Israel. Hamas attack. A retired Israeli general took a gun and went to fight terrorists – wrote the New York Times

According to the New York Times, retired general Israel Ziv has become a symbol of the fighting spirit of Israeli society, but also of the military’s failure to cope with the Hamas attack on October 7.

While riding a bicycle, the retired general received information about a hail of rockets fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip and about terrorists penetrating across the border. He soon learned that his friend’s son was imprisoned on a kibbutz.

READ: Hamas attacked Israel from sea, land and air. Fighting in cities, hundreds wounded and killed

So Ziv rushed home, put on his uniform and grabbed his private 9 mm pistol, the New York Times reported. A few minutes later, he was driving towards the border with the Gaza Strip. Columns of black smoke rose in front of him, and Hamas fighters were running around him, shooting at him with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers. – They were everywhere, there were hundreds of them – Ziw reported.

He was accompanied by Noam Tibon, another retired general whose son was imprisoned on Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The men reached the combat zone around 10 a.m. Near the Gaza Strip, they saw fires and attackers shooting at buildings and passing cars.

At least in the initial period, the Israeli army was nowhere to be seen. Only further they saw small groups of soldiers trying to resist the fighters who had a numerical advantage over them.

The two retired generals joined a platoon of young soldiers, took some of them into a car and began attacking Hamas fighters. Ziv initially fired his pistol, but when one of the soldiers was wounded, he took over his rifle.

The worst thing, he said, was the feeling that even though they were among the first to respond to the attack, it was already too late. The bodies of the victims were lying along the road and among the trees.

SEE ALSO: “I covered myself with the bodies of the dead.” Accounts of Israelis who survived the Hamas attack

“NYT” emphasized that the information provided by Ziwa was confirmed by extensive evidence in the form of recordings and photos. Some of them were carried out by the militants themselves, who killed Israeli civilians in their cars, homes and at bus stops.

– Nobody imagined that they could do what they did. We haven’t seen such brutality since the creation of Israel, Ziv said. In his opinion, the state must, in response, “change the entire doctrine towards Gaza” and “level” Hamas to the ground.

Tibon joined the soldiers fighting near the kibbutz where his son lived. Eventually they managed to save him. Ziv went to other places of fighting and – as he said – spent 24 hours circulating between attacked villages and kibbutzim, shooting and organizing the evacuation of civilians.

But when he arrived on Saturday evening at the place where thousands of young people had been partying at an electronic music festival the night before, there was nothing left to do there. There were bodies lying everywhere: on the camping site, under the stages, in cars standing by the road – described “NYT”.

According to Ziv, the militants attacked deliberately when people were having fun at the festival. – I think this event was a factor that led to this attack. Hamas has been planning this for a long time. They knew there would be a critical mass there this weekend, said the retired general.

Evidence collected by the Israeli military and witness accounts show that Hamas terrorists surrounded the festival on three sides. One group of attackers opened fire, consistently pushing the panicked party participants towards the road, where another group of terrorists was waiting for them with rifles. “I can still hear their screams,” Ziv said.

“Hamas must pay for this,” he said. After a moment’s pause, he added: – by his existence.