Harrowing stories are continuing to emerge from the surprise Hamas attack on Israel, which killed at least 1,200 people. Hours after troops took full control of the Kfar Aza kibbutz on Tuesday, Maj. Gen. Itai Veruv told CNN there had been a "massacre" in the small farming community near the Gaza border, which was overrun by Hamas fighters early Saturday. "We see blood spread out in homes. We've found bodies of people who have been butchered, "Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Maj. Libby Weiss tells CBS News. "The depravity of it is haunting."
Weiss said some of the soldiers who first reached Kfar Aza reported seeing "beheaded children of varying ages, ranging from babies to slightly older children." Charles Stratford at Al Jazeera reported seeing "utterly horrific" scenes in the kibbutz when the press was allowed to enter as bodies were being removed. He said the bodies of many civilians were still in the homes where they were killed, while the bodies of Hamas fighters were outside, "bloated by the sun." Yossi Landau, regional director of the Zaka rescue group, said he saw beheaded children and infants, along with the bodies of parents and children who had their hands bound and showed signs of torture.
President Biden, addressing a roundtable with Jewish community leaders at the White House on Wednesday, called the attack "the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust," the AP reports. "This attack was a campaign of pure cruelty, not just hate, but pure cruelty, against the Jewish people," the president said. "I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children." The State Department said Wednesday that the number of American citizens killed in the attack has risen to 22, reports the BBC. After days of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, the health ministry says the death toll is now 1,050, with more than 5,100 injured. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)
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