‘What I’ve seen here, no human should ever see’
FRESH horrors of the Hamas massacre emerged yesterday as Israeli soldiers carried on with the painstaking task of recovering bodies.
As soldiers bagged up the dead, an officer at Be’eri Kibbutz described how police had fought to the death against the terrorist onslaught of a week ago.
And he talked of the attack as an “inside job”, after one survivor told him some of the Hamas fighters had been men allowed to leave Gaza to work on kibbutzim in the past two years.
We were given access to the Be’eri settlement, where adults, children and babies had been slaughtered in some of the most horrific killings to be suffered by Israelis in decades.
Now, Israeli Merkava tank squadrons gather here instead, gearing up to wreak their revenge.
Young soldiers, many set to see combat for the first time, have faces hardened with sadness, shock and bitter resolve.
This is the new front line between Hamas and Israeli forces.
And yet the bodies are still being cleared up from a week ago, including those of Hamas fighters. Up to 30 have been found so far in this area alone.
Of the 1,100 people living in this once peaceful idyll, a tenth died. But it would have been many more if the police had not arrived to put their own lives on the line.
Against the noise of strikes on Gaza less than two miles away as tanks open fire and rev their engines in the dust, Col Golan Vach told us: “When we heard about the attack I set off at over 110 miles per hour – I was overtaken by police on motorbikes, some with guns, some not. “They drove at such speed to save our citizens. Sadly, by the time I got there, those brave police officers were all dead, lying here, their magazines emptied. “Those who came with no weapons fought too – they took guns off the terrorists and fought bravely to save the lives of these poor people. “And you know what? They did as they are supposed to do, to fight and protect.” The colonel, of the Israel National Search and Rescue Unit, told us one survivor had said she knew some of the killers – that they once worked on the kibbutz. He claimed those workers had been scoping where people lived and their possessions, and that a second wave of robbers had come to strip what they could after the first burst through. He added: “I served in the military, in Lebanon and elsewhere. “I was a combat officer for 17 years and have seen many horrific things. “What I saw here, no human being should ever see. What I saw here was humiliation, elders lying dead, hands tied… executed. A baby beheaded. “Not only have I seen a baby beheaded by Hamas, I held it in my hands. “This is why this region needs to be cleared of these people.”