Bodies lying around, women murdered in their beds and lots of dead babies: Inside the unimaginable horror that Hamas brought to one Israeli kibbutz

By Edward Era Barbacena 

Above the blood-stained floor and a parenting book entitled 'Evolving Together Week by Week' lies the wedding photo that Itay and Hadar Berdichevsky gave out to family and friends.

On the table next to the picture of the happy couple is an open packet of the popular peanut snack 'Bamba'. 

Beside it the fridge door lies open. Food is mouldy and rotting. A darkening red smear creeps under the sink.

A bigger blood stain covers a baby's cot in a bedroom behind. A double buggy has been abandoned outside next to a pair of baby swings. 

The bloated corpse of a Hamas fighter – dressed in fatigues and a bullet belt – lies nearby.

This is the home of just one family at the Kfar Aza kibbutz that was ripped apart when Hamas terrorists burst through the border fence early on Saturday morning and started killing. 

Men, women and children died. Others were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. Their fate remains unknown.

The parenting book was the first thing a young Israeli Defence Force [IDF] captain saw, when he entered the white-wall terrace cottage on Monday looking for booby traps.

Next, he saw young mother Hadar's blood-drenched body lying on the floor by the sink. Itay was found in the bedroom next to a baby's cot. 

The doting parents had bleed to death fighting to protect their infants.

The captain is among hundreds of thousands of army reservists awaiting orders to launch the land attack on Gaza.

'When I arrived at Kfar Aza I saw many terrible things,' the 30-year-old from Tel Aviv who cannot reveal his identity for security reasons told MailOnline.

'There were dozens of bodies lying all around. There were kibbutznik who had died fighting back. There were women murdered in their beds. And babies, lots of dead babies.

'But the thing that has affected me the worst was the sight of the parenting book. 

'Then I saw the mother's body. She had been shot several times. And then I went into the bedroom and the baby's cot was covered in blood. Covered.

' These parents were trying to do their best for their children.

'How can any human being do such things? I cannot understand this level of hate, no matter what the reasons.

'It was a massacre, genocide. It was like the Holocaust.

'My girlfriend's father was the only member of his family to survive the camps. His family are from a town on the Hungarian border. They were all murdered by the Nazis.

'What happened on Saturday has brought it all back to him.

'But to be honest everyone in Israel has been affected by what happened.

'Everyone knows someone who was killed or kidnapped.

'That is why when I found out what had happened I ran straight back to the army and volunteered to go to the frontline.

'I will be crossing into Gaza when the operation starts. And I will stay doing my duty for as long as it takes to get our safety back and make our borders safe.

'We want people to feel safe again.'

The fields and orchards of the Kfar Aza kibbutz stretch right up to the border fence with Gaza. 

The apartment block homes of Palestinian families living in the village of settlement of Beit Hanoun are visible with the naked eye.

This is why the community of about 800 people was one of the first to be attacked in the Hamas early morning raid on Saturday.

Riding on motorbike and in Toyota pick-up trucks more than 100 heavily-armed gunmen they burst through the gate the separates Israel from Gaza and starting shooting.

Fierce battles between Hamas fighters and Israeli soldiers continued for four days until the IDF finally took back control of the kibbutz.

Piles of unused ammunition, hand grenades and bombs lie just yards from the corpses of Hamas fighters that it is feared have been booby-trapped.

The IDF will not give out the casualty figure for the number killed at Kfar Aza. But across Israel the death toll is close to 2,000 and rising.

But somehow the Bedichevsky twins survived.

Brave Itay and Hadar died trying to save their beloved children's lives. Somehow they succeeded.

The youngsters were rescued by advancing soldiers who fought door-to-door to take back the settlement that was created in 1951 as a egalitarian dream. Catering to the needs of all with the efforts of all.

The twins are being cared for by their grandmother.

Howitzer cannons are firing on Gaza night and day from a few kilometres. A battalion of tanks is already making its way to the border.

The captain explained: 'We have to wipe out Hamas. We have no other choice.'