\n<\/p>\n
Or Gat returned on Friday to Be\u2019eri, the Israeli kibbutz where he was born and raised, and found a totally different world: homes smashed, cars torched and streets packed with soldiers preparing for the next stage of Israel\u2019s response to the Palestinian assault a week ago.<\/p>\n
His mother, Kinneret; his sister, Carmel; and his sister-in-law, Yarden, are still missing, and the younger women are feared to be Hamas captives. His father, Eshel; his brother Alon; and his 3-year-old niece, Gefen, all barely escaped.<\/p>\n
Be\u2019eri, which lies near the eastern border of the Gaza Strip, suffered one of the deadliest massacres in the attack, with over 100 deaths, according to Israeli authorities, or around 10 percent of the kibbutz\u2019s population. Palestinian gunmen went house by house, killing or capturing those they found. The Israeli military took hours to arrive.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy sister and sister-in-law are held hostage, and my mother is probably dead,\u201d Mr. Gat, 34, said bluntly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no place for sadness anymore,\u201d he said later, as he surveyed the damage. \u201cThere\u2019s enormous anger.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Hamas attacked Israel on Saturday, Mr. Gat \u2014 who has been living in Tel Aviv but had intended to move back to Be\u2019eri \u2014 was in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod for a friend\u2019s bachelor party with kibbutz buddies. They fled into bomb shelters as the assault began.<\/p>\n
He stayed in touch with his family as, hour by hour, the situation devolved into horror. \u201cThey kept saying: The army\u2019s coming soon, the army\u2019s coming soon,\u201d Mr. Gat said. \u201cBut they didn\u2019t come.\u201d<\/p>\n The gunmen trashed the family\u2019s house, pushing <\/span>Alon, Yarden and young Gefen into a car, Mr. Gat said his brother had told him. The car sped toward Gaza, Yarden\u2019s brother, Gili Roman, said, sharing details of what Alon had told him.<\/p>\n But some of the gunmen got out along the way, leaving only the driver. As he drove onward, Alon and Yarden grabbed Gefen and threw themselves from the moving car. They started running, with gunmen in pursuit, Mr. Roman said.<\/p>\n Alon said Yarden \u201crealized she couldn\u2019t run fast enough,\u201d so she <\/span>gave Gefen to him, Mr. Roman said. Alon managed to hide with the child until Sunday morning. But Yarden is missing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last time he saw her,\u201d Mr. Roman said, \u201cshe was hiding behind a tree. We don\u2019t know what happened, but she saved her daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Gat\u2019s father, Eshel, managed to hide in the bathroom and lock the door, keeping the gunmen out, family members said. Carmel was last seen by Eshel, in the captivity of the attackers, Mr. Gat said. <\/p>\n Volunteer emergency workers who searched the kibbutz in the days after the massacre found bodies everywhere, including those of small children, according to Moti Bukjin, a spokesman for ZAKA, an emergency response group.<\/p>\n By Friday, most of the corpses seemed to have been removed. The kibbutz crackled with tension as soldiers walked through. A tank hummed just past the iron fence demarcating its border. At one point on Friday morning, a rocket alert sent dozens scrambling for cover, and a resounding boom echoed through the ravaged town.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n