NIR OZ, ISRAEL (Dagbladet): The unmistakable sound of fighter jets is getting louder and louder. Then there is a loud bang. The same thing happens again and again. The Israeli Air Force is now bombing targets inside the Gaza Strip several times a day.
The massacre here in Nir Oz, a kibbutz just 2.5 kilometers from Gaza in southern Israel, is one of the reasons:
Before Hamas launched its massive and coordinated attack against Israel on Saturday two weeks ago, around 400 people lived here.
Now 100 of them have been killed, abducted or missing.
– We lived in paradise. Then Hamas came here to kill and to destroy. They are like IS, says Ron Bahat (57), one of the survivors, to Dagbladet.
IN RUINS: The vast majority of the houses in Nir Oz are either burnt down or in ruins. Photo: Hans Arne Vedlog / Dagbladet Show more
– Insane
It was around 06.30 in the morning when the flight alarms went off in Nir Oz. However, the people who live here are used to rockets being fired at them.
– A few minutes later we suddenly got indications that there were terrorists inside the kibbutz, says Bahat to Dagbladet.
He, his wife and their two teenage daughters sought refuge in a bomb shelter in the house.
– We heard shots, explosions and shouting in Arabic. It was absolutely sick, says the 57-year-old to Dagbladet.
The wife made sure the windows were secured. He held the door shut.
– Fortunately, they didn’t shoot at the door, says Bahat.
When the Israeli military managed to secure the kibbutz eight and a half hours later, Nir Oz was no longer a paradise.
ON GUARD: There is heavy military guarding in the border area between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and in particular around the kibbutzim that were attacked. Photo: Hans Arne Vedlog / Dagbladet Show more
New bodies found
Together with the Israeli military, Bahat shows a large number of international journalists around Nir Oz.
– In this house they were burned to death, he says, and points to one burnt-out home, he says.
Bahat stops.
– This was Carmela Dan’s house. When the terrorists arrived, they set fire to the house. The bodies of her and her granddaughter Noya were found on Wednesday, he adds.
The 57-year-old goes a little further.
– In this house, everyone was shot, he says, and points to another home.
He continues like this, house by house.
– There are probably only three or four houses that were not damaged, says Bahat.
– My father lives there. He didn’t lock the door once, but nothing happened, he adds, pointing to another house.
FOUND WEDNESDAY: In this house, the bodies of Carmela Dan and her granddaughter Noya were found on Wednesday this week. Photo: Hans Arne Vedlog / Dagbladet Show more
Covered in blood
A barbed wire fence surrounds the entire kibbutz. In front of the fence in the far north is one burnt-out car after another.
Through the fence you can see straight into the Gaza Strip.
On the outside it is a desert.
On the inside it is lush.
Green lawns, flowers and small trees now surround houses that are either completely burnt down, partly in ruins or badly damaged.
There is broken glass and stone on the ground everywhere. There is ash everywhere. It smells burnt everywhere.
In a garden there is a child’s drawing on a brown lawn. In one house, the half-full wine glass remains on a living room table.
A few houses below you can see straight into a children’s room where a window once was. The sheet on the bunk bed is covered in dried blood.
Awaiting ground invasion
Around 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Saturday 7 October. Around 200 people have also been confirmed abducted. Many are also missing.
Just a few hours after the massive attack, Israel began bombing various targets inside the Gaza Strip. Hamas claims that at least 3,800 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes so far.
That makes the current war between Israel and Hamas the deadliest conflict in Israel in decades.
And the conflict is far from over.
SECURITY: Nine people living in Nir Oz are the first line of defense against attackers. Five of them were killed on Saturday 7 October. Photo: Hans Arne Vedlog / Dagbladet Show more
It is expected that Israel will go to a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
A number of diplomats, including the Norwegian UN envoy for the peace process in the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, believe it is only a matter of time.
– The question is how extensive the ground invasion will be and what the focus will be. We don’t know that. But the purpose is to destroy Hamas’s infrastructure, both the governing capacity, to the extent that they govern the Gaza Strip, and the military capacities, Wennesland told the Norwegian press in Jerusalem on Monday.
By all accounts, it will make the suffering inside the Gaza Strip even greater.
REFUSES TO MOVE: Ron Bahat (57) refused to evacuate from Nir Oz. Photo: Hans Arne Vedlog / Dagbladet Show more
– Must tell
In order to gain access to Nir Oz at all, one must take part in a press tour organized by the Israeli authorities. No one is allowed to enter or leave the kibbutz without an armed military escort.
57-year-old Bahat was born and raised here. With the exception of a few years in the United States, he has lived in Nir Oz all his life.
Now the kibbutz is a ghost town under heavy military guard.
– Do you want to move back?
– We never left, Bahat answers firmly.
Unlike almost everyone else in the kibbutz, Bahat refused to be evacuated after the attack. Now he shows press around the kibbutz.
– This is a story we have to tell, he says.
2023-10-19 20:06:39
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