K. Attacs and impact on older people

190. The Commission estimates that at least 130¹ older people ² were killed in the 7 October attack on Israel. ³

191. One attack on older people took place at a bus-stop in Sderot, where militants killed 13 civilians, including eight persons over the age of 65, shortly after 06:53 on 7 October. According to information documented by the Commission, a group of retired older people from Ofakim, Netivot and Sderot were traveling to the Dead Sea when the driver of their minivan stopped at a bus-stop in front of the public library of Sderot to change a flat tyre shortly before 06:30. Images taken by members of the group before the attack, verified by the Commission, show them waiting next to the bus-stop. In one image, members of the group are seen looking up at the sky, while in another image one member of the group stands in front of a locked public shelter. According to the time stamp of the images, they were taken at 06:53, after the sirens and rocket attack had started. The group reportedly tried to access a public shelter next to the bus-stop but found that it was locked. Militants arrived at the location in pick-up trucks and shot and killed almost all members of the group. Only the driver of the minibus survived and one other person who had reportedly hitched a ride with the minibus earlier in the morning. Additionally, two children passing by were reportedly injured by bullets.

192. An eyewitness to the attack shared his account with Israeli media. The witness, a volunteer with the police, stated that he saw a group of older persons standing next to the bus-stop trying to enter the public shelter and calling for help. He tried to help them open the shelter but failed. He then saw a pick-up truck approaching, shooting in their direction. He started returning fire but noted that he only had 15 bullets in his gun and wanted to keep some bullets in case he was abducted and had to shoot himself. He then escaped the scene in order to hide. Another witness stated in video testimony to Israeli media that she saw the attack at the bus-stop with her son from the window of her house, situated opposite. They heard shooting and then people screaming for help. They went out and saw many bodies strewn on the pavement and the road. A third witness spoke to an Israeli news channel and stated that he saw the scene after the attack. He particularly recollected that many mobile phones were ringing in the background.

193. The Commission documented and verified several photos and videos of the aftermath of the attack. In the images, several bodies are seen lying on the footpath. In one photo the minibus is parked in front of the bus-stop and two bodies are visible in front of the minibus, lying on the ground. Another image shows at least three bodies in front of the locked shelter. Another short video shows four bodies on a patch of grass, at the side of the shelter.

194. The Commission found that older people constituted a large proportion of the victims of the attacks on kibbutzim Be’eri and Nir Oz. Of the 46 people killed in Nir Oz, 17 were over the age of 65, almost half of all civilians killed in the kibbutz. Additionally, 21 of the 72 hostages abducted from Nir Oz were people over the age of 65, one third of the hostages abducted from Nir Oz. Of the 105 people killed in Be’eri, 45 were over the age of 65, almost half of all the victims.⁴

195. The Commission observes that the attacks on Israeli civilian villages and towns have a cascading effect on the mental and physical health of surviving older people. In February 2024, families from kibbutzim Nir Oz, Nirim, Nir Yitzhak and Magen shared with an Israeli news site the stories of elderly relatives who died soon after the 7 October attack, unable to cope with the destruction of their communities and their forced displacement, mourning for their killed friends and experiencing general trauma.

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Sources

Footnotes

1. https://www.gov.il/en/pages/swords-of-iron-civilian-casualties# The Commission defines older people as those over the age of 65 in accordance with the definition used by the Special Rapporteur on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons. See ↩

2. https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/ie-older-persons/about-human-rights-older-persons ↩

3. This estimation is based on data from Nir Oz, Be’eri and Sderot. Official Israeli government data defines older people as those over the age of 80, and notes that “25 elderly civilians aged 80 and over were murdered”. See https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/swords-of-iron-war-in-the-south-7-oct-2023 ↩

4. https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/swords-of-iron-civilian-casualties ↩