Volunteers Still Recovering Bodies in Burnt Out Homes Two Weeks After Hamas Attacks at Israel

Hundreds of funerals have been held, and are still being held, throughout Israel for the more than 1,400 people murdered.

AP/Ohad Zwigenber
Mourners attend the funeral of the Kotz family in Gan Yavne, Israel. AP/Ohad Zwigenber

Nearly two weeks after the attacks in Israel stunned the world and as funerals take place across the country, search and rescue workers in the south of the country are still recovering the bodies of Hamas’ victims.

On Wednesday, according to Israeli press reports, teams recovered the bodies of a woman and a child in a burned out house on the Kibbutz Be’eri near the eastern border with Gaza. Hamas terrorists murdered more than 120 of the community’s residents, about 10 percent of its total population, in the early hours of October 7, setting many of the homes on fire and shooting victims as they attempted to flee the smoke and flames.

“Eleven days after the terrible massacre, ZAKA’s teams are still continuing their activities in the field and at any given moment dozens of volunteers are busy with the most difficult holy work of all,” the head of a team of volunteers scouring the area for more victims, Haim Otmazgin, told Israeli news outlets.

Not far from the ruins of the kibbutz, in Gan Yavne, hundreds of mourners turned out for the funeral of a family of five who were murdered as they huddled together on a bed at their home at another kibbutz in the region, Kfar Aza. Aviv and Livnat Kotz and their three children — a daughter, Rotem, and two sons, Yonatan and Yiftach — moved to Israel five years ago from Boston.

Soldiers and civilians alike sobbed during the service, according to an Associated Press account of the proceedings. Livnat was just shy of 50 years old, her sister, Levy Salma, said, and worked in the school system. Her husband Aviv was a vice president at a local plastics manufacturer. Rotem was a military training instructor in the Israeli Defense Forces, and the two boys played basketball at the Hapoel Tel Aviv Youth Academy.

“Amazing children with enormous hearts,” Levy Salma said. “Their whole lives were ahead of them.”

Hundreds of similar funerals have been held, and are still being held, throughout Israel for some of the more than 1,400 people who were murdered. The funerals are being held day and night, and the demand for help is such that volunteers are stepping up to assist in digging graves and preparing for the ceremonies.

Volunteers and staff at Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine in Jaffa, known as Abu Kabir, have been working around the clock to identify many of the more than 950 victims that have arrived at the center since October 7. As many as 300 of the bodies have yet to be identified.

According to the Israeli Health Minister, more than 330 people injured since the attacks remain hospitalized at locations across the country as of late Wednesday Israel time. A total of 4,562 injured individuals have been brought to hospitals around the country since October 7, the agency said. A non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem, the Israel Democracy Institute, reported Wednesday that some 300,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes and remain displaced since the violence began.


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