This is the incredible moment a neighborhood in Israel came together in unity to sing the national anthem from their balconies following the horrific terror attacks by Hamas.
Footage shows hundreds of Israelis proudly belting out the national song, Hatikva – translated to ‘The Hope’ – from rooftops or from windows of high-rise buildings.
Background music can be heard from blocks away as sounds of cheering and applause wash over the area.
For those farther away, lights from camera phones shone across the city.
The act of unity follows a bloodthirsty invasion carried out by Hamas in which more than 1,200 Israelis have been killed. In turn, hundreds died in Gaza after a wave of Israeli airstrikes.
Thousands of Israelis gathered on their balconies Tuesday night to sing their national anthem in unity
Residents of the Jewish state were determined to show their strength as they belted out the national song Hatikva – simply translated to ‘The Hope’
Apartment lights were illuminated among the neighborhood as residents proudly gathered
Their message of unity came just hours after it emerged that Hamas terrorists massacred at least 40 babies and young children, before beheading some of them and shooting their families dead in a small kibbutz in Israel.
The attack saw around 70 Hamas fighters armed with machine guns and grenades storm the usually quiet Kfar Aza kibbutz in southern Israel, killing men, women and children indiscriminately.
Outside the destroyed homes, the soldiers told i24News correspondent Nicole Zedek how they saw the bodies of babies next to their cots, their heads chopped off, in a sign of the depraved acts committed by the terrorists since they attacked Israel on Saturday .
The Israeli soldiers were seen consoling each other after witnessing such horrors, including the bodies of entire families shot to death in their beds.
‘You see the babies, the mothers, the fathers, in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms and how the terrorist kills them. This is not a war, this is not a battlefield. This is a massacre, this is a terrorist activity,’ Israeli Major General Itai Veruv said of the horrific scene.
‘This is something I have never seen in my life. This is something that we used to imagine from our grandfathers, grandmothers in the pogrom in Europe and other places. This is not something that happens in recent history.’
The stench of bodies was heavy in the air as the soldier journalists showed the kibbutz, popular with families. The small soccer nets where children would have played soccer were seen on a bag of grass – but in the background were the bodies of families laid out on the ground.
Elsewhere, the bodies of the gunmen lay face down on the ground. A destroyed gate at the perimeter of the kibbutz showed where the armed men had entered.
The terrorists went on a rampage, killing hundreds of Israelis and taking dozens hostage in places like Kfar Aza, near Sderot. Some of the houses were almost completely destroyed in the attack with collapsed, burnt walls.
Israeli troops went from house to house to collect civilian bodies in body bags. They had not been able to take them before as they were still fighting armed men and working through bullies.
Sitting on the back of a terrorist’s motorcycle, her outstretched arms pointing at her helpless boyfriend, student Noa Argamani pleads for her life as Hamas militants kidnap her and rush her to Gaza.
Hamas militants kidnapped up to 150 people, including women and children, from Israeli territory and dragged them back into Gaza amid their relentless slaughter
Smoke rises and fireballs over a building in Gaza City on October 9, 2023
One soldier shouted: ‘Tell the world what you saw here.’
The ruthless killing of innocent families at the Kfar Aza kibbutz by Hamas terrorists is just one of many massacres that have emerged since the gunmen launched their surprise attack on Saturday.
They are among 1,000 Israelis killed in Hamas’ brutal attacks, which prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war on the Palestinian militant group and launch a campaign of devastating airstrikes on Gaza.
The death toll dwarfs the scale of any previous attack by Islamists, apart from 9/11. Scores of Israelis were taken hostage into Gaza, with some parading through the streets.
At least 770 Gazans have since been killed in Israeli attacks, according to Gaza officials, while entire districts of Gaza have been flattened.
Israeli forces have already used its strike force of 600 aircraft and 300 rocket launchers to relentlessly pound the Gaza Strip.
“We will reach them everywhere,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to wipe out Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared war on Hamas after the weekend’s surprise attack in which 1,000 Israelis were slaughtered, made a solemn vow.
“What we do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations,” he said, condemning Hamas for what he said was “atrocity not seen since the Holocaust” in remarks to US President Joe Biden. .
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has ordered a total siege of Gaza, cutting off water, food and electricity to force its residents into starvation as they are hit by constant airstrikes.
Speaking to soldiers near the Gaza fence yesterday, Gallant said: ‘Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will be no more,’ with even a former Israeli ambassador to Britain stating that the IDF’s aim is ‘to come out of this with a different reality in Gaza.’
The war, which has claimed at least 2,100 lives on both sides, is expected to escalate.