Aftermath of Hamas Nir Oz kibbutz rampage seen by ITV News for first time

ITV News' John Irvine gives a rare first-person account inside Nir Oz kibbutz, one of the villages stormed by Hamas in the original attacks.

Video report by John Irvine, words by Natalie Wright

The fires are out and the bodies have been taken away, but the carnage that was wrought here is still evident everywhere. 

Nir Oz is a kibbutz just one mile from the border fence with Gaza.

Before the morning of October 7 roughly 400 people were living there.

Now, at least one quarter of those people are confirmed dead, taken hostage to Gaza or simply missing.

You can see that historically it would have been a peaceful place.

Tall trees cover much of the winding pathways between the houses.

Sofas, many of them now burnt, sit in porchways and children’s seesaws and other toys litter the front gardens.

For the first time today we got access to this community - it’s taken this long because they are still recovering the dead from the surrounding areas.

Even today they announced the remains of 12-year-old Harry Potter fan Noya Dan and her grandmother Carmela had been found in the fields just outside the kibbutz.

Noya and Carmela Dan have been confirmed dead. Credit: Noam Dan

An Israeli spokesperson confirmed on Thursday that Noya, 12 and grandmother Carmela, 80 have died following the storming of the Nir Oz kibbutz.

Noya slept over her grandmother’s house on the Friday preceding the Hamas attack, a regular occurrence for the two who were very close.

Through one smashed window we saw the grim sight of a pair of bunk beds soaked in blood.

Horrific but not surprising given the testimonies we have heard from what happened here- whole families smoked out of their hiding places to the slaughter. 

We also found the ransacked home of 85 year old Yaffa Adar whose picture on a golf buggy has become one of the defining images of the mass kidnaps of two Saturdays ago.

85-year-old Yaffa Adar's kidnap was captured on camera.

Gun shots to the front door lock tell the tale of how the militants got in to her home before taking her away. 

Among the detritus of a quiet life instantly disturbed we found the written testimony of Yaffa’s late husband's experience of the Holocaust.

As we left, numerous ambulances rolled in through the heavily secured gates bringing the bodies of those who will be buried here. 

But many more remain absent, across a border only a mile away but which must seem like a million miles from home.

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