How Israeli military bases, kibbutzim and a music festival were overrun by gunmen under orders to kill and take hostages
Attackers at the border; an Israeli taken hostage; the aftermath at the festival; and destruction at a kibbutz. Photographs: Reuters/AFP; AP; Getty; Guardians dawn broke last Saturday over the 40-mile Gaza-Israel barrier, once confidently described as an “iron wall”, Hamas struck at the eyes and ears of Israel’s defence. It was shortly before 6.
Some of the Hamas militants, showing a taste for the spectacular, flew over on motorised paragliders – terror on wings. A total of 1,500 gunmen are believed to have crossed, under a sky lit by rocket fire. It was a catastrophic miscalculation. Plans and maps found on the bodies of Hamas fighters show that they knew the numbers of soldiers they might meet, how long it would take for local reinforcements to arrive, and from where.Palestinians escort a captured Israeli civilian from the Kfar Azza kibbutz into the Gaza Strip on Saturday 7 October.within minutes of the wall being breached.
Video footage taken by Hamas fighters showed how young men and women were slain as they tried to hide in toilet cubicles, bedrooms and cupboards.As Boni in Zikim was typing out her last messages, a Hamas paraglider was cruising above the heads of 4,000 people dancing, drinking and laughing at the Supernova festival, south from her and 3.7 miles east of Gaza, close to the Re’im kibbutz.
An estimated 260 partygoers were murdered. Tens more could be among the 150 Israeli hostages believed to have been taken back to Gaza during the day. A video emerged of Shani Louk, 23, lifeless in the back of a truck, spat upon by Hamas fighters, legs unnaturally bent and her hair matted with blood. A barrage of WhatsApp messages arrived from neighbours, confirming that shots – and shouting in Arabic – had been heard all over the kibbutz. Hess realised he needed to lock the door.
In Kfar Aza, the largest kibbutz in the northern area of the Gaza border, where 750 Israelis lived just 800 metres from the iron wall, reports emerged of babies being killed in their cots.
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