Israeli soldier scans the area around Kfar Aza on October 10, 2023. Ilia Yefimovich/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
- Israeli soldiers say they have found dead babies on a kibbutz near the Israel-Gaza border.
- The IDF told Insider that some had been beheaded.
- The kibbutz was attacked by Hamas on Saturday and fighting continued there until Sunday.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesman told Insider on Tuesday that its soldiers found the decapitated bodies of babies in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz near Gaza.
The spokesman, Major Nir Dinar, did not say how many baby bodies had been found and how many had been decapitated.
Insider could not independently confirm what was found, but Israeli media also reported the claim and attributed it to soldiers.
The spokesman told Insider that while he had not seen any images or videos himself, “I was told this by soldiers on the ground.”
“These people [Hamas] are animals,” Dinar added. “They slaughtered women and children in ways worse than ISIS.”
Reports emerged on Tuesday that Israeli soldiers had made the grisly discoveries in the self-sufficient rural community near Gaza.
A later statement from Dinar said: “We cannot confirm any figures. What happened at Kibbutz Kfar Aza is a massacre in which women, children, infants and the elderly were brutally slaughtered in the style of ISIS.”
Israeli officials appeared to confirm the beheadings, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant telling soldiers: “Whoever comes here to behead, we will wipe them out.” according to a screenshot from Israeli news agency N12 shared and translated on X.
The kibbutz was attacked by Hamas militants on Saturday and fighting continued there until Sunday. Hamas targeted several kibbutzim near the Gaza border after the militants breached the gate separating the territory from Israel.
Nicole Zedek, reporter for the Israeli news channel i24News, said, “Babies, their heads get cut off, that’s what they do.” [the soldiers] said.”
Speaking from Kfar Aza, she added: “You can now see some of these soldiers comforting each other.”
In another clip shared on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Zedek said a commander there told her that “at least about 40 babies were brought out on stretchers.”
In a third i24News clip shared on XAn Israeli soldier on the kibbutz said Hamas was “very bad,” adding that “they cut off children’s heads and cut off women’s heads.”
CNN’s Nic Robertson, also on the scene in Kfar Aza, reported from the scene as the bodies were collected and counted.
“There were so many murdered members of this kibbutz,” he said. “Men, women, children, hands tied, shot, executed, heads cut off.”
According to the Israeli embassy in the US, at least 1,000 Israelis, most of them civilians, had been killed as of Tuesday.
Since Saturday’s attack, reports and videos have also emerged showing that Hamas has kidnapped Israelis in Gaza and held them hostage. Israeli officials have at least 50 families notified that their relatives are being held by Hamas.
Hamas responded: threatened a public execution Every time Israel attacks Gaza without warning, an Israeli hostage is taken.
Israel’s retaliatory attacks also killed at least 830 people in Gaza, the Washington Post reported, citing the Gaza Health Ministry.
At least 140 children are among the dead, according to the latest update from the Palestinian Ministry of Health released on Monday.
Israel has announced a complete “siege” of the Gaza Strip, cutting off supplies and cutting off electricity to civilians living there.