JERUSALEM –

An Israeli safety officer could be noticed drawing a pistol, his hand shaking violently. Hours before that working day, Oct. 7, these desolate fields in southern Israel experienced teemed with thousands of younger people today dancing to electronic songs less than the night sky and tenting out in tents or mobile homes. Now, it was silent.

The officer peered speedily into one particular of the trailers. “Who’s within?” he called out in Hebrew, his voice pained. It was empty. He moved on to the rest of the competition grounds, exploring for symptoms of lifestyle subsequent the Hamas rampage by the outdoor live performance. “It can be the law enforcement!” he yelled yet again and once more, his voice mounting in stress. “Are there any wounded?”

Silence. The officer moved to the outside bar. Hovering over the Coca Cola coolers and beer-faucet levers, he shouted louder, “Wounded?” His camera tilted down.

There ended up much more than a dozen bodies — some encrusted with dirt, others riddled with bullets. They ended up strewn about the bar and piled on prime of just about every other, hair matted with darkish blood, limbs twisted at an unnatural angle. The brief shorts with fringe, slash-off T-shirts and fashionable white sneakers have been reminders that these mangled bodies experienced been youthful, carefree partygoers just just before dawn.

The graphic and harrowing scene unfolds in a roughly 100-second clip of police body digicam footage unveiled Saturday by a to start with-responder crew in southern Israel. It was a chilling depiction of what rescuers encountered in the wake of Hamas’ unparalleled assault on the sleepy Israeli farm communities.

A person of Hamas’ first targets was the Nova new music pageant around Kibbutz Be’eri, only five kilometres (three miles) from the Gaza Strip. Right after surging in excess of the border, Hamas gunmen emptied rounds of are living ammunition on the revellers, like hand grenades and mortar hearth, killing more than 260 folks in what has become the major civilian massacre in Israeli history.

The system digital camera footage — and other horrifying movies circulating on social media along with stories from survivors who staggered throughout fields to obtain refuge in close by orchards — include specifics to what transpired that Saturday.

The magnitude of the devastation from Hamas’ cross-border assault is however location in for Israel a month later as the Israeli army unleashes a devastating offensive towards Hamas that has killed more than 9,400 Palestinians in Gaza, in accordance to the territory’s wellness officers.

Israel is even now in mourning above the 1,400 individuals killed in the Oct. 7 assault, numerous of them civilians. Forensic professionals are continue to doing work to detect a lot more victims. People are nonetheless scouring for any bits of information about the in excess of 240 Israelis taken hostage in Gaza, together with youthful Israelis from the pageant.

Immediately after stumbling upon the bodies beneath the bar, the Israeli officer turned determined. “Is there anyone with a sign of existence? Give us a sign of existence,” he pleaded. His voice was no for a longer time frantic, but thrumming with sorrow.

“Somebody, you should! Can anyone remedy?”

There was no remedy.