An Israeli-American teen suffered through life-shattering agony when Hamas terrorists stormed his home, murdered his parents, and forced him to play dead to survive the brutal raid.
Last Saturday, Hamas militants blitzed a kibbutz in southern Israel near the border with Gaza – one of many attacks that ignited the war between Israel and Palestine. From a hospital bed in the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva, Rotem Mathias recalled the real-life nightmare he experienced as he desperately did everything in his power to escape the murderous clutches of the Hamas extremists.
Mathias said after being alerted to the invasion, his family barricaded themselves in their home by putting mattresses and tables in front of the door. However, Hamas militants shot open the door.
Rotem's parents, Shlomi and Deborah Mathias, were murdered right in front of him. Shlomi Mathias reportedly had his arm blown off by a grenade and Debbie Mathias was shot dead by the invaders. The bullet that killed Debbie traveled through her body and hit Rotem in the stomach.
Mathias told ABC News, "They throw a grenade or something that exploded. The last thing my dad said is he lost his arm and then my mom died on top of me."
There was nowhere to run, so the 16-year-old Israeli-American citizen played dead and prayed that the bloodthirsty terrorists wouldn't find him. As the militants surveyed the dead bodies, Mathias said some of them were laughing.
"I just stopped my breathing, I lowered it down as much as I possibly could," Mathias explained. "I didn't move. I was terrified. I didn't make any noise. And I prayed for any god – I didn't really care which god – I just prayed for a god that they won't find me."
With his dead mother's corpse on top of him, Mathias played dead for about 30 minutes. Once the Hamas terrorists left his home, Mathias hid under a bed and later scurried to a laundry room to hide under a blanket, relatives told the Associated Press.
Eventually, Mathias was rescued by Israeli soldiers.
Meanwhile, the Mathiases' two daughters were hiding in safe rooms in the kibbutz – not far from where their parents were killed.
"All we could hear were gunshots and people screaming and bombs going off, cars exploding," 21-year-old Shir Mathias remembered.
Before she was murdered, the mother told her daughters not to open the door of the safe rooms because Hamas terrorists had infiltrated the kibbutz. The daughters allegedly hid in the safe rooms for more than 12 hours before being rescued by IDF soldiers.
"I packed up a bag as quietly as I could, and I ran to my sister’s apartment and I knocked at her door. She thought I was a terrorist. I called out her name and she opened up," 19-year-old Shakked Mathias said. "From that point on, we were together. And the first thing I asked her, 'Do you think ... Mom and Dad are dead? Do you think our brother is OK?'"
Shakked told the AP, "It’s like if you close your eyes, you might think you’re in a movie theater. Then you open your eyes and you realize: I’m in my room. I’m in my house. This is real. We could hear missiles flying down. We could hear them whistle and explode. It was insane. I’ve never heard anything like this. It was terrifying."
The deadly attack allegedly came just hours after the family had gathered for a festive get-together with live music performed by the parents. Shlomi Mathias was a music teacher, and Debbie Mathias was a singer and songwriter.
Just hours before her parents were slain, Shir Mathias recalled, "Before I went to my house, mom said, 'Bye. Have fun tomorrow.' I was like, 'Thank you, I love you.' I gave her a hug and gave my dad a hug."
More than 1,300 Israelis have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, and over 1,300 Palestinians have died in Gaza from the conflict.
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A senior Kremlin official indicated this week that any effort to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin would amount to an act of war and warrant a blizzard of missile strikes.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia's security council, made the threat repeatedly in response to the International Criminal Court's issuance of an arrest warrant for Putin last week for war crimes.
The ICC issued warrants of arrest on March 17 for Putin and for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Russian president's commissioner for children's rights. Both individuals are accused of the war crime of unlawfully deporting children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation and are believed to bear individual criminal responsibility.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan suggested that these acts "demonstrate an intention to permanently remove these children from their own country."
One hundred twenty-three countries have signed on to the Rome Statute and are therefore legally bound to implement the decisions of the ICC, based in the the Hague in the Netherlands.
The U.S., China, India, and Russia are not among the ICC's 123 member states.
In addition to not being party to the Rome Statute, the U.S. has a Bush-era law on the books authorizing the use of military force to liberate any American or citizen of a U.S.-allied country being held by the Hague.
Ireland, among the nations obliged to enforce the warrant, has confirmed that it would arrest the Russian president in the unlikely event he sets foot on the island. Canada and Germany similarly welcomed the ICC's decision.
Not all signatories will respect the warrant, however. While his nation signed the statute in 1999, Hungarian Cabinet Minister Gergely Gulyas indicated that the arrest warrant is not binding in his nation.
The ICC's decision to indict Putin came nearly one year after the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution condemning Putin as a war criminal.
Reuters reported that the resolution, introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), implored the ICC to follow suit.
Sudan's former President Omar al-Bashir and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi were the only other leaders indicted by the ICC while still in power.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, suggested on Twitter that Putin's status as an accused war criminal means there will be no further negotiations with the current Russian elite; no return of the Russian Federation to world politics in its prewar status; and no lifting of sanctions so long as the "face of Putin" represents Russia.
In a video posted to Telegram on Wednesday, Medvedev said, "Let's imagine — obviously this situation which will never be realized — but nevertheless let's imagine that it was realized: The current head of the nuclear state went to a territory, say Germany, and was arrested," reported DW.
"What would that be? It would be a declaration of war on the Russian Federation," said Medvedev. "And, in that case, all our assets — all our missiles etc. — would fly to the Bundestag, to the chancellor's office."
Medvedev issued a similar threat on Twitter Friday, stating Putin's arrest in Germany, for instance, would be "casus belli, the unequivocal declaration of war against the Russian Federation! In that case, Russia would be forced to attack Berlin, and its means of destruction will rain on the Bundestag, the Chancellery, the Ministry of Defense and other key centres of decision-making. Mr. Scholz has picked himself a truly great team! Poor Germans …"
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Days earlier, Medvedev intimated that the Hague could be on the receiving end of hypersonic missiles should the Russian president be arrested.
"I’m afraid, gentlemen, everyone is answerable to God and missiles," the security official wrote on Telegram. "It’s quite possible to imagine how a hypersonic Oniks fired from a Russian warship in the North Sea strikes the court building in the Hague. It can’t be shot down, I’m afraid."
The ICC condemned Medvedev's threats, stating, "The Presidency of the Assembly regrets these attempts to hinder international efforts to ensure accountability for acts that are prohibited under general international law."
DW reported that Russia has opened its own criminal investigation into the ICC's Karim Khan. Putin's Investigative Committee alleges Khan possibly ran afoul of Russian law, accusing an innocent person of a crime and "preparing an attack on a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection, in order to complicate international relations."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!A Ukrainian woman was raped by a Russian soldier in front of her child, according to a lawmaker who said Ukraine will "not be silent" about crimes committed during Russia's invasion of her country.
Member of Parliament Maria Mezentseva said in a TV interview that the alleged war crime took place in Brovary, an eastern suburb of Kyiv, the Guardian reported. She told the U.K.'s Sky News that the victim's husband was shot dead in his house before the alleged assault.
“There is one case which was very widely discussed recently because it’s been recorded and proceeded with [by] the prosecutor’s office, and we’re not going into details, but it’s quite a scary scene when a civilian was shot dead in his house in a small town next to Kyiv," Mezentseva said.
“His wife was – I’m sorry but I have to say it – raped several times in front of her underage child.”
According to the Guardian, the Russian soldier is believed to have threatened the child after the attack.
Ukrainian prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova has confirmed the alleged attack was reported to authorities and said Wednesday that an arrest warrant has been issued for the soldier.
Mezentseva, who serves as the head of Ukraine's permanent delegation to the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, said that war crimes committed during the invasion must be recorded. "Justice has to prevail," she said.
She added that sexual assault cases were being underreported.
“There are many more victims rather than just this one case which has been made public by the prosecutor general,” she said. “And of course, we are expecting many more of them, which will be public once victims will be ready to talk about that.
“That’s why you know, when we’ve been talking to Boris Johnson, when we will be talking to your Home Office, when we’ve been talking to MPs of UK, we’ve also raised this issue that this aftermath, which we are dealing with right now, the aftermath of war, has to be taken very cautiously, very seriously, and to take into account the UK experience and experience of other countries, which can help us in dealing with psychologists, and how to help these people to actually live over these cases, to keep going afterwards, to keep living.”
"We will definitely not be silent," she added.
There have been previous reports of sexual assaults committed by Russian soldiers, which is considered a war crime and violation of international humanitarian law.
Earlier in March, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba alleged there were "numerous cases" of Russian soldiers raping women in Ukraine. Another Ukrainian lawmaker, Lesia Vasylenko, said officials had reports of "women being gang-raped," including "senior citizens," and that "most of these women have either been executed after the crime of rape or they have taken their own lives."
While rape is common in times of war, sexual assaults are difficult to prove, and accusations of rape have been used as a powerful propaganda tool to rally opposition to the enemy.
The U.S. government determined last week that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine, after a "careful review" of public and intelligence sources transmitting news from the war.
“We’ve seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities. Russia’s forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
As casualties rise in Gaza, and Hamas continues to use human shields, what should international law actually require of Israel?
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