Israeli family with three children massacred in weekend Hamas assault

WARNING: Distressing images

An Israeli family of five was killed by Hamas during the militant group’s attack on Israel.

The family, which included two twin six-year-old girls and a four-year-old boy, was murdered after their mother, Tamar Kedem-Siman, 35, reportedly told friends in Australia they were safe from rocket fire in their home bunker on the outskirts of Gaza.

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“Hi guys, we got into the shelter in our house, we’re all going OK,” a WhatsApp message from Kedem-Siman read, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

When Tamar stopped responding, the friends began to worry.

“It started to get really scary,” one friend told the outlet.

“We’re trying to call her, message her. We were trying to speak with people there, people we might know in this area, we were harassing everyone.”

The friends soon learned the bunker had been infiltrated by Hamas, who massacred the family as part of their rampage across Israel.

Tamar was a community activist and women’s rights advocate who recently campaigned to become the head of the Eshkol Regional Council, a local government organisation in the area.

Just three weeks prior, she had posted a picture of the family on social media with the caption “it should be a good year for us”.

“She was such a special woman. She always cared about the poor people, always made sure that people less fortunate will have the same opportunities. She was a living example to these values,” a friend said of her.

Israeli media has reported the family’s death while tributes have been shared on social media.

Australian media has not been able to independently confirm reports.

Hundreds of Palestinians killed in retaliation attacks

More than 700 people were killed in Israel by Hamas fighters who breached the border from Gaza, the Israeli Defence Force reported.

Hamas’s unprecedented incursion prompted vows of retribution from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared that his country was at war, pledging a “mighty vengeance for this black day”.

In response to Hamas, Israel reported it had destroyed about 800 targets in Gaza.

At least 560 Palestinians have been killed and a further 2900 injured, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said

The ministry said on Sunday that the dead included 78 children.

Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on Earth , where 2.3 million people live in an area of 363 sq km.

Those who venture out do so only to complete essential errands, or to look for their missing in the carnage of Israeli strikes.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced Israel’s tightened Gaza’s blockade, which would keep even food and fuel from reaching the strip.

Streets in Gaza are damaged and covered with rubble, and the air smells of dust and gunpowder.

Services at the only functioning hospital in Gaza’s Beit Hanoun neighbourhood have been suspended due to continuous Israeli airstrikes.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said nine ambulances had been targeted since Saturday.

Extensive damage caused by continuous Israeli airstrikes blocked medical teams’ ability to enter or exit the building, it said.

Salim Hussein, 55, lost his home when his building was targeted in an Israeli airstrike.

He lived on the first floor and said he did not know why the tower was struck.

Later on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Israeli airstrikes targeted the al-Shati and Jabalia refugee camps, killing a “large number of people”.

“The occupation committed a massacre against an entire neighbourhood by targeting the al-Sousi Mosque in al-Shati refugee camp,” Ashraf Al Qidra, a spokesman for the health ministry, said in a statement.

Hani el-Bawab, 75, said he and his family of four had been up all night, fearing airstrikes. The tower adjacent to his home was hit by Israel overnight, collapsing onto his own house and rendering him and his family homeless.

“I don’t know what to do,” el-Bawab said. He now lives on the street, while his wife stays with an acquaintance.

Palestinians in Gaza, he said, are living in “panic and fear,” preparing each moment for a bomb to crash into a building. “I just want a house to live in with my kids. I just want shelter,” he told CNN.

Nevertheless, he doesn’t regret Hamas’s attack on Israel. “Every time, they (Israel) are the ones who attack us,” he said. “This time, the (fighters) are the ones who went in.”

-With CNN and AAP