The Chief Minister of the Australian Capital territory, Andrew Barr, has told Aussies to not ‘take sides’ in the bloody conflict in Israel.
The Labor politician in an ABC radio interview also refused to condemn the ACT Greens, with whom he shares a coalition with, for endorsing a pro-Palestine rally scheduled for Canberra on Friday.
Just hours prior to Mr Barr’s comments, Israeli forces announced that among the 1,200 civilians slaughtered by Hamas terrorists in Saturday’s attacks were 40 children and babies, some of whom were beheaded.
Their mutilated corpses were uncovered on Wednesday in the small town of Kfar Aza, just 1km away from the Gaza Strip border wall – where thousands of rockets have been fired into Israel over the past five days.
When Mr Barr was asked about the Greens’ stance and their refusal to vote for a NSW parliamentary motion showing solidarity with Israel and condemning Hamas, he palmed off the question.
‘That’s a matter for the Greens political party, I don’t think this is an issue in which people should be taking sides, no one should be bombing anyone,’ Mr Barr said.
‘(It’s as) simple as that.’
The Chief Minister of the Australian Capital territory, Andrew Barr, has told Aussies to not ‘take sides’ in the bloody conflict between Israeli and Palestine
The ACT Greens on Tuesday posted information about a protest rally later this week organised by the Palestine Action Group Canberra.
ACT Greens Leader Shane Rattenbury said the social media post however doesn’t necessarily mean the party are endorsing the views of the individuals who attend.
‘We support people’s democratic right to peaceful protest. We often share events and activities which may be of interest to our members,’ Mr Rattenbury said.
On Sunday, a rally organised by the Palestine Action Group Sydney, saw vast numbers of pro-Palestine activists gather at Town Hall in Sydney’s CBD before marching on the Opera House.
There were scenes of chaos as the demonstrators – some wearing masks – hurled lit flares at the line of over 100 cops stopping them from approaching the iconic building.
Some were heard chanting ‘f*** Israel’, ‘f*** the Jews’ and even, at points, ‘f*** Albanese’ – while some attempted to set fire to an Israeli flag before stamping on it and tearing it to shreds.
Cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great in Arabic) rang out as some members of the crowd swarmed towards the police barrier, brandishing torn pieces of the Israeli flag – despite the rally organisers calling for protestors to respect the police.
Rattenbury said: ‘As we all seek peace and end to the war crimes and fighting, there is no place for anti-Semitism or racism.’
Mr Barr’s comments came just hours after Israeli forces found the bodies of at least 40 babies and children, some of which were beheaded, in the Kfar Aza kibbutz in the nation’s south
Images from inside the kibbutz, where over 100 people were brutally killed, show a baby’s seat and child’s dress covered in blood (pictured)
Further details of the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists were revealed today as Israeli soldiers went from house to house in targeted areas to take away the bodies of scores of civilians massacred there.
The bullet-riddled bodies of Israeli residents were discovered around the grounds of the kibbutz among burned out houses, strewn furniture and torched cars.
Outside the destroyed homes, the soldiers told i24News correspondent Nicole Zedek how they saw the bodies of babies next to their cots, their heads chopped off, in a sign of the depraved acts committed by the terrorists since they attacked Israel on Saturday.
As many as 40 babies and small children were killed, IDF soldiers told i24News after taking them to the scene of the atrocity. Harrowing images from the scene show a baby’s cot covered with blood, her small bloodied dress lying next to it.
And as shellshocked survivors told their stories, one bereaved grandson, Shmuel Harel, told me: ‘They are the new Nazis. This was a holocaust, pure and simple.’
Brimming with anger, her grandson said: ‘She was terrified and confused, and doesn’t hear very well, and she didn’t realise what was going on.
‘She was the sweetest old lady, and they pulled her out of her shelter and dragged her to her living room.
‘They shot her twice in the head. A 90-year-old – what possible harm could she do them? Then they went to her 71-year-old cousin, Ofer Ron, and shot him too in exactly the same way. These are the new Nazis.’
The Hamas terrorists continued their sick manhunt throughout the communal farm. Mr Harel said: ‘An 80-year-old man was handcuffed behind his back.
‘They shoved him on to the back seat and kidnapped him in his own car. We don’t know what has happened to him or if he is still alive.
‘There was a family – a mother, father and 15-year-old boy. They hid in their shelter. So the terrorists set fire to their house.
Mr Barr refused to comment on his coalition partner, the Greens party, backing a pro-Palestine rally in Canberra. Pictured: A pro-Palestine rally on the steps of the Sydney Opera House
The crowd at the Opera House rally could be heard chanting ‘gas the J**s’ and ‘f**k Israel’ while an Israel flag was desecrated (pictured)
The Israeli soldiers tasked with clearing out the bodies were seen comforting each other after witnessing such horrors, including the corpses of entire families who were gunned down in their beds.
‘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,’ said Israeli Major General Itai Veruv from the horrific scene.
‘It is something that I never saw in my life. It’s something that we used to imagine from our grandfathers, grandmothers in the pogrom in Europe and other places. It’s not something that happens in new history.’
Major David Ben Zion, 37, a reservist called up to try to rescue any survivors, told The Independent: ‘We saw dead babies, girls. We succeeded in saving some of them but we found most dead in their houses. They came with just one mission – to kill more and more of our people.’
The stench of bodies was heavy in the air as the soldiers showed journalists the kibbutz, popular amongst families. The small football nets where children would have played football were seen on a pocket of grass – but in the background, the bodies of families were laid on the ground.
Outside one of the small houses of the kibbutz the body of a resident was covered by a purple sheet with a bare foot protruding. A pillow and other objects from the house lay scattered.
Elsewhere bodies of the gunmen lay face down on the ground. A destroyed gate at the perimeter of the kibbutz showed where the gunmen had entered.
The terrorists went on a rampage, killing hundreds of Israelis and taking dozens hostage, some of the houses had been almost totally destroyed in the attack with collapsed, burned walls.
Gunshots and blood stains are seen on a door and walls of a house where civilians were killed days earlier in an attack by Hamas on this kibbutz near the border with Gaza on Tuesday
Hamas terrorists beheaded babies and gunned down entire families in their homes in a small kibbutz in Israel, Israeli soldiers have claimed
Outside the destroyed homes, the soldiers told i24News correspondent Nicole Zedek (pictured) how they saw the bodies of babies next to their cots, their heads chopped off, in a sign of the depraved acts committed by the terrorists since they attacked Israel on Saturday
Israeli troops were going house to house to retrieve civilian bodies in body bags. They had not been able to take them before as they were still fighting gunmen and working through booby-traps.
One soldier shouted: ‘Tell the world what you saw here.’
Soldiers were still securing the paths of the kibbutz, which had single-storey houses with verandas, palm trees and banana plants, as bursts of gunfire and explosions could be heard in the distance.
‘What the journalists saw today is a massacre: children, women and elderly who were butchered,’ said Nir Dinar, an Israeli Defence Force spokesman.
‘These are animals, worse than Isis.’ He said that the casualties numbered in ‘dozens’, adding ‘we are still counting’.
Tens of thousands of Jews were massacred in pogroms – anti-Jewish riots tolerated or even orchestrated by police and soldiers – in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
They fuelled a climate of hatred and murder that would be exploited by the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s.
The ruthless murder of innocent families at the Kfar Aza kibbutz by Hamas terrorists is just one of many massacres to emerge since the gunmen launched their surprise attack on Saturday.
A view of a house left in ruins after an attack by Hamas militants on this kibbutz days earlier when dozens of civilians were killed near the border with Gaza on Tuesday
An aerial view shows the bodies of victims of the Hamas attack on the Kfar Aza Kibbutz on Tuesday
An IDF Soldier covers his nose while walking past Hamas militants and Israeli civilians who were killed days earlier in an attack by Hamas militants on the Kfar Aza Kibbutz on Tuesday
Sickening footage emerged today of the moment murderous Hamas gunmen shot dead an Israeli family’s dog before storming their home, raiding their fridge and setting their home alight amid a campaign of civilian slaughter.
The deplorable attack was just one of dozens which unfolded in the kibbutz of Be’eri, a tiny farming community of 1,000 people where Israeli security forces and rescue workers later found 108 bodies after a long hostage standoff with gunmen.
The clip, obtained from the GoPro camera attached to the helmet of one Hamas fighter, showed how the dog came bounding out of the house towards the attackers and was immediately mowed down with several bullets.
Hamas terrorists promptly invaded one house and rifled through the family’s belongings, drinking orange juice from their fridge and gorging themselves on its contents.
Then one militant drew a lighter from his pocket and took it to the wall, sparking house plants and hanging ornaments that quickly set ablaze before the heavily armed men made their exit.
Another harrowing scene from the same kibbutz showed how a second group of Hamas militants gained access to the gated compound by slaughtering civilians at near point blank range as they sat in a car.
The footage of the brutal attack was captured by cameras mounted at various points overlooking the entrance to the kibbutz, protected by a yellow metal gate.
Smoke billows during Israeli strikes on Gaza City on Tuesday
The deplorable attack was just one of dozens which unfolded in the kibbutz of Be’eri, a tiny farming community where Israeli security forces and rescue workers later found 108 bodies
One militant withdrew a lighter from his pocket and took it to the wall, sparking house plants and hanging ornaments that quickly set ablaze before they made their exit
The dog came bounding out of the house towards the attackers and was immediately mowed down with several bullets
CCTV camera footage, timestamped 5.55am on Saturday, shows two Hamas militants armed with AK-47s and dressed in camouflaged military clothing, body armour and combat boots approaching the gate that blocks a two lane road.
At first, the two fighters are seen trying to find a way through the gate, with one testing to see whether he could fit through the small gap underneath.
He soon changes his mind, and instead breaks into a small guardhouse that sits to one side of the kibbutz entrance, using his rifle to smash his way inside.
Seconds after he climbs through a window, the other combatant spots the approaching car. He hides behind a tree, while the first soldier hides inside the guardhouse, setting an ambush for the approaching vehicle.
At 5.57am, barely two minutes after the two militants were first seen inspecting the entryway to the kibbutz, the driver and passenger are seen pulling up to the gate.
Both are seemingly unaware that the two armed men are lying in wait, and the electronically-operated gate starts to open.
As the driver briefly leans out the window, seemingly to address whoever is inside the guard-house, the armed militant is seen running out from behind the tree.
CCTV camera footage, timestamped at 6:05am on Saturday morning, caught a group of Hamas gunmen in fatigues lying in wait
Another harrowing scene from the same kibbutz showed how a second group of Hamas militants gained access to the gated compound by slaughtering civilians at near point blank range as they sat in a car
As soon as the civilians stopped at the gate and activated the electronic barrier, the gunmen sprang out from cover, pointed their rifles at the car windows from mere feet away, and blasted the occupants
Bodies of dozens of Israeli civilians are seen loaded into a truck following the slaughter
Body bags from Israeli Hamas attack
Once he is feet away from the car, he mercilessly opens fire from point blank range through the passenger side window, blasting the two Israelis with several rounds.
From the other side, the Hamas militant in the guard house also opens fire, hitting the driver several times, who is seen being buffeted as he it hit by the bullets.
As the militants run through the now open gate, the footage shows the car continuing to gently roll forward into the kibbutz which has now been breached.
The victims inside the car remain motionless, covered in blood. Both are presumed to have been killed in the attack, likely among the first victims on Saturday which saw more than 1,000 Hamas gunmen stream across the border from Gaza and into Israel, where they indiscriminately shot civilians while taking others hostage.
The times of Israel reported Hamas had control of the Be’eri kibbutz for 17 hours.
A kibbutz is a settlement unique to Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture, and began as being centred around the idea of being a utopian Jewish community.
In recent decades, some have been privatised and changes have been made to the communal lifestyle, but the fundamental ideas remain the same: a voluntary society in which people live in accordance to a specific social contract.
All income generated by the Kibbutz is put into a communal pool, and is spent on running the Kibbutz to benefit all of its residents.
‘They walked around Be’eri like they owned the place,’ Haim Jelin, a survivor of the Be’eri attack and a former local politician, told Army Radio on Sunday.
‘They shot indiscriminately, abducted whoever they could, burned down people’s homes so they’d have to escape through the window, where the terrorists would wait,’ Mr Jelin added. He described the attack on the village as a ‘massacre’.
Other footage has emerged of civilians, who appear to have their hands tied behind their backs, being led down a residential street by gunman.
A second video then shows at least four bodies lying on the ground in the same location, with matching hair and clothes to those who were previously seen alive.
They are among 1,000 Israelis who have been killed in Hamas’ brutal attacks, which prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war against the Palestinian militant group and begin a campaign of crushing air strikes on Gaza.
The death toll dwarfs the scale of any past attack by Islamists apart from 9/11. Scores of Israelis were taken to Gaza as hostages, with some paraded through the streets.
At least 770 Gazans have since been killed in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza officials, while whole districts in Gaza have been flattened.
It comes Hamas today launched a barrage of rockets at the port city of Ashkelon – hours after the terrorists warned Israeli civilians living there to leave before 5pm or die in response to the airstrikes relentlessly pounding the Gaza strip.
Video shows a series of rockets being fired at the city in southern Israel just after 5pm local time, with residents there being urged to shelter from the onslaught.
Rockets fired from the Gaza Strip are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence missile system over Ashkelon on Tuesday
Palestinians carry a wounded man at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday following Israeli airstrikes
A Palestinian man carries the body of a child killed in overnight Israeli shelling during a funeral in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip
Air raid sirens were heard across the city, with footage showing frantic parents picking up their young children before sprinting into an airport to take cover from the rocket attack.
Panicked civilians, many of whom were desperately trying to flee the carnage on flights, were seen cowering as the sound of shells exploding resounded around them. One woman cried: ‘They’ve closed the doors. Oh my god, I am so scared, we heard a boom and now we wait and see, oh God.’
Hamas’s armed wing had warned residents of the city to leave before 5pm Israeli time or face death in response to the Israeli airstrikes that have destroyed thousands of Hamas targets and killed 770 Palestinians.
It comes after Israel warned Hamas they had ‘nowhere to hide’ and that its air force was launching ‘extensive attacks’ on the Palestinian terrorist group every four hours in revenge for its deadly surprise incursion that saw more than 1,000 Israelis slaughtered.
Israeli forces have already used its strike force of 600 planes and 300 rocket launchers to relentlessly pound the Gaza strip.
‘We will reach them everywhere,’ military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to obliterate Hamas.
Netanyahu, who first came to power in Israel in 1996 and has served three separate terms, compared Hamas to the Islamic State group and said Israel planned to deploy ‘unprecedented force’ that would ‘reverberate for generations’.
But in response, Hamas’s military wing said that it would launch rockets at the city of Ashkelon while warning the residents there to leave there by 5pm this evening or die. And that promise came true, with video showing a series of rockets being fired by Hamas terrorists towards the city.
Footage also showed Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system destroying many of the rockets after they were fired from the Gaza strip.
Medics transport wounded children into at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday
A man carries a wounded child into at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday
The terrorists also warned today they will not hand over hostages until the fighting ends – a day after they warned they would execute Israeli civilian captives if the airstrikes continued.
Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, told NBC News the terrorist group is not open to a prisoner exchange, before issuing the sinister message: ‘The colonial occupation will pay a price for the devastation inflicted upon the Palestinians in Gaza.’
Prior reports had suggested that Qatar had been mediating a potential swap of Israeli hostages in exchange for imprisoned Palestinians. It comes after Hamas warned late last night it would begin executing Israeli civilian captives.
‘Every targeting of our people without warning will be met with the execution of one of the civilian hostages,’ Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.Since the incursion began on Saturday, Hamas fighters have abducted up to 150 people, including women and children, from Israeli territory and dragged them back in Gaza amid their ruthless slaughter.
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