Rarely would diplomats call for a press conference and openly show raw emotions.
But in between tears in an online media briefing, Deputy Chief of Missions Ms. Esty Buzgan walked media practitioners through some of the most horrifying and devastating events in Israel since Hamas launched its blood-thirsty terrorist rampage.
Some of her accounts were also based on a childhood friend’s account, who narrowly escaped the site of the carnage, where people were shot like ducks. Some who managed to stay alive were either raped or dragged to the Gaza strip.
Still others, who managed to play dead, saw the belongings of victims taken by the Hamas terrorists and have since used their cell phones, social media accounts and even credit cards for themselves.
One family, Ms. Buzgan noted, received a phone call, telling them to open their grandmother’s Facebook profile. When they did, they saw how the kidnapper filming how he was killing their grandmother.
“Can you imagine the situation of finding out about your loved one? Murdered brutally in front of their camera from their own Facebook account? It’s insane. It’s something that the human brain can’t understand.”
This day was the first day ever since the Holocaust of the biggest number of Jews who were murdered in a massacre.
Such a gruesome scenario made Ms. Buzgan quite fearful for her parents’ and friends’ safety.
“It’s my friends who are being murdered. It’s my family who I was frightened about. I was here in Manila. I was telling my Dad and my Mom, ‘please hide, lock all doors, lock all windows, because nobody knows if someone is going to come to shoot at the doors and take you to the Gaza strip or shoot you alive.’
And it feels so helpless to be miles and oceans away, and you can’t do anything about it. I’m praying to God for saving them, for saving more of the people, but it’s just probably luck and it’s so hard,” she noted.
Ms. Buzgan also cited the following estimate numbers of those who were victimized in the terrorist attack:
40 babies cut and burned;
more than 1,200 murdered;
more than 3,000 wounded;
more than 150 kidnapped
by a thousand Hamas terrorists and 5,000 missiles launched.
Ms. Buzgan said she had pictures of these killed babies, but did not want to share them.
“I will save you the pictures because I really don’t think most of us are capable to watch those pictures. This is beyond cruelty,” she explained, almost stuttering because of pained emotions.
Ms. Buzgan noted a host of foreign nationals were also either murdered including Nepalese, Thai and Filipinos.
“I would want to express my sympathy to the Filipino families (of the victims). To all the Filipinos who stand behind. Those brave people who went there with the elderly they were taking care of.
One of them had the opportunity to run away, but then she decided to stay with the grandmother she was looking after,” she said.
Because of these things and more, Ms. Buzgan stressed Israel will continue to rise to the occasion.
Moreover, the Deputy Chief also showed the videos at the press briefing Hamas’ apparent key leaders who were filmed, boldly saying the Israelis will have to be all killed… and even the citizens of its ally, the United States.
“We will not let anyone harm us, our children and our families and we will defend our population. Because when you murder civilians, that’s different. That’s terror.
When an army fights an army, we have Geneva Convention. Even war has rules. This? This is pure terror,” she stressed.
Ms. Buzgan has expressed gratitude for a massive support to Israel and how Israel’s peace accords with several Middle East countries continue to hold.
Nonetheless, she firmly said Israel will not stop until it stops Hamas from doing what it’s doing.
“We will not allow this to happen again. In order to do that we have to (start) and destroy every infrastructure that lets Hamas work; that lets Hamas plan all those awful activities. And we highly recommend whoever is in the area, we recommend them to leave.
Israel knows that Hamas is using people as human shields. They hide in ambulances, mosques, civilian population, schools and hospitals.”
Ms. Buzgan defended Israel’s targeting of buildings in Gaza.
“This massacre cannot go away with nothing, with silence. You would not allow this thing to happen in your country. We need to stop Hamas from doing this. So, Israel warns people. We have a mechanism, it’s called knock on the roof of the aircrafts, informing a building that we are going to hit it, in order to let the people escape and people can go away from the building before they strike.
We have a mechanism for sending flyers from the sky, warning people this place is going to be bombed. Please leave. (This is) in order not to hit civilian population. So if people can go away from those areas, because those infrastructures of Hamas are going to be destructed (destroyed) and this is massive and long,” she noted.
Perhaps one thing that further hurt Ms. Buzgan about the Hamas attack is the financial assistance Israel has been pouring in at Gaza Strip.
“What bothers me most? We were in the middle of projects that will make the life in Gaza better. Israel was suggesting different programs to give better water to Gaza Strip and to find different mechanisms to improve the lives in Gaza Strip.
Just imagine, with all the aid money being given by many organizations…but it’s basically funding terrors. It’s basically giving Hamas the opportunity to take the money and use it for terrorism. If they won’t be using this money to invest in their own people, to build schools, better hospitals and other infrastructure to build lives… ,” she sighed.
(Visual materials courtesy of Embassy of Israel in Manila)
