One soldier told Sky News he rejoined the armed forces ahead of an anticipated ground attack on Gaza, after the kibbutz his friends lived in was ravaged last weekend. The young couple shared a desperate text exchange before their home was attacked. Now their friend wants 'justice'.
Holding out his phone, a soldier walked towards me in the shattered ruins of a kibbutz in southern Israel. 'This is my friend,' he said, showing a photograph on the screen of a beautiful young woman and her fiancé. Their names were Nieve Raviv, 27, and Nirel Zini, also in his 20s. The soldier described Nieve as someone with a big heart who made people happy. 'I found out yesterday that she was killed here,' he said, gesturing towards a cluster of devastated homes.
The soldier, who asked to stay anonymous, showed me a text exchange between Nirel and Nieve from last Saturday as the militants first punched through a metal fence that marks the boundary of the kibbutz, barely a mile away from the entrance to Gaza. Nirel messages: 'They are here.' He says he is putting his phone down. Nieve then sends a series of messages, asking him to send her a signal that he is okay. 'Tell me you're alive. Just tell me something.' There is no reply.
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