Living in Ashdod, a coastal city north of Gaza, Landau recalls the horror he witnessed as he rushed to the scene. “I saw overturned cars, lifeless bodies on the streets,” Landau recounted in Sderot, a nearby town where multiple residents lost their lives. With 33 years of experience volunteering for Zaka, an organization dedicated to recovering the bodies of those who suffered unnatural deaths, Landau had seen his fair share of violence. However, the ongoing clashes between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces exposed him to levels of brutality he had never encountered before.
Landau described the arduous process of collecting and bagging the bodies. What should have been a 15-minute journey took them 11 hours due to the sheer number of victims. Abandoned cars, either torched or riddled with bullet holes, still litter the landscape of southern Israel. After loading dozens of corpses onto refrigerated trucks, Landau and his fellow volunteers reached Beeri, a kibbutz housing approximately 1,200 residents located five kilometers from Gaza. The sight that greeted them was devastating—a dead woman in the first home they entered, her stomach ripped open, a baby still connected by the umbilical cord and stabbed.
According to Landau, he witnessed multiple civilians, including around 20 children, with their hands tied behind their backs, shot, and burned. “We saw some victims who had been sexually abused,” he added. The kibbutz experienced over 100 casualties, while approximately 270 people lost their lives at the nearby Supernova music festival. Though the bodies of the festival-goers have been removed, their belongings remain scattered across the dusty grass. Soldiers patrolled the area as an AFP journalist visited, passing by beanbags, artworks, and a bag of energy drinks strewn on the ground. Blood splatters were visible inside a nearby car, not far from a sign outlining hiking routes through the forest.
Despite Israel’s claim of regaining control over the border area, the military continues to engage in firefight with remaining militants. On Thursday, the army announced the killing of a terrorist a few kilometers away from the festival grounds, shortly after the sound of distant gunfire was heard from the site. In response to the Hamas assault, the Israeli military has launched 6,000 bombs on Gaza, resulting in 1,417 casualties, according to health officials in the Palestinian territory.
Confronted with such immense violence, Landau revealed that he feels numb. “We just separate our emotions from our job; that’s what we have to do,” he said, highlighting the need for emotional detachment in order to carry out their duties.