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Hamas Terror on Israel

J. Attacs and impact on children

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  1. According to Israeli sources, 40 Israeli children (including at least 23 boys and 15 girls) were killed and hundreds more were wounded during the 7 October attack on Israel. Of the children killed, three were under three years old; four were between the ages of three and six; 10 were between the ages of six and 14 and 21 were between the ages of 14-18.1 Children were killed in civilian villages and towns, particularly in Be’eri, Nir Oz, Zikim beach and Kfar Aza. In several cases children were subjected to witnessing the killing of their family members. Thirty-six children (14 boys and 22 girls) were abducted to Gaza, 10 of whom were abducted alone, without parents or other family members. Thirty-four of them were released in November 2023. Twenty children lost both their parents on 7 October and 96 children lost one parent.

  2. In its investigation, the Commission focused on several egregious cases, including those in which entire families including children were killed, the killing of multiple generations including children, and cases where children were separated from their families. In one case investigated by the Commission, militants used an Israeli boy to lure his neighbours to open their houses. The boy was later killed.2

  3. The Commission notes that the harm inflicted on children extended far beyond the day of the attack itself and beyond those harmed directly. Children who were evacuated from the Israeli border area near Gaza have spent months in temporary housing and hotels, away from their communities, schools and support systems. Additionally, child survivors and other children and teenagers in Israel and elsewhere have been reportedly exposed to videos of the acts committed on 7 October which were readily available online. On 9 November 2023, the Israeli Department for the Protection of Children on the Internet , part of the Department for National Security, issued a statement to the public, calling on families to restrict children’s access to the internet and providing guidelines on how to speak to children who have seen the footage.3

  4. An Israeli psychologist, Dr. Yuval Sa’ar-Himan, from the Department of Social Work at Ben Gurion University, summarised the post 7 October situation for surviving children, noting: “There is a horror here like no other. In Otef Aza everyone was helpless. The children experienced their parents as unable to protect them. It’s a unique trauma in its intensity.” A survey by Goshen Association in December 2023 found that 83 percent of all children in Israel and 93 percent of children who were evacuated from their homes were suffering from mental and other distress after 7 October.

Killing and maiming

Section titled “Killing and maiming”

  1. Six members of three generations of the Israeli-American Siman Tov family were killed by militants during the attack on kibbutz Nir Oz, including three children: six-year-old twin daughters, Shahar and Arbel, and four-year-old boy, Omer. Parents Yonatan and Tamar were hiding with their three children in the shelter in their home in the early hours of 7 October. At 09:47, Tamar reportedly wrote in the WhatsApp group of Nir Oz mothers: “I’ve been shot. I’m wounded.” This was the last message received from her. Later at an unidentified time, Yonatan texted to his sister saying: “They’re here. They’re burning us. We’re suffocating.” Reports indicate that the militants had shot through the door of the safe room and then set the house on fire. Both Tamar and Yonatan sustained gunshot wounds and died from the loss of blood, while their three children suffocated to death from the smoke. Yonatan’s mother, Carol Siman Tov, was shot to death in her own safe room in a different house in the kibbutz. It reportedly took Israeli authorities a week and a half to identify the bodies of the children.

  2. Three siblings from kibbutz Kfar Aza survived the attack and witnessed their parents being murdered by militants, leading the two eldest children to hide in a closet for 14 hours while the youngerst child, just three years old at the time, was abducted to Gaza. During the early morning hours of 7 October, father Roy Idan, a photographer for the Israeli media publication Ynet, left his home to go to the outskirts of the kibbutz where he photographed Hamas hang-gliders entering Israel and landing near the kibbutz. Roy returned home, reportedly after being notified that his wife Smadar had been shot, and he was met by his three children outside the home. He picked up his youngest daughter in his arms. Moments later, he was shot and killed and his daughter fell to the ground. Smadar’s sister stated in a media interview that at this point, one of the militants signaled to the children to run away. Immediately after, the two oldest children ran back inside the home to hide in the safe room, sure that their little sister was also dead. At the same time, the three-year-old girl extracted herself from under her father’s body and ran across the kibbutz to find refuge.

  3. The two older siblings hid in a closet and waited 14 hours in the dark safe room, without food and water, until they were found and rescued by Israeli Security Forces. Their mother’s body was in the same safe room. The children are heard in a recording released by Israeli Security Forces telling the forces “They killed our mummy and daddy”, as they are evacuated. Their three-year-old sister had run to a neighbouring house and was abducted to Gaza with another family. She was released in November 2023 as part of the hostage release agreement.

  4. Two members of the Bachar family in Be’eri, mother Dana Bachar and her 15- year-old son Carmel Bachar, were killed by militants during the attack. The father and 13-year-old daughter survived the attack. According to the father’s testimony, the family entered their safe room shortly after hearing the rocket siren begin. When militants entered the home and started shooting at the safe-room’s door, father and son held the door shut from the other side. After a short while, the militants shot a round at the door with automatic weapons and Carmel’s hands were blown off. Militants told the father again and again to open the door and he said, “It’s all children here - go away”.

  5. The father was then hit by gunfire himself and sustained wounds in both legs and his arm. After that, heavy smoke started entering the room through the gunshot holes in the door and the family realised that militants had set their house on fire. The family then soaked towels in urine and held them to their faces so they could breathe through the smoke. Militants tried to shoot through the window and, following the use of an explosive device, managed to create a hole through which they threw in three grenades. Two grenades exploded and one did not. The 13-old-daughter noted that, immediately after that, militants shot into the room with a Kalashnikov and one of the bullets hit her mother. For a while after that the three who had been shot went in and out of consciousness. At a certain point the daughter realised that her mother was not breathing anymore. Carmel died from blood-loss at around 17:00. In his last words to his father, he said that he wanted to be buried with his surfboard. Following Carmel’s death, the father told his daughter, “leave him now, we focus on whoever is alive”.

  6. According to his testimony, Israeli tanks started arriving in the kibbutz at around 18:30 and shot at shelters to kill the militants hiding inside. The father stated that at 19:30 he heard Hebrew next to the window. A soldier from the Army’s Yahalom unit inserted his rifle through the window with a flashlight and said, “there was a massacre in this shelter”. The two surviving members of the family were then extracted and evacuated to the hospital, where one of the father’s legs was amputated.

  7. In kibbutz Holit, two siblings aged four and four months respectively witnessed the murder of their mother, Adi Kaplon Vital, by Hamas militants. Adi’s surviving spouse, who was not at home at the time, stated in a media interview that Adi called him in the morning hours and asked for advice on how to use the M16 rifle that was locked in their safe. She reportedly then managed to use the rifle to kill one militant who had entered her home.

  8. At some point during the attack, likely after Adi was killed, a militant, wearing a green band distinctive of al-Qassam Brigades, was filmed holding the children in his arms and saying, “look at the mercy in our hearts. Here are the children, we didn’t kill them.” The video was then uploaded on the official Hamas military wing telegram channel.

  9. At 13:30 militants stormed the house of Adi’s neighbour, carrying the two children in their arms. The militants then took the neighbor with the children and started walking with them towards Gaza. One militant held one child and the neighbor held the other. Around one kilometre before a tunnel entrance, when the houses of Gaza were clearly visible, the militants let her and the children go, and she returned to Israel with the children. Adi’s body was found on 10 October under a blanket on a bed in the safe room Her body was reportedly booby trapped but the Commission has not been able to confirm this.

  10. The Commission documented a case in which militants used an Israeli child to lure families out of their shelters. 17-year-old Tomer Arava, his mother Dikla Arava, Dikla’s partner Noam Elyakim and his two daughters aged 15 and eight years old were hiding in their shelter in their home in kibbutz Nahal Oz when militants entered the house on the morning of 7 October. The elder daughter stated in a media interview that her father Noam had told the three children to hide under the bed in one of the rooms and be quiet. Hamas militants then entered the house and started shooting and one bullet hit Noam’s leg. They then pulled the three children out from under the bed. Sometime between 10:00 and 10:30, Dikla’s relatives and friends started seeing a live broadcast feed on her facebook account filmed from inside the home.

  11. The Commission viewed the 08:07 minute video which shows that at least four Hamas militants entered the home. All three children appear to be terrified throughout the video. At the start of the video, Noam has a visible gunshot wound to his leg. Hamas militants tell Noam, “Talk to your country, tell them we are in Nahal Oz. Tell them that the al-Qassam Brigades are here.” Noam then speaks to the camera, saying that he had been shot and that they were there with the girls. The militants then ask about the family car. One militant then says to another, “I am going to take the car so we can take them”.

  12. In another shot, one Hamas military wing member states, “we will not hurt the child”. The militants then take Tomer out to use him to lure more families out of their safe rooms. They tell Dikla, “we will not shoot him”.

  13. In a subsequent shot, Tomer is seen walking barefoot outside, surrounded by Hamas military wing members, one of whom says to him, “you are a child, not a baby”, signifying that the attackers clearly understood that Tomer was a child. Tomer is then seen yelling in Hebrew outside other kibbutz homes, “come out, come out” and “come out, they won’t shoot you”. Nothing more is seen of Tomer after this.

  14. The sisters were abducted to Gaza and released in November 2023 under the hostage release agreement. At 11:45 on 7 October, a first photo of the two in Gaza was published online. The girls are seen sitting on a mattress, dressed in pyjamas, in what looks like a family home. The eldest sister stated in a media interview after she was released from captivity that, after Tomer was taken away, she was taken from the house with Dikla, Noam and her younger sister. The four were driven in the family’s car towards Gaza. At some point, the car was shot at by other militants who thought they were Israelis trying to escape. Dikla was hit from the shooting and died on the spot. The militants then switched cars, placing her and her younger sister in another car and leaving Noam and the body of Dikla behind in the old car. She confirmed that, when they left the car, Noam was wounded but still alive.

  15. In another video shot after the attack on the home and published on Telegram, Noam is seen limping barefoot near what appears to be a kibbutz cowshed. He is supported on each side by militants wearing combat vests.

  16. Tomer, Dikla and Noam were killed that day, yet it took some time for the family to receive the notification. The family was notified on 15 October that Dikla had been killed and on 16 October that Tomer had been killed. The two were buried together. At the time of their funeral the family believed that Noam had been abducted and were only notified on 17 October that Noam had also been killed. The Commission could not confirm the circumstances in which Tomer and Noam were killed or any additional details on the state of their bodies and where they were found.

  17. In all the cases investigated by the Commission, children were killed as part of the general attacks on communities, families and homes. The militants attacked with full knowledge that children were present and would be killed and injured, physically and psychologically. In at least one incident, a father told militants to stop the attack since there were children in the room and they proceeded anyway.4 In other incidents, militants entered homes and proceeded with attacks although they knew children were present.

  18. The Commission documented several statements by Hamas militants that they do not harm children, for example in the video of the young children in kibbutz Holit (see para 179 above), yet found that children were harmed and instrumentalized by members of the military wing of Hamas and other armed groups with the intent of achieving specific political or strategic gains. Although proportionally fewer children were killed on 7 October in comparison to other age groups (children represented approximately five percent of civilians killed), the Commission cannot conclude whether this was a result of a specific instruction or policy. Additionally, in the majority of cases where children were killed, the Commission could not definitively confirm whether they were killed by Hamas or another Palestinian armed group. In many cases documented by the Commission, children were removed from the protection and care of their parents and put in highly vulnerable situations with little ability to understand the situation or voice objection, including in situations where they were filmed for propaganda purposes.

Sources

Footnotes

Section titled “Footnotes”

  1. https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/swords-of-iron-war-in-the-south-7-oct-2023. ↩

  2. See paras 181-187. ↩

  3. https://www.gov.il/he/departments/news/warning_105 ↩

  4. See para 175. ↩