Yossi Landau has spent decades collecting corpses in
Israel, but he almost reached breaking point recovering the remains of people
killed by Gaza militants in the country’s deadliest assault.
Landau woke to the sounds of sirens on Saturday, a
moment he had become “used to” as Israelis took shelter from incoming rocket
fire.
It was not until later that he realised the launches
were “only a cover up, because the main part is the invasion” by Hamas
militants, who swept across the Gaza border to kill an estimated 1,200 people.
From his home in Ashdod, a coastal city north of Gaza,
he recalled seeing “the horror” as he rushed to the scene.
“I saw cars turned over, I saw people on the street
dead,” Landau said in Sderot, a town near the border where multiple residents
were killed.
He has 33 years of experience volunteering for Zaka,
an organisation that recovers the bodies of people who suffered unnatural
deaths.
But as gunfights raged between Palestinian militants
and Israeli forces, Landau said he witnessed violence he had never seen before.
“A piece of road that should’ve taken 15 minutes, it
took us 11 hours because we went and picked up everyone, put them in a bag,”
said the 55-year-old.
Abandoned cars that were torched or riddled with
bullet holes still litter the landscape of southern Israel.
After already loading dozens of corpses onto
refrigerated trucks, Landau and fellow volunteers reached Beeri, a kibbutz of
around 1,200 residents five kilometres (three miles) from Gaza.
“I felt that I’m falling apart, not only me, my whole
crew,” he recalled, after entering the first home and finding a dead woman.
“Her stomach was ripped open, a baby was there, still
connected with the cord, and stabbed,” said Landau.
The Zaka volunteer said he saw multiple civilians,
including around 20 children, who had their hands tied behind their backs
before being shot and torched.
“We saw some victims positioned that they were
sexually abused,” he added.
More than 100 people were killed in the kibbutz, while
around 270 were left dead at the nearby Supernova music festival.
While the bodies of the revellers have been removed
from the site, their belongings were left strewn across the dusty grass.
When an AFP journalist visited on Thursday, beanbags,
artworks and a bag of energy drinks were among the possessions on the ground as
soldiers walked by.
Blood splattered the inside of a car, not far from a
sign detailing hiking routes through the forest.
Although Israel said it has retaken control of the
border area, the army still reports firefights with holdout militants.
The military announced soldiers had “killed a
terrorist” around a kibbutz a few kilometres away from the festival grounds on
Thursday, soon after distant gunfire was heard from the site.
In response to the Hamas assault, Israel has so far
hit Gaza with 6,000 bombs according to military figures.
The strikes have killed 1,417 Gazans, according to
health officials in the Palestinian territory.
Confronting with the scale of violence, Landau said he
doesn’t “feel anything right now.”
“We just take our feelings, with our job, and we
separate it. And that’s what we have to do,” he said.
AFP
