“There were bodies everywhere. Dead bodies everywhere,” the 38-year-old said. “We saw our little piece of paradise,our little piece of heaven,was totally burnt – burnt and with blood everywhere.”
On Tuesday,Israeli soldiers took foreign journalists through the kibbutz,where ruins of burnt-out houses oversaw streets scattered with dead residents and militants,torched cars and piles of broken furniture and other wreckage.
There was no official death toll from the Kfar Aza kibbutz as of Tuesday evening,with Israeli soldiers still searching homes they suspect may be booby-trapped with explosives.
A burnt-out house after an attack by Palestinian militants on a kibbutz in Kfar Aza,Israel,near the border with Gaza.Credit:Getty
The military spokesperson at the site said at least dozens of residents had been killed in the attack. She added that the Israeli army hadn’t yet pieced together the precise chain of events,as fighting had only ended late on Monday.
The Hamas gunmen rammed through the kibbutz’s fence,possibly using an earthmover,clearing the way for dozens of other gunmen to enter through the breach,she said.
Militants also arrived on motorcycles and a hang-glider,the spokesperson added. Veruv,the major general,put the total number of gunmen to enter the kibbutz at about 70.
Waves of the attackers,armed with Kalashnikov rifles,rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades,stormed the village,a reserve soldier told Reuters,declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Some of the Hamas militants’ bodies could still be seen lying on streets around the kibbutz,wearing black shirts,khaki trousers and army vests. One still had his hand on a pistol.
Schwartzman told Reuters he was woken at about 6.30am on Saturday by the booming sounds of rockets and that he and his family moved to their safe room an hour later after receiving a kibbutz-wide text telling them it was dangerous to be outside.
“We heard shootings and we were basically barricaded in for 21 hours until the army rescued us,” his wife,Keren Flash,said.
“We kept hearing shootings and gunfire and bombs and alarms,and we just didn’t know what was happening. Our worst nightmares.”
Soldiers were still securing the streets of the kibbutz,once neatly lined with palm trees,banana plants and single-storey houses with verandahs.
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Outside one home,the body of a resident lay covered by a purple bedsheet with a bare foot protruding,as if only sleeping. A pillow lay nearby with other accoutrements from their everyday life.
Bursts of gunfire and explosions could be heard in the distance. Jets could be heard above and smoke could be seen rising from Gaza. Sirens warned of incoming rockets intercepted overhead.
One soldier shouted:“Tell the world what you saw here.”