Hamas operatives entered their safe room and fired at them.
Heartbreaking final text messages sent by an Israeli-American family before they were killed by Hamas have surfaced online, making the rounds on the internet. According to the New York Post, Yonatan Kedem Siman Tov, his wife Tamar Kedem-Siman Tov, and their three young children – 6-year-old twin girls Shahar and Arbel and 4-year-old son Omer, as well as his 70-year-old mother Carol Siman Tov were all killed at Nir Oz kibbutz outside of Gaza.
Initially, the family fled to a safe room when Hamas rockets began landing. They texted friends and relatives they were safe, according to a report by The Times of Israel. Tamar, wrote to her friends on WhatsApp saying, ”Hi guys, we got into the shelter in our house, we’re all going okay.”
However, an hour later, the Hamas operatives entered the safe room and fired at them.
”They’re here. They’re burning us. We’re suffocating,” Yonatan Kedem Siman Tov texted his sister Ranae Butler moments before being killed.
The messages soon stopped.
Family friend, Yishai Lacob, posted on Facebook: ”Our hearts are shattered. An entire family was killed by evil murderers who shot the children and parents simply because they were Jewish. And this is just one story, among so many. It’s unbearable.”
While Yonatan Siman Tov was a wheat farmer, Tamar Kedem-Siman Tov was a community leader running to become head of the Eshkol Regional Council. She also served as an advisor to the Ministry of the Interior on regional issues and was the former director of the Bikurim Youth Village for Excellence in Art and Music, a boarding school for at-risk youth, as per The Independent.
The war erupted after Hamas, launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, and a barrage of rockets into southern Israel. In the eight days since Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,300 Israelis in a terror attack, Israel has responded with a devastating bombing campaign that has claimed over 2,300 lives in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has opened a safe corridor in northern Gaza to allow residents to go to the “safer” southern part of the seaside territory. In a post on X, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said they will not launch any operation on this corridor from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“Residents of Gaza City and northern Gaza, in the past days, we’ve urged you to relocate to the southern area for your safety. We want to inform you that the IDF will not carry out any operations along this route from 10 pm to 1 pm,” the Israeli military said.