Read the chilling final text family of five slaughtered in Hamas’s attack on Israel sent to Australian friends – before the WhatsApp messages suddenly stopped

A mother who was slaughtered along with her husband and three children by terrorists in Israel has sent a final WhatsApp message to her Australian friends to say her family is safe.

Tamar Kedem-Siman Tov texted her Sydney friends, Yishai and Mor Lacob, from the concrete bunker of her home in the Nir Oz kibbutz, in southern Israel, on Saturday around 2:45 p.m.

The message read: ‘Hi guys, we got into the shelter in our house, we’re all going to be okay.’

An hour later, she stopped responding to calls and texts.

The Lacobs began to panic and tried to contact everyone they knew in town to find out what was going on, before receiving the heartbreaking news that the Tov’s safe room had been raided by militants.

Tamar, her husband Johnny, their six-year-old daughters Shachar and Arbel, and their two-year-old son Omer were killed by Hamas-affiliated terrorists.

“Our hearts are broken,” Yishai wrote on Facebook on Monday.

“An entire family was killed by vicious killers who shot the children and parents simply because they were Jewish.

‘And this is just one story, among so many. It’s unbearable.’

Nir Oz is a farming village with a population of about 400 and is 3 km from Gaza.

Despite its proximity to a conflict zone, Mor has to the Sydney Morning Herald it was considered a peaceful place to live and raise a family.

“They wouldn’t have thought something like this could happen,” she said.

Tamar was a social activist who campaigned to become the head of the Eshkol Regional Council in Israel’s southern district.

“She was such a special woman,” Mor told the publication.

‘She always cared for the poor, always made sure that people who were less fortunate would have the same opportunities.

“She was a living example of these values.”

Just four days ago, the mother of three posted photos of her council campaign on Facebook.

“Mid-week recap post because even Facebook can’t keep up with me this holiday,” she wrote Thursday in a post translated from Hebrew to English.

‘The area speaks for itself – we want an attentive head of the council, who sees the residents – from young to old.’

She aimed to improve health, employment, safety and security across the region.

Her posts were flooded with messages of support on Thursday.

By Tuesday, they were inundated with tributes.

“My heart is torn,” one person wrote.

Another said: ‘What a tragedy… Can’t believe we’re four days later.’

The attacks began around 6:30 a.m. Israeli time on Saturday when thousands of Hamas rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel and as far as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

At the same time, hundreds of Palestinian militants were parachuting across the heavily guarded border, while others stormed towns by boat or after shooting holes in the Gaza-Israel barrier.

They then went door to door shooting innocent civilians and soldiers before abducting over 100 Israelis and taking them into Gaza.

In response, the Israeli military said on Monday it had hit more than 500 targets in the Gaza Strip in overnight retaliatory strikes on the impoverished and blockaded Gaza Strip, an enclave of 2.3 million people.

Officials there reported at least 413 Palestinian deaths.

In Australia, pro-Palestinian protesters were allowed to chant ‘gas the Jews’ and burn the Star of David outside Sydney’s Opera House on Monday night.

Counter-protesters were arrested for trying to fly the Israeli flag on the protest site.

Police are now under fire for allowing the protest to continue – while telling Jewish Australians to ‘stay home’ for their own safety.

The rally, organized by the Palestine Action Group Sydney, saw large numbers of pro-Palestinian activists gather at City Hall in Sydney’s city center before marching on the Opera House.

Chaotic scenes erupted as the demonstration was hijacked by radical Muslims – some wearing black masks – who threw burning torches at police and chanted ‘f*** Israel’ and ‘f*** the Jews’ under the stairs of the iconic harbor venue.

At one point there were even chants of ‘guest the Jews’.

A large crowd of men tried to set off an Israeli flag with fireworks before stomping on it and tearing it to shreds.

Cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’ (‘God is great’ in Arabic) and ‘death to the Jews’ rang out as some members of the crowd flocked to the police barricade and waved torn pieces of the Israeli flag – despite the rally- organizers who asked for protesters to respect the police.

More than 100 policemen formed a ring of steel along the steps of the Opera House and did not intervene when flares or other projectiles were thrown at them.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said he “regretted” the rally and described it as “against the principles of our multicultural community”.

“We lit up the Opera House in support of innocent people who had their lives taken or loved ones kidnapped,” Mr Minns told Sunrise.

“The community expectation from the vast majority of people I’ve spoken to over the past 48 hours has been horror at the actions of Hamas and also the protests that have taken place in Sydney over the past 48 hours.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had earlier called on pro-Palestinian protesters to abandon the rally.