Israel Bomb Rafah Crossing For Third Time After Claims Of Beheaded Babies

When the fighting finally ceased in the Kfar Aza kibbutz, an Israeli community along the border with Gaza, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) investigated the area for fatalities and missing persons.

While searching the small village, late on Tuesday 10 October, an Israeli commander reported that Hamas "had murdered 40 babies", with claims saying some were found with their heads cut off.

In another report, the IDF also declared that they had found families who had been massacred and houses had been burned to rubble.

When Hamas launched its unprecedented attack against Israel on Saturday morning (7 October), the report also notes that Kfar Aza was one of the hardest hit areas.

A Journalist on the ground recalled: "Talking to some of the soldiers here, they say what they witnessed as they've been walking through these communities is bodies of babies with their heads cut off and families gunned down in their beds."

"We can see some of these soldiers right now, comforting each other," the reporter added.

Pointing the finger at Hamas being a terrorist organisation, late on Tuesday, Israeli Major General Itai Veruv said in a statement: "You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers, in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms and how the terrorist kills them. It's not a war, it's not a battlefield. It's a massacre, it's a terror activity."

"It is something that I never saw in my life. It's something that we used to imagine from our grandfathers and grandmothers in the pogroms in Europe and other places. It's not something that happens in new history," he added.

After finding the pile-up of bodies in Kfar Aza, Israel bombed regions near the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging Palestinians in Gaza to "leave now", Israel has been accused of bombing the only crossing three times in 24 hours.

Since Israeli authorities ordered a "total blockade", that saw food, water and electricity supplies cut off from Gaza, the Rafah crossing has become the only way out for Palestinian nationals in Gaza.

In a statement, the IDF did not confirm nor deny the airstrikes or beheadings.

However, the military said that it had conducted a targeted hit at an underground tunnel that assists with the smuggling of weapons and equipment in the Rafah region and into Gaza.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Hamas Ministry of Interior and National Security Iyad Al-Bazm said that Egypt's soldiers who were monitoring the crossing warned Palestinians to evacuate the area immediately, due to threats of airstrikes.

Israel warned Gazan officials that the IDF would be conducting strikes on the Rafah region.

In a statement, the IDF declared: "In recent days, the IDF has been instructing the population inside of the Gaza Strip to distance themselves from designated areas. We emphasize that there is no official call by Israel for residents of the Gaza Strip to exit into Egypt."

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an international spokesperson for the IDF, also urged Palestinian nationals to leave the Gaza Strip for Egypt, saying: "Rafah crossing is still open. Anyone who can get out, I would advise them to get out."

Fleeing Gaza has not proven easy for its residents, according to an Egyptian media outlet that spoke of Egypt only allowing Palestinians to cross if they have received authorisation to leave the Strip.

Prior to the IDF urging Gazan civilians to flee via the Rafah crossing, reports note that the Egyptian authorities warned Israel of the mass displacement that it would cause in Egypt.

Without authorisation to leave, Gazan nationals have been forced to face the relentless retaliation of the IDF on Hamas.

On the Rafah crossing's Facebook page, one Gazan resident wrote: "Interior Ministry, this is not the time to put someone in danger who survived a bombing and miraculously reached the crossing. We cannot return to death."