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
- Jewish couple with two girls, six, and a son, two, are murdered
- Sent a final message to their friends in Australia claiming they were safe
- READ MORE: Palestinian protesters in Sydney shout ‘gas the Jews’
A mother who was slaughtered by terrorists in Israel alongside her husband and three children sent a final WhatsApp message to her Australian friends to say her family was safe.
Tamar Kedem-Siman Tov texted her Sydney friends, Yishai and Mor Lacob, from the concrete bunker of her home in Nir Oz kibbutz, in southern Israel, at about 2.45pm on Saturday.
The message read: ‘Hi guys, we got into the shelter in our house, we’re all going okay.’
An hour later, she stopped responding to calls and texts.
The Lacobs started to panic and tried contacting everyone they knew in the village to find out what was going on, before they received 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 had been murdered by Hamas-linked terrorists.
Tamar Kedem-Siman Tov with her husband Johnny and their six-year-old daughters Shachar and Arbel, and their two-year-old son Omer. They were murdered on Saturday
A mock-up of the final WhatsApp message Tamar Kedem-Siman Tov sent her friends in Sydney
‘Our hearts are shattered,’ Yishai wrote on Facebook on Monday.
‘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.’
Nir Oz is a farming village with a population of about 400 and is 3km from Gaza.
Despite its proximity to a conflict zone, Mor told the Sydney Morning Herald it was considered a peaceful place to live and raise a family.
‘They wouldn’t have thought such a thing can happen,’ she said.
Tamar was a social activist who had been campaigning to become the head of Eshkol Regional Council, in Israel’s southern district.
‘She was such a special woman,’ Mor told the publication.
‘She always cared about the poor people, always made sure that people less fortunate will have the same opportunities.
The family were hiding in a concrete bunker at their home in southern Israel, before it was breached. Tamar (left) uploaded this photo four days ago
Friends flooded Facebook with tributes to the young family (pictured)
‘She was a living example to these values.’
Just four days ago, the mother-of-three had been posting photos of her council campaign on Facebook.
‘Half-week summary post, because even Facebook can’t keep up with me this holiday,’ she wrote on 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 overcome with tributes.
‘My heart is torn,’ one person wrote.
Another said: ‘What a tragedy… Can’t believe that we are four days later.’
Pictured: Tamar and her husband Johnny, who were living in southern Israel when their village was attacked
The attacks began about 6.30am 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.
READ MORE: Sydney Opera House Israel-Palestine protest
At the same time, hundreds of Palestinian militants paraglided across the heavily guarded frontier, while others stormed towns by boat or after blasting holes in the Gaza–Israel barrier.
They then went door to door gunning down innocent civilians and soldiers before kidnapping more then 100 Israelis and taking them into Gaza.
In response, the Israeli army said on Monday that it hit more than 500 targets in the Gaza Strip in overnight retaliatory strikes on the impoverished and blockaded Gaza Strip, an enclave of 2.3million people.
Officials there reported at least 413 Palestinian deaths.
In Australia, pro-Palestinian protestors were allowed to chant ‘gas the Jews’ and burn the Star of David in front of Sydney’s Opera House on Monday night.
Counter-demonstrators were arrested for attempting to fly the Israeli flag at the protest site.
Police are now under fire for allowing the protest to go ahead – while telling Jewish Australians to ‘stay home’ for their own safety.
The rally, organised by the Palestine Action Group Sydney, saw vast numbers of pro-Palestine activists gather at Town Hall in Sydney’s CBD before marching to the Opera House.
Chaotic scenes ensued when the demonstration was hijacked by radical Muslims – some wearing black masks – who threw lit flares at police and chanted ‘f*** Israel’ and ‘f*** the Jews’ beneath the steps of the iconic harbouside venue.
Pictured: Chaotic scenes at the Sydney Opera House, as a demonstration was highjacked pro-Palestinian protesters – some wearing black masks – who chanted ‘f*** Israel’ and ‘f*** the Jews’
At one point, there were even chants of ‘gas the Jews’.
A large crowd of men attempted to set light to an Israeli flag with firecrackers before stamping 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 swarmed towards the police barrier, brandishing torn pieces of the Israeli flag – despite the rally organisers calling for protesters to respect the police.
More than 100 cops formed a ring of steel along the steps of the Opera House and didn’t intervene when flares or other projectiles were thrown at them.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said he ‘deplored’ the rally and described it as being ‘against the tenets of our multicultural community’.
‘We lit up the Opera House in support of innocent people who have had their lives slaughtered or loved ones kidnapped,’ Mr Minns told Sunrise.
‘The community expectation from the vast majority of people I have spoken to in the past 48 hours has been horror at the actions of Hamas and also the demonstrations that have taken place in Sydney in the past 48 hours.’
Earlier, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called on pro-Palestinian protesters to abandon the rally.
Israel supporters kept their distance, watching the display from the other side of Circular Quay
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