The journalists were protected by at least a company of IDF soldiers, clad in full combat gear as they continued to clear homes.
Reporters spoke of the stench of death in the air.
Still, the pastoral simplicity of the kibbutz with its lawns and one-story homes was evident, further underscoring how jarring were the atrocities that took place only days before.
“It’s not a war,” General Itai Veruv, head of the IDF’s Depth Command, told reporters. “It’s not a battlefield. You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms, and how the terrorists kill them. It’s not a war… it’s a massacre.”
IDF soldiers remove the body of an Israeli killed during an October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas terrorists, in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel bordering the Gaza Strip, on October 10, 2023 (JACK GUEZ / AFP)
“It’s something I never saw in my life. It’s something I used to imagine of my grandmother and my grandfather in Europe and other places,” he said.
A reporter from i24 News said that an IDF commander told her that they had found the bodies of some 40 babies, some of whom had been beheaded.
Israel has yet to organize a tour of the massacre sites for Israeli journalists, showing how strongly the country is prioritizing world opinion.
Israeli soldiers stand near the body of a Palestinian terrorist in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, south of Israel bordering Gaza Strip, on October 10, 2023. (Thomas COEX / AFP)
When Ukrainian forces liberated the Kyiv suburb of Bucha from Russian forces in April 2022, Ukraine arranged similar tours for journalists to ensure widespread coverage of Russian war crimes against residents.
Earlier Tuesday, the IDF said it had finally regained control over the border with the Gaza Strip, some 72 hours after Hamas terrorists blew through sections of the barrier and launched an invasion, slaughtering over 900 Israelis and kidnapping more than 100 to Gaza.
The bullet-shattered window of a house at Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Fighting continued in the kibbutz into Sunday.
As Israel continued to grapple with the emerging enormity of Saturday’s massacres and the military was formally notifying hostages’ families that their loved ones were being held in Gaza, air force planes bombarded wide swaths of the Strip.
Meanwhile, some 300,000 reservists girded for a possible ground invasion, sweeps to locate terrorists feared still hiding inside Israel continued, and tensions on the northern border threatened to snowball into a second front.
IDF soldiers on October 10, 2023, show members of the foreign press around Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the southern Israeli communities where Hamas terrorists massacred hundreds of Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023 (Channel 12 screenshot used in accordance with clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
The IDF estimates that there are a small number of terrorists still hiding in Israeli territory. Overnight, Israeli security forces killed at least one Palestinian terrorist near Kibbutz Sa’ad.
Troops also exchanged fire with terrorists in Kissufim and Monday night saw police kill another terror suspect near Mishmar Hanegev, some 24 kilometers (15 miles) inside Israel.