Kfar Aza massacre
| Kfar Aza massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel | |
 Kfar Aza family home after the attack | |
| Location | Kfar Aza, Southern District, Israel |
| Coordinates | 31°29′1″N 34°32′2″E |
| Date | 7 October 2023 |
Attack type | Mass shooting, mass murder, decapitation (alleged), dismemberment, immolation |
| Deaths | 52 confirmed deaths; 20+ missing |
| Perpetrator | Hamas |
On 7 October 2023, around 70 Hamas militants attacked Kfar Aza, a kibbutz about 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) from the border with the Gaza Strip, massacring residents and abducting several hostages.
The kibbutz had more than 700 residents prior to the attack, and it took two days for the Israel Defense Forces to regain full control of the area. While the exact total of Israelis killed is yet unknown, as of 15 October 52 were listed as dead, and a further 20 or more were missing.
The attack is notable for claims of brutality in the form of beheadings, dismemberment, and victims having been burned alive. Claims by Israeli media and government sources advancing that 40 babies had been decapitated went viral. While a massacre of civilians did occur, a few of the most lurid claims, including the baby decapitations, were later found to be false. Evidence provided by Bituah Leumi, Israel's national social security agency, showed that of the 46 civilians that were killed in Kfar Aza, the youngest was 14 years old.
Massacre
Prior to the massacre, the area had 400 residents. About 70 Hamas gunmen broke through a fence and gained access to the kibbutz on the morning of 7 October 2023. After entering the kibbutz, which was 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) from Gaza, the militants proceeded to massacre residents. The Islamist militants began by targeting the west side of the community—an area in the kibbutz close to Gaza - where families with young children lived. Fifty two people at the kibbutz are known to have been killed.
Members of the kibbutz with military training, who formed a volunteer armed guard, fought against invading militants in an attempt to defend the community. Hamas militants broadened the attack to all four directions. Militants burned houses and killed civilian residents. Corpses of those who had lived in the area were found with their hands tied.
A survivor, Avidor Schwartzman, described how he hid with his wife and one year-old daughter in their safe room for over 20 hours until their rescue by Israeli soldiers.
"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".
In addition, the militants took hostages from the kibbutz. The Associated Press visually confirmed four hostages who were abducted on 7 October. The militants took women, children and senior citizens among the hostages back to Gaza. Two of the hostages Alon Shamriz and Yotam Haim had been taken hostage to Gaza by Hamas during the massacre and were shot dead by the IDF on 15 December 2023 in Shuja'iyya, while waving a makeshift white flag near Israeli troops.
It took the Israel Defense Forces two and a half days to regain full control after the initial attack. The paratroopers of Unit 71 led the assault to retake the area, and the Duvdevan Unit also responded to the attack.
Casualties
According to BBC News, it appears that most of the victims of the massacre died in the opening hours of the attack. As of 10 October 2023, soldiers were still going through the community to recover bodies. According to one soldier present, several civilians had been beheaded. Other victims were dismembered or burned. Children and babies were reported to be among the killed. However, social security data showed that the youngest person killed was aged 14 years old.
Supposed decapitations
In the aftermath of the initial Hamas assault, witnesses from the Israeli soldiers, the Israeli Department Forces, and the first responder Israeli organization ZAKA said on French Israeli TV channel i24news that they had seen the bodies of beheaded infants at the site of the Kfar Aza massacre. During Antony Blinken's visit to Israel, he said he was shown photos of the massacre by Hamas of Israeli civilians and soldiers, and specifically that he saw beheaded IDF soldiers. U.S. President Biden separately said that he had seen photographic evidence of terrorists beheading children, but it was not the case; the White House subsequently clarified that Biden was alluding to news reports of beheadings, which have not contained or referred to photographic evidence. NBC News called reports of "40 beheaded babies" unverified allegations, adding that they appeared "to have originated from Israeli soldiers and people affiliated with the Israel Defense Force" and that "an Israeli official told CNN the government had not confirmed claims of the beheadings". The allegation mainly "stemmed from a viral Israeli news broadcast clip" and the main X / Twitter accounts propagating the claims were i24NEWS and Israel's official account, even though Israeli Defense spokesperson Doron Spielman told NBC News that he could not confirm i24NEWS’s report. As of 12 October, CNN had extensively reviewed online media content to verify Hamas-related atrocities but found no evidence to support claims of decapitated children.
An Israeli ZAKA volunteer reported on 14 October seeing children's bodies with severe injuries and burns. Some of the bodies appeared to have been decapitated, but the exact circumstances were not clear.
According to The Jerusalem Post, which reprinted an article from the Israeli website Themedialine.org (whose founder, Felice Friedson, was praised by The Jerusalem Post and is a contributor to it), approximately 200 forensic pathologists and other experts—from Israel, Switzerland, New Zealand, the U.S. and elsewhere—reviewed evidence of the attack at the National Center of Forensic Medicine (Abu Kabir) in Tel Aviv. Chen Kugel, head of the center, said that many bodies, including those of babies, were without heads. When asked whether the bodies had been decapitated, Kugel answered yes. He added that it was difficult to determine whether the dead were decapitated before or after death, or whether their heads had been "cut off by knife or blown off by RPG".
On 24 October, Israeli authorities screened bodycam footage of Hamas atrocities for journalists, including "an attempt to decapitate someone who appeared to be still alive using a garden hoe", as well as a still image of a decapitated IDF soldier. The locations of these attacks was not specified in the reporting.
On 4 December, Haaretz reported that "unverified stories [had been] disseminated by Israeli search and rescue groups, army officers and even Sara Netanyahu". Haaretz journalists Nir Hasson and Liza Rozovsky related the chronology of the news items about "beheaded babies" and "hung babies" and concluded, "this story is false". They quoted Ishay Coen, a journalist for the ultra-Orthodox website Kikar Hashabbat, who admitted he made a mistake by unquestioningly accepting the IDF's claims. "Why would an army officer invent such a horrifying story?", Hashabbat asked, adding, "I was wrong". Haaretz also reported that some testimony came from reservist officers.
According to Bituah Leumi, Israel's national social security agency, of the 46 civilians that were killed in Kfar Aza, the youngest was 14 years old, meaning that no babies were killed at Kfar Aza.
Aftermath
Ziv Stahl, executive director of the human rights organization Yesh Din, survived the massacre and later, in an article for Haaretz, strongly opposed calls to exact revenge, arguing that, "Indiscriminate bombing in Gaza and the killing of civilians uninvolved with these horrible crimes are no solution".
Israeli Major General Itai Veruv described the massacre as a terror attack. Journalists were granted access to the site on 10 October 2023. Hamas has also released video footage of the attack.