‘Like dominos falling’: Young Kfar Aza residents recall carnage of Oct. 7

Young residents of Kfar Aza have recounted the experience of witnessing their neighborhood destroyed and their neighbors massacred and kidnapped when Hamas terrorists invaded their kibbutz on October 7.

Out of 37 residents of the kibbutz’s “young generation” neighborhood, 11 people were murdered and seven were kidnapped and taken to the Strip — among the 1,200 who were killed and 240 kidnapped when gunmen rampaged through southern Israeli communities.

“Most of the neighborhood here was murdered, and you’re about the only one who survived. It’s an abnormal guilty feeling,” Ori Lupo told Channel 12.

Residents of the now mostly destroyed neighborhood included soldiers, children of kibbutz members, and young people who’d moved from other parts of the country to be closer to nature.

The Channel 12 report shared a montage of old footage from the neighborhood’s vibrant, laid-back communal life, with residents socializing on their porches, before it was all brought to an end when Hamas launched its devastating attack.

Survivors described waking up to the sound of rocket fire and shelling on the morning of October 7, watching the projectiles flying above them, and capturing videos from outside their homes, briefly unaware of the greater incursion that was underway.

Eventually, they began to be notified that terrorists had infiltrated the kibbutz.

Resident Alon Shamriz wrote to the neighborhood WhatsApp group, “Don’t leave now, stay in your shelter.” Shamriz was eventually kidnapped that day and held for months in captivity. He was among three hostages mistakenly shot and killed by Israeli troops in Gaza after escaping captivity.

Bar Kislev described seeing dozens of terrorists burst into the kibbutz with pickup trucks and motorbikes and then approach the neighborhood.

“In the neighborhood WhatsApp group, everyone started sending messages, like dominos falling one after the other: ‘They’re in my house, they’re in my house,” Keslo said.

“Come quick, please, they’re firing at my house,” wrote Nirel Zini, who was killed.

“They shot me. They burned me,” wrote Yuval Solomon, attaching a picture of his wound. “I stabbed one in the head.” Solomon was later murdered too.

In a hushed voice message, Aviad Edri said: “Listen, they’re here, in our homes. They kidnapped my friend. They’re shooting at all the houses. Report it, call people. They’re breaking into all the homes.”

Edri was also killed.

Hadar Haniya and Nadav Alon said they overheard terrorists yelling “Allahu Akbar!” and “Massacre the Jews!” as they roamed freely through the neighborhood.

“It sounded like we were in Gaza,” Haniya said. “They conquered us,” Alon added.

Haniya said she had hoped that someone would listen to their messages and save them, but “it didn’t happen.”

Kislev recounted hearing and seeing evidence of the abductions of some of his friends, including Emily Damari and twin brothers Ziv and Gali Berman.

“I heard, ‘Everyone out, Jews, everyone out.’ And then I heard Ziv say, ‘Don’t shoot, I don’t have a gun,” Kislev said.

“At around 10:45 or 11 a.m., I saw Emily’s car drive in the direction of a side street, enter the neighborhood and stop by my house. I saw one of the terrorists driving the car. I heard a lot of arguments in Arabic, doors slam, and then I heard the car reverse and race in the direction of Gaza,” he stated, adding that he believed this was the moment that Damari and the Berman twins were kidnapped.

He described hearing a scream, then seeing two terrorists holding a woman he could not identify, along with five others surrounding them, all armed, who began to take her away, presumably to Gaza. He added that the kidnappings all happened during a one-hour window.

“They were simply euphoric,” he said of the terrorists.

Yuri Levin recounted hiding under his desk when he began to realize his home was burning and decided to urinate on the door to dry and prevent the spread of flames. He said he also ripped fabric from his pillow to use as a breathing mask when the smoke began to fill the room and he couldn’t see.

“I began to think, what do people think before they die? And I heard a woman scream from the other part of the neighborhood. I understood they’d begun to kidnap people,” he said.

Levin said at one point he opened the door and attempted to escape when he saw “a Kalashnikov aimed at my face” by one terrorist. Another held a knife while a third wielded a rake and hoe as weapons.

One of the terrorists started to drag Levin to the edge of the kibbutz, when he made a split-second decision to run.

“In a moment I decided to sprint, and I heard him running after me, I heard him yell, probably to the man up there with the gun to come and shoot me,” he said.

Levin found a bush in which to hide, and remained there for three hours.

As terrorists tried to break into her shelter, Eden Abarbnel said her boyfriend Bar Yatzkan suggested they escape through their window.

“I opened the window, only the glass,” Abarbanel said. “I smelled what was going on outside. It was a terrible smell. Everything was burnt, and not ‘bonfire’ burnt, burnt…” she trailed off.

“Flesh,” Yatzkan said.

“A horrible smell, it’s still with me now,” Abarbanel said. “I heard all the yelling in Arabic, I shut the window and I said to Bar — if we run we’ll definitely die, we’re staying here no matter what.”

Ori Lupo, who was sheltering with her boyfriend Sivan, recounted hearing terrorists breaking through the window into her home.

“I heard them charging their weapons, sitting on the couch, speaking to one another, probably taking food from the fridge. And then [they saw] the uniform and they said to one another, come, IDF, come, IDF,” she said.

“They understood they had an asset. They’d found a home of soldiers… Then one of them backed away, charged the gun, and shot at the door,” she said.

Lupo said she then heard her partner Sivan say “I love you.” Looking toward him, she saw him bleeding by the door of the shelter.

Eventually, after making sure that the terrorists had gone, she decided to make a run for it through the window with the wounded Sivan. As they fled she said she felt bullets whistle past her head while they raced along the main road of the kibbutz to her parents’ home.

“We brought a dog’s leash, made him a tourniquet… then called the Magen David Adom ambulance service asking for a rescue,” she said.

“‘Wait patiently, it will take a long time. There is nobody that can come and take you,'” she recalled them saying.

Bar Yatzkan said he and Eden began hearing Hebrew at 12:50 p.m., when special forces arrived. However, the troops were unable to approach because of the large number of terrorists still in the neighborhood.

Eventually, Lt. Col. Tomer Grinberg, commander of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, arrived at their apartment and began managing the battle, as troops rescued the couple.

Grinberg, who was hailed for his actions that day and later in the Gaza offensive, was killed in December in combat in the Strip.

Haniya and Alon said they only felt it was safe to leave their apartment at around 5 a.m. on October 8, when they heard security forces nearby. As they stepped outside, they saw a corpse right in front of their house, and for the first time surveyed the destruction of the neighborhood.

Alon approached the soldiers, who suspected he might be a terrorist. One soldier kicked him in the chest and yelled “Terrorist, terrorist.” Then, another fired a shot that hit the soldier who kicked him.

After noticing Haniya, they realized they were both civilians.

“It was a matter of seconds, another moment and they would have continued to shoot me,” Alon said, describing the chaotic situation.

“I asked one of the volunteers how many were murdered. He said you don’t want to know,” Haniya said.

Among residents abducted from Kfar Aza, Amit Soussana was freed on November 30 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel.

Shamriz and Yotam Chaim, alongside Samar Talalka from the Bedouin town of Hura, were mistakenly shot dead by Israeli troops in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood after they had escaped from captivity.

Ziv and Gali Berman, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher remain captive in Gaza.