It Cannot be true.
It just cannot be true.
We Israelis have almost become accustomed to terrorist acts and missile attacks on our cities.
But this – this is something different: Entire Kibbutz occupied by murderous terrorists. In our sovereign state. Thousands of terrorists in our homes. People begging for help to no avail. Television reporters send out their cry.
A one-month-old baby trapped with her mother for 27 hours in a shelter, the mother doing everything possible to stop her baby from crying or they will be found and killed by the terrorists outside. Terrified toddlers silently hiding, already familiar with the dangers of lurking death. Bringing to mind the Holocaust stories of a young girl asking her mother if it is OK to cry already.
Old people burned alive. Young women and girls being raped. More than 200 civilians kidnapped and held captive, among those many now-orphaned babies.
Tales of tumult: Israeli authors decode war
- Writing the untold when you can't find the words/ Tamar Merin
- If you speak the language of life, you must look reality in the eye/ Ofir Touche Gafla
- October 7 2023, a day that will live in infamy/ Noa Menhaim
- A call: Help release the Israeli captives/ Yishai Sarid
These are NOT freedom fighters. These are the worst kind of war criminals. HAMAS is ISIS. HAMAS TERRORISTS are NAZIS.
They burned down houses with people still in them, and while escaping the fire they murdered or kidnapped them. Babies. Holocaust survivors. Women. An autistic girl with her grandmother.
They forced a 17-year-old boy to pretend to be in trouble, so that when people opened their door to assist him they killed both the boy and the helpers.
Young men and women from all over Israel, celebrating in a music festival, dancing happily in the woods, being suddenly shot down by dozens of terrorists. Some died on the spot, others wounded, hiding for hours, playing dead so that they would not be shot again, eventually dying from their wounds. Others dragged and kidnapped to Gaza. The army and security forces did not get there in time to save them, and when they finally did – they were killed themselves.
They even killed the cows in their dairy barns.
These sights are reminiscent of the Baby Yar massacres of the Nazi regime.
I have promised my children NEVER AGAIN. Never again will the holocaust happen. We have our own state now.
These are NOT freedom fighters.
I am a disabled woman. I live in an area that was under daily missile attacks until a few weeks ago. Every time the alert siren was heard, I dreaded not arriving at the shelter in time to save myself, or even just falling down the stairs getting there. I have been homebound for more than two weeks, avoiding medical appointments and treatments in fear of being out in the open when missiles struck. I still check the locks on the doors several times a day. I discuss defense strategies with my family.
My best friend is now in the army. So are my children’s friends. And worse yet, it is heartbreaking for me the think about those who were killed. Some were closely related to me, others a bit further away: A friend’s brother, another friend’s son and an aunt. I cry for them and for all those I didn’t know personally. Only sleeping pills allow me short bursts of rest. An endless vicious cycle of crying myself to sleep and waking up thinking about them.
And what of those kidnapped by Hamas? those children without parents, those elderly people without medications. What of them??
We will prevail. There is no doubt in my mind that we will win this war. Even if it takes a long time. We have a strong army and a wonderful society, coming together and relentlessly volunteering whenever needed.
But what will become of our kidnapped women, children, and the elderly? What will become of all those families who lost a family member? When, if ever, will we overcome this tragedy?
Hamas are NOT freedom fighters. They are war criminals. Cold-blooded Killers of women and children.
HAMAS is ISIS.
HAMAS threatens the entire world. They are telling the world that they want to free Palestine. But they are lying. Their war is against YOU. Against the free western world. Against YOUR values.
And if you think what you see on television does not concern you, even if you think this only happens in this faraway land of Israel, even if you do not care about the Israeli state, know this:
As long as there is HAMAS, as long as there is ISIS - Your children are not safe in their beds tonight. No one is safe.
Translated by Iris Kaufman.
Tales of tumult: Israeli authors decode war
- The danger in how the world sees Hamas/ Edna Shemesh
- Your prisoner is only a baby: a letter to the jailer/ Sagit Emmet
- I feel like the person in 'The Scream' painting/ Ricki Cohen
- War and pogroms: From 2023 to 1903 in just one day/ Dorit Silverman