'WE'RE SUFFOCATING'
A family of five has been killed by Hamas and their last stomach-churning texts have been revealed.
The death toll continues to rise following the initial October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli citizens.
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To date, at least 1,300 people have died in Israel and another 2,228 have been killed in Gaza. Those numbers are expected to rise.
Another 3,227 people have been injured in Israel along with 8,744 wounded in Gaza.
Amid the conflict along the Gaza Strip, victims' stories continue to emerge.
One Israeli family thought they were safe only to be killed hours later.
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Johnny Siman Tov, his wife Tamar Kedem-Siman Tov, their three children, twin girls Shahar and Arbel and son Omer; and Tov's mother Carol Siman Tov were killed on Saturday.
Johnny was an operations manager and wheat farmer - and his wife Tamar was a community leader who was running to become head of the Eshkol Regional Council.
Tamar had been deeply ingrained in the community as an advisor to the Ministry of the Interior on regional issues and was the former director of the Bikurim Youth Village for Excellence in Art and Music.
They had been staying in a safe house and believed themselves to be sheltered from the violence being perpetrated outside their home.
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Previously living in Kibbutz Nir Oz on the Gaza border, the family fled to a safe house when rockets began touching down near their home.
"Hi guys, we got into the shelter in our house, we are all going OK,” Tov had texted a family member upon arrival.
Then the texts stopped.
The father had been texting his sister Ranae Butler while the family was being attacked in their last moments.
"They’re here. They’re burning us. We’re suffocating," one of the texts read, according to The Times of Israel.
The father, mother, and three children were later found shot to death in the safe house.
Carol Siman Tov was found killed in her own safe house - and had also been shot.
The family is heartbroken following the news of their loved one's death.
“Our hearts are shattered,” a family friend, Yishai Lacob, posted on Facebook.
“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.”
Only two days before the family was killed, Tamar was posting on Facebook.
"Love Sukkot!” Tamar shared.
“I enjoy the campaigning and am moved by the support and sympathy of the people I meet.”
These tragic deaths come after Israel warned 1.1 million people living in the north of the Gaza Strip to flee their homes ahead of an "imminent attack" on Friday.
The 24-hour notice has since been extended, providing an additional six-hour window to flee, from 10 am to 4 pm local time, the IDF announced on Saturday.
Due to the internet and electric blackout in the war zone, this message was delivered, in part, via pamphlets dropped from the sky in multiple languages.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a product of a deeply complicated and bloody struggle over land and cultural rights to said land.
Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu has called Hamas worse than Isis in a damning speech where he vowed to destroy them.
"Children were executed and entire families were exterminated by Arab terrorists.
"There were atrocities that I will not describe here. Hamas is Isis and we will destroy it as the world defeated Isis," he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in a third day of talks focused on preventing the conflict from expanding to a worse humanitarian crisis.
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Blinken, in agreement with Farhan, is focused on keeping civilians safe during the war.
"As Israel pursues its legitimate right, to defending its people and to trying to ensure that this never happens again, it is vitally important that all of us look out for civilians, and we’re working together to do exactly that,” said the Secretary of State.