The family of an Israeli grandmother only found out she was dead when Hamas gunmen posted a video of her body on her own Facebook page.
One of Bracha Levinson’s grandchildren, on holiday in Japan at the time, clicked on the gory image first after she noticed a notification.
“I see the horrible video of, you know, just her lying on the floor with a pool of blood around her head and gunmen – terrorists holding their guns above her shouting in Arabic,” Hagar Shimoni said.
Bracha Levinson
The 22-year-old university student asked the family WhatsApp group if anyone knew what was going on – but there was widespread confusion on 7 October as a major terrorist attack gripped the country.
“Then I call my cousin and she picks up, she’s screaming, she’s crying, she’s saying: ‘Did you see how they murdered grandma?'”
Exactly four weeks after Hamas militants assaulted Israel from the land, sea and air – in an unprecedented pre-dawn raid that the Israeli authorities say left more than 1,400 dead and more than 230 kidnapped – families across the country are still reeling from the trauma.
In response, Israel launched a war against Hamas inside the Gaza Strip – with troops pushing in on the ground and multiple strikes from the air.
The Israeli military says its forces are striking Hamas targets, but health authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza say thousands of civilians have been killed, many of them children, in a conflict that could trigger a regional war.