British-Israeli man hid in safe room for 19 hours during Hamas attack | UK News

A British-Israeli man has described how he and his wife hid for 19 hours as Hamas gunmen carried out a massacre at their kibbutz close to the border with the Gaza Strip.  

Mark and Ruth Joffe took shelter in their home’s safe room as the terrorists roamed Kfar Aza in the first hours of the unprecedented mass incursion which began early on Saturday.  

The London-born resident, 71, spoke to Metro.co.uk as the full horrifying details of the attack on the community a few kilometres east of the Israel-Gaza border continue to emerge.  

The assault was eventually put down after the elite Unit 71, an experienced team of paratroopers, arrived 12 hours after the militants began the killing.

Still shaken by the ordeal, the retired teacher told how he and his wife ran to their safe room after hearing rocket fire and the kibbutz’s alarm system. 

They initially left the secure area believing the sound had been one of the sporadic missile attacks launched from Gaza before hearing long bursts of automatic weapon fire. 

Mr Joffe, who was born in north London, said: ‘We went back in the safe room and closed the door, it must have been about seven in the morning and we were there continuously until two o’clock the following morning.

‘Fortunately, we had electricity for most of that time and WhatsApp communications, including with the local neighbourhood and a second hand goods group for the kibbutz which my son runs from Tel Aviv.

‘For six hours, the only people out in the streets were Hamas terrorists.  

‘They entered six houses in our road, it was horrendous, they blew their way in or forced their way in, and shot up the houses.

‘They managed to force their way into two safe rooms belonging to old people in our road and murdered them.

‘Those two families sent last WhatsApp messages saying the gunmen were outside the safe room trying to get in, then they stopped sending messages. For some unknown reason they didn’t try to get into our house.’ 

Guards at the kibbutz were killed as they fought the heavily armed gunmen, according to a BBC report this week. As the atrocity unfolded, the intruders forced some of the residents from their reinforced safe rooms, which are primarily designed to protect against rocket fire.

The father-of-three, who previously worked as a biology teacher and community youth worker in the UK, was able to follow news of the mass incursion on a laptop before it became too much.

‘We simply had to close it down because it just became too psychologically difficult to watch,’ he said. ‘We preferred simply just to listen to the news.

‘At about twelve noon the army did manage to enter the kibbutz.

‘The elite units who are trained for this type of situation were the first in but they were dealing with the same situation in many kibbutzim and were outnumbered by the Hamas terrorists. 

‘They didn’t start getting a handle on the situation until the early evening. We got messages saying if you hear people outside, even if they speak Hebrew to you, don’t open the safe room door, because it might be terrorists trying to trick you. It turned out to be true.’ 

The ordeal continued for residents even as the forward Israeli Defence Force units reached homes in areas where the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters had been killed or driven out.  

Mr Joffe, who has dual British-Israeli nationality, said: ‘At about two o’clock in the morning we got messages that the army was going house to house and we had five minutes to get organised and leave.

‘At first my wife didn’t want me to open the door, but I did, and we got what few possessions we could together and joined around 20 families on our road who were escorted by soldiers in battle formation.  

‘We stayed in another house at they gathered our neighbours from another road and then we were all escorted, surrounded by the soldiers, for about a kilometre in the dark until we got to a petrol station. There was firing going on in the kibbutz all the time.’ 

The couple and their neighbours were then driven in open army trucks to the nearby town of Netivot, where they were given mattresses on the floor and a generous amount of food, before being taken by bus to their current place of shelter at the Shefayim kibbutz near Tel Aviv.

Mr Joffe, who moved to Israel’s border area 37 years ago, is among those left trying to contemplate the horror inflicted on their community.

‘Everyone here is surrounded by donations of food, clothes and we have psychologists trying to help us understand what’s happened,’ he said.  

‘The community has been slaughtered.

‘As I understand it, we have between 45 and 50 known dead and an unknown number of people who are missing.  

‘They are only issuing the names of people whose bodies are in our hands and have been identified. It’s quite clear we are not going to be allowed anywhere near our house for weeks. Everyone has been left just trying to cope with an unimaginable situation.’  

The Israeli authorities said men, women, children and babies had been killed in the attack on the kibbutz. The Jerusalem Post said yesterday that it could confirm that reports of babies being burnt and decapitated in the assault on the kibbutz were correct and added: ‘May their memory be a blessing.’

The Israeli military said that more than 1,300 people have been killed in the country, with more than 3,000 people wounded. The Gaza Ministry of Health said that more than 1,500 people have been killed in Jerusalem’s retaliatory strikes, with more than 6,600 others wounded.

Israel has imposed a blockade of food, fuel and electricity into the Palestinian territory ahead of an expected ground offensive. 

MORE : Bar workers tell of dramatic escape after Hamas gunmen attack party on Israeli beach

Do you have a story you would like to share? Contact josh.layton@metro.co.uk

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