A member of the Israeli nongovernmental rescue and recovery organization ZAKA described horrific scenes.
A member of an Israeli recovery team said that at one of the Israeli communities attacked by Hamas terrorists, about 80 percent of an estimated 280 bodies—including children—showed signs of torture.
Yossi Landau, who has been with the Israeli nongovernmental rescue and recovery organization ZAKA for 33 years, described the horror he and his team witnessed at Kibbutz Be’eri, where the atrocities included rapes, mutilations, and beheadings.
“Two piles of 10 children each were tied at the back, burned to death,” he said in an interview with Sky News, adding that “this is something beyond, this is next level.”
Mr. Landau added that some of the bodies had been booby trapped, making recovery efforts more difficult—and dangerous.
The horrific scenes at Kibbutz Be’eri were described in similar terms by Mendy Havin, a ZAKA commander, in an earlier interview with Epoch Israel.
“At the end of the kibbutz, in a house that was completely destroyed, they [the babies] are sitting on a fence outside of the house,” Mr. Haviv recalled. “Their bodies are burned. Their parents, sitting in front of them, are slaughtered.”
Hamas terrorists infiltrated southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing over 1,400 Israelis, the vast majority civilians.
The U.S. government has said that 30 American citizens were among those killed.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement released Sunday.
Over the weekend, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog revealed what he described as a Hamas “instruction guide” that had allegedly been found on the body of a killed terrorist, which described how to torture and kidnap civilians.
“This was found on the body of one of the terrorists. This is a booklet, OK?” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview Sunday, while holding up a pamphlet featuring the image of a Hamas terrorist.
By Tom Ozimek
