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Loved Ones Of Hamas Attack Victims Diverge Over Israel's War In Gaza
A house destroyed by Hamas in the Kfar Aza kibbutz in southern Israel about 3 miles away from the border with Gaza.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
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BE'ERI, Israel — To walk the streets of the small village of Be'eri in southern Israel nowadays is to relive the horrors from the single deadliest attack on civilians in Israel's 75-year history.
The streets of this once close-knit community are now lined with partially destroyed homes. Some were blown open, others burned. Inside one are blood-splattered walls. In another, two children's rooms are filled with books, binders, stuffed animals and paint supplies. The mattresses that lay in white bed frames are stained with blood.
A broken window of a house in the Kibbutz.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
A mattress covered in blood in a child's bedroom.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
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An IDF spokesman leads a press tour of destroyed homes and shows signs of what happened in the attacks.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
On the road leading into this kibbutz, a backhoe scoops up the bodies of Hamas militants who stormed this community of just over 1000 people about three miles from the border with Gaza.
The Israeli military has been leading journalists through this village in recent days to give the world a glimpse of what happened once Hamas militants crossed the border from Gaza into Israel undetected, storming several communities where they killed at least 1400 people and took some 200 hostages.
Many residents of the towns hid inside safe rooms waiting for Israeli forces to rescue them. For hours no one came. When it was finally over and they emerged, the scene was unlike anything they'd ever seen before.
"It was like an apocalypse," said Dan Alom, 23, who waited 15 hours before help arrived. "Everything ruined, bodies lay around."
What we know so far
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Death toll and casualties
- Israeli officials report an attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 killed about 1,200 people. In addition, they say about 250 people were taken hostage, some have since been released.
- Gaza health officials have reported more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
— NPR (Jan. 24)
Destroyed cars, houses, and other carnage present in the Kibbutz.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
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A car with glass inside and bullet holes. The police did not know what happened to the people in car.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
On the road passing Sderot Abandoned stroller and blanket.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
More than a week since the Hamas attack, which set off a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza where the group is based, survivors are still waiting to identify bodies and plan funerals
"We're just still trying to figure out how we're going to deal with so many funerals," Alom told NPR's Morning Edition. "We don't know where to bury them because it's not safe."
Over 100 people here were killed, some ten percent of the community.
Soldiers patrol the destroyed neighborhood.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
In some of houses, signs of attempts to hide in showers, barricade themselves inside, and of blood on walls, and in beds were found.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
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A destroyed house belonging to Dan Alom.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
"I just don't know how to deal with it," he said "For more than four or five hours we were slaughtered and no one came to help us. I don't know whose fault it is but I just know we've been slaughtered."
Alom holds out hope that the two teens he counseled at camp might be alive. Maybe, he says, they're being held in Gaza. He wants them back.
"I am worried about them. And after they will be home, I don't care what happens with Gaza I really don't." he said. "Shoot them all. I don't care."
It's a sentiment repeated among traumatized, grieving and frightened Israelis.
Shoot them all.
Eliminate Gaza.
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Erase Gaza.
Israeli soldiers man a checkpoint outside kufur aza-sight of the incursion by Hamas.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
Inside a bomb shelter outside Kufar Aza.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
Military gathered outside of Kufur Azza kibbutz on Oct. 14, 2023.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
Their anger is not yet aimed so much at the government for its intelligence failure or Israeli forces for their delayed rescues, but toward the Palestinian enclave.
Visible from Be'eri are plumes of smoke on the horizon. That smoke rises from Gaza.
It's being crushed by a relentless wave of Israeli airstrikes, choked by a complete siege that's barred food, fuel, electricity and water from entering, and is bracing for Israel's ground invasion, all aimed at ridding the territory of Hamas.
More than 4,100 people have been killed. Entire families and more than 1,600 children are gone.
The devastation there is harder to recount because the borders are sealed and so few journalists are inside.
Black smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the eighth day of the clashes in Gaza Strip, Gaza on Oct. 14, 2023.
(
Ali Jadallah
/
Anadolu via Getty Images
)
Palestinian citizens inspect damage to their homes caused by Israeli airstrikes on Oct. 14, 2023 in Gaza City, Gaza.
(
Ahmad Hasaballah
/
Getty Images
)
Palestinian citizens inspect damage to their homes caused by Israeli airstrikes on Oct. 14, 2023 in Gaza City, Gaza.
(
Ahmad Hasaballah
/
Getty Images
)
An advocate for peace is shot and killed
Miles away from the border with Gaza, sitting in a Jerusalem café, 27-year-old Noy Katsman said they want the war to stop. They know Alom's pain but they say retribution won't bring their country safety.
Katsman lost their brother, Hayim, 32, in the village of Holit about a mile from Gaza. Hayim was hiding in the closet when Hamas militants shot him and was one of 30 Americans killed in the attack.
Hayim Katsman was killed in the village of Holit about a mile from Gaza.
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Courtesy Noy Katsman
)
In life, Hayim was a peace activist. He wrote his doctorate on the dangers of the right wing in Israel and was critical of the government for encouraging illegal Israeli settlements and uplifting extreme anti-Arab voices.
That's why Katsman believes their brother, despite his tragic killing, "would say we should never kill innocent people" and would encourage Israelis to re-think the long-term repercussions of retaliation.
It's a view Katsman stands behind firmly, having seen Israel repeatedly try and fail in stamping out Hamas at the expense of civilian life.
"My government, instead of saying, 'OK, we failed, maybe we need to do something else,' they're saying, 'Oh, we need to kill more Palestinians. We need to now destroy Hamas," said Katsman. "It's right-wing politicians who gain power from violence and hate, these are the people who gain from it. But we lose from it."
Violence brings more violence, they said.
"You need a basic understanding of how people feel," they added. "And if after they kill us, a thousand people, we are going to kill three thousand of them, that's not an understanding of people, because these people will grow up and hate us even more."
As they speak, people at the café begin to stare.
A waitress approaches to ask about the nature of Katsman's interview with NPR.
Noy Katsman's older brother Hayim was killed on the kibbutz he had called home for nearly a decade.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
A market in West Jerusalem, near the shiva for Noy's brother.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
A man in tent holding shiva for Noy's brother in West Jerusalem, Israel.
(
Tanya Habjouqa
/
NOOR for NPR
)
"Is it pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli?" she asks.
"It's pro-life," Katsman replied. "My brother died on Saturday and he was a peace activist and I'm talking in his name."
As the waitress walks away, Katsman slams their coffee cup onto the table.
"That's the problem — Israelis only care if something is pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel," they said. "This question is a distraction. People die. People die from both sides."
Understanding how we got here
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The history of this region is both complicated and fraught. Here is some context about what led up to the most recent attacks and counterattacks.
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NPR's Aya Batrawy and Daniel Estrin called the initial attack "one of the most dramatic escalations in violence in recent memory" adding there are "concerns the chaos could spread to the occupied West Bank and different countries in the Middle East."
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- This round of bloodshed began with a surprise attack by Palestinian fighters from Gaza into Israel during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. On Oct. 7, militants infiltrated Israel's border using paragliders, motorbikes and boats and fired thousands of rockets toward the country from Gaza.
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NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab reported on the history of the Gaza Strip. Some key excerpts:
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- The Gaza Strip is a 25-mile-long by 6-mile-wide enclave, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the north and east and Egypt to the south.
- Gaza is one of two Palestinian territories. The other is the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
- The strip has been under a blockade by Israel and Egypt, restricting the movement of people and goods since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. Israel controls its airspace and shoreline, as well as what goods can cross Gaza's borders.
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NPR's Fatma Tanis examined how we got here and what might come next in this longstanding conflict.
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For anyone looking for guidance on how to talk to children about this war:
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Here's the latest on a growing movement on college campuses nationwide, as students organize against Israel's war in Gaza.
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Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.
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