More than 1,000 people came to the cemetery in the central Israeli town of Gedera on Thursday to pay their last respects to Kim Damti (22), the Israeli-Irish woman killed in the Hamas terror attack on Saturday morning.
There were young and old, secular and religious, civilians and soldiers - a cross section of a nation in mourning.
The eulogies all painted the same picture of a happy-go-lucky, beautiful young woman who was constantly smiling.
They were interrupted by the continuous sobbing from Kim’s siblings, the local rabbi, Gedera’s mayor and Likud Knesset member Gila Gamliel (herself a native of Gedera) and a friend of the family.
In the middle of the service, above the eulogies, thuds in the sky could be heard of Arrow anti-rocket missiles, intercepting another barrage of incoming rockets from Gaza.
Ireland’s ambassador to Israel Sonya McGuinness, in an emotional eulogy, brought a simple and clear message: “We stand with you.”
“I am filled with sadness at the loss of our beautiful young woman,” she said. “My heart breaks for her family and friends, for the Irish community in Israel and for every family suffering at this terrible time. We are seared by the horrific events of the last few days.”
Kim Damti, whose mother Jennifer is originally from Portlaoise, was attending an all-night outdoor festival with hundreds of other young music lovers, close to the Gaza border when the first rocket barrage hit close to 6:30 am on Saturday, taking everyone by surprise.
In the last phone call made by Kim, to her brother at 7am, she was running with a friend towards a car in an attempt to flee the rocket barrage. That was the last contact with her.
Unbeknown to the festival-goers, dozens of heavily-armed Hamas gunmen who had infiltrated through breaches in the border fence on motorbikes, jeeps and pick-up trucks, were waiting for them.
In total, 260 people were shot and killed: some in their cars while others were mown down trying to flee on foot. Some survived by running to a nearby forest. An unknown number were seized by the militants and spirited away to the Gaza Strip.
By Wednesday the authorities had still not removed the charred and bullet-ridden remains of the scores of vehicles from the festival site: it’s too dangerous with the ongoing rocket fire from Gaza. The ground is scorched and the smell of charcoal and dead bodies is overwhelming.
Since Saturday the Damti family had been waiting for a phone call from the Israeli authorities. It finally came on Wednesday, confirming a positive identification of their daughter’s body.
Some of the soldiers at the funeral were given a few hours furlough from the front to attend before returning to their units. They were also holding back the tears.
At the end of the funeral the crowd of mourners stood around the freshly-dug grave and sang Hatikva (The Hope), Israel’s national anthem.
As they departed the cemetery, workers prepared for the next burial of another of the 1,300 people killed on Saturday.
