Thousands dead in Israel after Hamas attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a mass mobilization of the army after the Palestinian group Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel.
SHEFAYIM KIBBUTZ, Israel − They exchanged text messages and emojis. Short status updates with encouraging words. A picture of the beloved family dog “Tutsi”.
Until there were no more messages.
And then Cindy Flash, an American, and her Israeli husband Igal disappeared in the violence, presumably kidnapped by Hamas.
Four days after Hamas’s attack on Israel, more than 100 Israelis and possibly dozens of foreigners are believed to be held captive in the Gaza Strip. At least 14 US citizens were killed and an unknown number are still missing.
Flash, 67, originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, is one of them. She lives in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in southern Israel near Gaza, where some of the most harrowing and grisly stories have come to light in recent days.
“They’re breaking down the safe room door,” Flash said in one of her last messages to her daughter Keren, 34. “We need someone to come to our house immediately.” She had been communicating with her parents a few houses away.
Keren described her mother, who worked as an administrator at a local college, as someone with the “sweetest and biggest heart” who everyone knew and loved and who had spent a lifetime advocating for the rights of Palestinians, including those who live there Gaza, where she could now be held.
After a visit during her studies, she emigrated to Israel decades ago, When she fell in love with the Israeli system of kibbutzim – collectives that traditionally focus on agriculture, but which have evolved to suit countless interests, tastes and even businesses.
“You don’t deserve this,” her daughter said Tuesday on the grounds of a sprawling hotel and resort on a coastal kibbutz northeast of Tel Aviv, where hundreds of people affected by the Hamas attack were temporarily evacuated. “No one deserves this.”
It was full of volunteers bringing sandwiches and sweet cakes. Sobbing teenagers, reunited after several days in which their worst fears had been confirmed, hugged each other tightly. Small groups of people sat at tables, hunched over laptops, making lists of the missing. A manager said about 300 people from Kfar Aza were staying at the hotel.
Before the attack, Kfar Aza had a population of around 800. Nobody knows exactly how many survived.
An Israeli house next to the Gaza security fence
Cindy and Igal’s home in Kfar Aza is right next to the security fence that Hamas breached Saturday morning as it attacked Israel by land, sea and air.
They had recently renovated it, which required moving out of the kibbutz for a few months.
“They were so happy to be back,” Keren said.
And her daughter said that despite the proximity to Gaza, all family members always felt safe and enjoyed the lush vegetation, tranquility and sense of community of their area.
In fact, the extended Flash family was expecting a very different Saturday than the one they got.
They had planned a family picnic. And later that afternoon, they planned to build and fly kites at the local soccer field as part of an annual community event. Maybe, they thought, they would eat some ice cream. Try to relax after a hectic week of family life and work. A DJ should play.
Instead, Keren, a Pilates instructor, and her husband Avidor Schwartzman, 37, a media consultant, suddenly woke up around 6:30 a.m. to the blaring kibbutz alarm system and heard what appeared to be the sound of bombs exploding. They jumped out of bed and ran down the hall to get their one-year-old baby Saar – as well as her bottle, diapers, water and some food. They then locked themselves in a room made of concrete and reinforced steel.
Around the same time, Cynthia and Igal, 66, locked themselves in their own safe room and the sound of the bombs gradually turned into the sound of automatic gunfire as Hamas surrounded Kfar Aza and began going house to house hunting to make on its residents.
“We started losing touch with so many people in different WhatsApp groups,” said Keren, who was eventually rescued by Israeli security services along with Avidor and Saar. “We heard they were wounded and then they just left.”
Israeli media reported on Tuesday that the bodies of 40 children and babies were found in Kfar Aza, some of whom had been decapitated. An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said Kfar Aza was a “massacre.” The bodies of civilians and militants were found scattered throughout the rural kibbutz. He declined to comment on the beheadings. A report that USA TODAY could not independently verify said there were several beheadings and that charred bodies were also found. The Israeli death toll from Hamas attacks has exceeded 1,200.
She doesn’t give up hope that her family will be found
Neither US nor Israeli authorities have been able to give them any information about their parents’ whereabouts, Keren said.
But she hadn’t lost hope that they would be found.
“Every time someone calls us, an authority from the kibbutz or somewhere else, our hearts sink, and then they say, ‘We have no new information’.”
Shaylee Atary, 34, another Kfar Aza resident, also spent several days dealing with this feeling.
She last saw her husband, Yahav Winner, 37, on Saturday when he barricaded a window of their home to give Shaylee and their month-old daughter Shaya time to escape their home.
“A signal that I should run”
“He kept telling me that this wasn’t the day we were going to die,” Atary said.
“We could hear the attackers walking across the grass outside the window,” she recalled.
“There was a crunching sound because the leaves started falling due to the season. We couldn’t talk because we didn’t want them to hear our voices, so we signaled to each other. And then when they broke through the window, Yahav looked at me for a quarter of a second, he didn’t say goodbye, but I understood that it was like some kind of signal that I should run.
She fled first to some nearby bushes and then to an empty garden shed.
And running is difficult for Atary because she has difficulty walking due to a car accident. She also carried Shaya, preventing her from moving quickly.
As she hid in the shed, Atary found a hammer and a screwdriver, which she put in her pockets. She placed a few old pots on her head and Shaya’s, who was – miraculously – asleep.
But then the baby woke up and started crying, which attracted the attention of the attackers. She could hear them coming towards her. She feared they would just shoot randomly into the shed.
“I knew I had to run again,” she said. “But this time it was a decision, not so much an instinct. So I fled again and when I reached a large grassy area in the middle of our kibbutz, I thought, ‘Well, maybe this is how I’ll die despite Yahav’ said.'”
“Don’t be a hero”
Moments later, she saw a family with small children seeking refuge in their home and, risking their lives, led them inside. She remained in this safe room for the next 27 hours, without food or water, and when oxygen ran out in the sealed security room before they were rescued by the Israeli military.
“Yahav is a very protective person,” she said of her husband. “He’s smart too. I think he probably surrendered to allow us to escape.”
The news finally came late Tuesday. Yahav’s body had been found.
“In my head now, I tell myself when he looked at me he said, “Shaylee, you’re with the kid.” I hold the door open. “Come on,” she said.
“Then I think, why didn’t I say, ‘Don’t be a hero. Come with me.'”
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