The British mother of a man killed with his fiancée in the Supernova festival massacre broke down in tears at his funeral in Israel.
Dor Shafir, 30, had been planning his wedding to Savion Kiper, 31, next summer. Miryam Shafir, 55, and his father Itzik were consumed by grief as they buried their son at a cemetery in Modi’in Maccabim.
Mrs Shafir had held out hope that her son would be found alive when a witness claimed to have seen the couple fleeing to their car as Hamas terrorists opened fire on crowds, killing 260 in the Negev desert on Saturday.
But on Tuesday, the family was told that both bodies had been discovered.
Meanwhile, a devastated father said he welcomed news that his eight-year-old daughter had been killed by Hamas because it was better than her being taken hostage.
Thomas Hand faced an unbearable two-day wait for news about his daughter Emily after the terrorists stormed their kibbutz at around 7am on Saturday, massacring at least 100 people.
He did not know her fate because she had been on a sleepover at a friend’s house nearby on the Be’eri Kibbutz. In a heartbreaking interview with CNN, Mr Hand broke down as he recounted the moment he was finally told his daughter’s body had been found. “They said: ‘We found Emily. She’s dead’, and I just went ‘Yes!’ I went ‘yes’, and I smiled, because that is the best news of the possibilities that I knew.”
It came as the world’s media was shown around the kibbutz near the border with Gaza. The Israeli Defence Forces took reporters including a Fox News crew to the community overrun by Hamas, who attacked with grenades, guns and knives. Correspondent Trey Yingst described it as “hell on earth” and said the scene was the most horrifying he had witnessed in his career reporting around the world
Taking viewers inside one of the bullet-ridden homes, he said: “You can see the floors are stained with blood. It was Saturday morning, around 7am, when militants stormed this village. You can see the weapons they brought with them, extra ammunition, bullet holes in the side of the house and knives on the floor.”
Mr Yingst said the kibbutz was “littered with bodies”, adding some had been murdered in their beds. “It is a house of horror behind me and the entire neighbourhood looks like this,” he added.
The IDF today again insisted that some of the victims were beheaded.
Meanwhile, an Israeli man told how he reeled in horror after finding out his brother had been taken hostage by Hamas when a propaganda video circulated online. Uriel Bohbot, 31, said he saw Elkana, 34, among the captives bundled into a Gaza-bound truck on Saturday, when the terrorists attacked the music festival. A friend sent him the clip, which is on Hamas’s Telegram site.
He said: “I recognised him instantly thanks to his blond hair and said, ‘Oh my God! They’ve got my brother’.”
After seeing the video in San Francisco, Mr Bohbot took the first flight to Jerusalem to be with his family.
His married brother runs a Tel Aviv ice cream shop. Mr Bohbot added: “We’re scared but he is strong.”
At least 17 British nationals are either dead or missing, including children.
Yesterday it was confirmed that Jake Marlowe, 26, from Potters Bar, was among three known to have died.
He was originally recorded as missing but was confirmed dead by the Israeli Embassy in London. Nathanel Young, 20, a Briton serving in the Israeli Defence Services, and Bernard Cowan, 57, who grew up around Glasgow, were killed. Mr Young, who was buried yesterday, went to the Jewish Free School in north London like Mr Marlowe. British photographer Dan Darlington and his German girlfriend Carolin Bohl are feared to be dead.
