Current:Home > Contact-usRuins and memories of a paradise lost in an Israeli village where attackers killed, kidnapped dozens-LoTradeCoin
Ruins and memories of a paradise lost in an Israeli village where attackers killed, kidnapped dozens
View Date:2024-12-23 21:41:36
KIBBUTZ NIR OZ, Israel (AP) — Nearly two weeks after Hamas militants left his village scorched and shattered, Shachar Butler returned to bury a friend who was slain. But it was the town itself, a quarter of its residents dead or missing, that he eulogized.
“It was the happiest place alive. It was a green place, with animals and birds and kids running around,” Butler said Thursday, standing in a landscape of ransacked homes and bullet-riddled cars, the heat thick with the odor of death.
“They burned the houses while the people were inside,” said Butler, a father of three who spent hours trading gunfire with militants on Oct. 7. “The people who came out are the people who got kidnapped, killed, executed, slaughtered. ... It’s unimaginable. It’s just unimaginable.”
Nir Oz is one of more than 20 towns and villages in southern Israel that were ambushed in the sweeping assault by Hamas launched from the embattled Gaza Strip. In many, the devastation left behind is shocking. But even in that company, it is clear that this kibbutz, set on a low rise overlooking the border fence with Gaza, suffered a particularly harsh toll.
On Thursday, the Israeli military and a pair of surviving residents led a group of journalists, including an Associated Press reporter, on a tour of the battered village.
Until the morning of the attack, Nir Oz was home to about 400 people, many employed growing asparagus and other crops, or in the local paint and sealants factory. Surrounded by the Negev desert, it remains an oasis of greenery, with a botanical garden that is home to more than 900 species of flowers, trees and plants.
Now, it is virtually devoid of the people who gave it life.
Authorities are still trying to identify bodies. Residents say fully a quarter of the town’s population fell victim to the attack. More than two dozen have been confirmed dead, and dozens of others are believed to be among the roughly 200 people taken to Gaza as captives.
On Thursday, the Israeli army released what it said was a manual used by militants outlining methods for taking hostages. It included instructions to light tires outside the heavy metal doors of safe rooms that are built into many Israeli homes to smoke people out.
The manual’s contents could not be independently verified, and it wasn’t known if any were used by the estimated 200 militants who invaded Nir Oz.
In all, about 100 people from Nir Oz are dead or missing, said Ron Bahat, 57, who was born in the kibbutz and has spent most of his life here. He recounted how militants tried repeatedly to break into the safe room where he and his family barricaded themselves during the attack.
“Luckily we were able to hold the door. I was holding the door, my wife holding the windows, and luckily we survived,” he said.
On a walk through Nir Oz, signs of life cut short are everywhere. Ceiling fans still spin lazily inside some ruined homes. A tub of homemade cookies sits uneaten on a kitchen table in one. A tricycle and toys are scattered across the front-yard grass of another.
“Home. Dream. Love,” reads a sign that still hangs on the wall of yet another home left vacant.
But destruction overwhelms those reminders of domesticity. Alongside a grove of pines, the windows of nearly 20 cars are shot out, with the Arabic word for Palestine spray-painted in orange across many. A trail of blood curls through one home, stretching through the battered doorway of its safe room. In another, bloodstains sit near an overturned crib.
Bahat said that some surviving residents plan to return eventually. But the Nir Oz that used to be is gone, he and Butler said.
“I lost many friends,” Butler said. “We worked the fields until the last yard and always hoping that maybe one day there’s going to be something peaceful … between us and the other side.”
Long before the attack, he said, on days when the kibbutz’s air raid siren warned of rocket fire from Gaza, holding on to that dream wasn’t easy.
But nowhere near as hard as it is now.
___
Associated Press writer Adam Geller contributed from New York.
veryGood! (346)
Related
- Birth control and abortion pill requests have surged since Trump won the election
- Why Kate Middleton’s New Portrait Has the Internet Divided
- Anastasia Stassie Karanikolaou Reveals She Always Pays When Out With BFF Kylie Jenner
- Louisville police officer reprimanded for not activating body cam in Scottie Scheffler incident
- 'Devastation is absolutely heartbreaking' from Southern California wildfire
- American arrested in Turks and Caicos over ammo found in bag gets suspended sentence of 52 weeks
- Missionaries killed in Haiti by gang are state reps' daughter, son-in-law, nonprofit says
- A Walk in the Woods With My Brain on Fire: Spring
- A $1 billion proposal is the latest plan to refurbish and save the iconic Houston Astrodome
- Police response to Maine mass shooting gets deeper scrutiny from independent panel
Ranking
- The 10 Best Cashmere Sweaters and Tops That Feel Luxuriously Soft and Are *Most Importantly* Affordable
- Rodeo Star Spencer Wright's 3-Year-Old Son Wakes Up After Toy Tractor Accident
- Rapper Sean Kingston and his mother stole more than $1 million through fraud, authorities say
- Millie Bobby Brown Marries Jake Bongiovi in Private Ceremony
- Man killed by police in Minnesota was being sought in death of his pregnant wife
- Johnson & Johnson sued by cancer victims alleging 'fraudulent' transfers, bankruptcies
- Prosecutor tells jury that self-exiled wealthy Chinese businessman cheated thousands of $1 billion
- Sydney judge says US ex-fighter pilot accused of training Chinese aviators can be extradited to US
Recommendation
-
Taylor Swift's Dad Scott Swift Photobombs Couples Pic With Travis Kelce
-
New Mexico officials warn of health effects from rising temperatures
-
Colorado governor to sign bills regulating funeral homes after discovery of 190 rotting bodies
-
Ex-CIA officer accused of spying for China expected to plead guilty in a Honolulu courtroom
-
Rita Ora pays tribute to Liam Payne at MTV Europe Music Awards: 'He brought so much joy'
-
Caitlin Clark makes LA debut: How to watch Indiana Fever vs. Los Angeles Sparks on Friday
-
Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets won't play vs. Vancouver Saturday
-
More than 100 people believed killed by a landslide in Papua New Guinea, Australian media report