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The Ruins of Kibbutz Kfar Aza
(JTA) Deborah Danan - Hamas terrorists burst into Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7. From a community of 750, between 52 and 60 people were murdered and 17 are believed to have been taken hostage. In the area of the kibbutz earmarked for young couples and families, 40 houses of modest appearance and size had sustained varying degrees of destruction. Some were entirely blackened out, their walls pockmarked with holes from grenade fragments. Others were left with gaping holes in their exterior walls from RPG impacts. All of them bore remnants of the lives that were once lived within their walls. A soldier at the site said Hamas terrorists were hiding in homes for days following the attack. Kibbutz resident Hanan Dann recounted the harrowing story of the Almog-Goldstein family, which took a full week to determine using DNA samples. The father, Nadav, was killed alongside his eldest daughter, Yam, and his wife, Chen, had been abducted to Gaza along with the couple's three younger children. Dann asked, "What would you rather hear? That your family has been all slaughtered and burnt to death? Or that they are being held captive by Hamas in Gaza? Which is the better news?" ZAKA is an organization that specializes in search and rescue for bodies. ZAKA volunteer Simcha Greineman was asked by one reporter to verify IDF claims of Hamas beheadings. He said, "I collected heads without bodies, I collected bodies without heads, I collected children that were stabbed. One child had his whole body burned but there was a knife stuck in his head from side to side." Greineman recounted a scene in which a family of five, including parents, two children and a grandmother, were found in the bedroom "standing in a circle, hugging each other, locked arms." ZAKA was tasked with detangling the family. "We"re taking these last moments of life that they had, this circle, and we're taking apart every body that was attached to each other, and putting them in the bags," he said.