A SLEEPY Israeli town was transformed into a hellish wasteland as brutal Hamas terrorists cruelly massacred at least 40 babies and kids.

Savage militants – branded the “new Nazis” – went house to house in Kfar Aza, beheading youngsters and shooting elderly women in a vile two-day rampage that tore families apart.

Just days ago, the scenic farming community of just 750 people close to the Gaza border was described as a “little piece of heaven” before Hamas unleashed unimaginable horror.

Scenes of devastation are all that remain – an abandoned baby’s pram by a burnt-out car, corpses strewn on streets and body bags lining an outdoor basketball court.

Hamas gunmen caught Israel off guard as they stormed out of the Gaza Strip on October 7 on motorbikes and even hand-gliders before laying waste to the town as they began their horror massacre.

At least 40 kids were killed in Kfar Aza, with many of their bodies riddled with bullets while others were beheaded and families were burnt alive.

One shellshocked survivor told the Mail: “They are the new Nazis. This was a holocaust, pure and simple.”

Hamas terrorists rammed through the kibbutz’s fence, possibly using an earthmover, clearing the way for dozens of other gunmen to enter through the breach, according to the Israeli military.

Survivor Avidor Schwartzman said how he, his wife and their one-year-old daughter were awoken at 6.30am by the booming sounds of rockets.

An hour later, they swiftly moved to their safe room after receiving a kibbutz-wide text telling them it was dangerous to be outside.

Schwartzman’s wife, Keren Flash, added: “We heard shootings and we were basically barricaded in for 21 hours until the army rescued us.

“We kept hearing shootings and gunfire and bombs and alarms, and we just didn’t know what was happening. Our worst nightmares.”

The Israeli military said terrorists went door to door, gunning down entire families and panic rippled through the settlement.

Armed with guns, grenades and knives, Hamas gunmen beheaded men, women, children and babies in their beds after storming over the border.

One survivor, Shmuel Harel, told how his elderly grandmother was brutally gunned down in her own home.

He said the 90-year-old, who had lived in the town since she was a young woman, hadn’t locked the door of her shelter as she was confused.

Mr Harel told the Mail: “She was the sweetest old lady, and they pulled her out of her shelter and dragged her to her living room.

“A 90-year-old – what possible harm could she do them? Then they went to her 71-year-old cousin, Ofer Ron, and shot him too in exactly the same way.”

The town stayed in Hamas’ control for two days of horror as Israeli troops scrambled to get to the area.

Its soldiers were faced with the gut-wrenching task of recovering the bodies of dozens of victims.

Troops also frantically tried to secure the streets of the town, once neatly lined with palm trees, banana plants and single-storey houses with verandas.

Davidi Ben Zion, the deputy commander of Unit 71 – a team of experienced paratroopers who led the assault – said many victims had been decapitated.

He told BBC: “[Hamas gunmen were] “just a jihad machine to kill everybody, [people] without weapons, without nothing, just normal citizens that want to take their breakfast and that’s all.

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“They killed them and cut some of their heads.

“It’s a dreadful thing to see… and we must remember who is the enemy, and what our mission is, [for] justice where there is a right side and all the world needs to be behind us.”

Schwartzman said they hid for more than 20 hours before being rescued by Israeli soldiers and emerging to confront a scene of “pure hell”.

The dad, 38, added: “There were bodies everywhere. Dead bodies everywhere.

“We saw our little piece of paradise, our little piece of heaven, was totally burnt – burnt and with blood everywhere.”

There was no official death toll from the Kfar Aza kibbutz as of October 11, with Israeli soldiers still searching homes they suspect may be booby-trapped with explosives.

Shocking photos showed the ruins of burnt-out houses that oversaw streets scattered with dead residents and militants, torched cars and piles of broken furniture and other wreckage.

Outside one home, the body of a resident lay covered by a purple bed sheet with a bare foot protruding.

A pillow lay nearby with other kit from their everyday life.

One soldier shouted: “Tell the world what you saw here.”

Kfar Aza is likely to emerge as the scene of the biggest massacre of the war between Hamas and Israel.

The town was one of more than 15 that bore the brunt of the militant group’s horror blitz on October 7.

At least 1,000 Israelis were killed – while an estimated 150 soldiers, men, women, children and the elderly into captivity in Gaza.

Hamas plotted a careful campaign of deception to ensure Israel was caught off guard as it launched its horrendous assault.

The attack, the worst breach in Israel’s defences since Arab armies waged war in 1973, followed two years of subterfuge by Hamas that involved keeping its military plans under wraps.

Israel was led to believe it was containing Hamas by providing economic incentives to Gazan workers.

But all the while, the group’s fighters were being trained and drilled, according to a source close to Hamas told Reuters.

Israel concedes it was caught off guard by an attack timed to coincide with the Jewish Sabbath and a religious holiday.

Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli towns, killing 700 Israelis and abducting dozens.

Major Nir Dinar, spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces, said: “This is our 9/11. They got us.”