They're burning us, we are suffocating: the last messages of slaughtered family

A FATHER warned “they’re here, they’re burning us, we’re suffocating” in his final message before he and five other members of his family were killed by Hamas militants.

- Robert Dex

Johnny Siman Tov, 36, sent a series of texts to his sister Ranae Butler as terrorists rampaged through the kibbutz where they lived on Saturday.

The 36-year-old Israeli-American was killed along with his wife Tamar Kedem-Simian Tov, 35; their three children aged between two and five, and his mother Carol Simian Tov, 70.

The family initially told friends in Australia they were safe as the Hamas gunmen descended on the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon, writing: “Hi guys, we got into the shelter in our house, we’re all going to OK.”

The texts stopped around an hour later after the final message was sent.

Around 80 people in the small community of 400 are thought to have died. Carol Simian Tov was shot dead in her own safe room having fled there with her dog. Two of her sons and two daughters survived the attack along with their father.