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"Many Still Had Expressions of Pain on Their Faces"

(Ynet News) Hadar Gil-Ad - Sheri Mendez is part of a volunteer unit within the Military Rabbinate. "In 2010, the IDF decided, as more women joined combat units, to establish a small female unit for the eventuality, God forbid, that a female soldier is killed," she said. "They accompany the identification process and burial preparations." She received an emergency call-up order on Oct. 7. Arriving at the Camp Shura base, she said, "The initial shock was from the quantity. Body bags lined both sides of the corridor, whole trucks arrived with more bodies. We couldn't believe the numbers. The second shock was from the level of brutality and horrors we saw." "We were with those young women in the room preparing them for burial. Our goal was to give them their last respects. We opened the body bags....It was a special room for women by women....Some of the bodies arrived in very poor condition, but we took our time to handle them in a way that honored them. We knew we were likely the last people to be with these women. It was deeply sad; they could have been our daughters, brutally murdered." "Many still had expressions of pain on their faces. Their fists were clenched, their mouths sometimes open, and some were missing body parts. We saw women shot in the head, shot in the torso. It was horrifying to witness. You could tell these women did not die an easy death." Five months later, the horrors do not fade for Mendez. However, what pains her most is the world's denial of the massacre and the atrocities of Oct. 7. "I am a daughter of Holocaust survivors, raised on the testimonies of what happened to most of our family....The world doubts something we all saw with our own eyes....These women can't speak; only those of us who saw it can speak for them....That's why I continue to talk about what happened there, in those days, for them."
2024-03-10 00:00:00
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