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Hamas Terror on Israel

C. Attack on kibbutz Be’eri

General information and timeline

Section titled “General information and timeline”

  1. Kibbutz Be’eri suffered one of the highest death tolls of all the villages, as a result of the 7 October attack: 105 residents of the kibbutz were killed by the military wings of Hamas military wing and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well as Palestinian civilians.1 The victims constituted almost 10 percent of the population of the kibbutz. In addition, 30 people were abducted from Be’eri and taken to the Gaza Strip.2 A least 57 structures in the kibbutz were destroyed or sustained damage, amounting to more than one third of all residential buildings.

  2. According to security camera footages, the attack on kibbutz Be’eri started at around 06:55 on 7 October, when two members of the military wing of Hamas approached the main entrance of the kibbutz. Unable to open the yellow security gate, they awaited the arrival of a local car. At 06:57, a blue Mazda approached the gate. The militants then shot and killed the three men inside the car and entered through the open gate. The Commission verified that the three men who were killed at the gate had escaped from the Nova festival intending to seek refuge in the kibbutz. At approximately 07:35, some 60 armed Hamas militants gathered near the Be’eri Crater Reserve, approximately 2.5 kilometers from the kibbutz, and headed in a convoy of motorbikes and pick-up trucks towards the kibbutz. Shortly after, on road 232, the convoy was joined by a Toyota pick-up truck carrying some eight to ten militants. According to the analysis of the evidence collected by the Commission, the militants entered the kibbutz through at least three different points.

  3. In total, the Commission estimates that from 70 to 150 members of Palestinian armed groups and armed and unarmed Palestinian civilians attacked kibbutz Be’eri that day. By 14:30 on 7 October, the attackers were effectively controlling the kibbutz. At 22:00 on 8 October, Israeli Security Forces announced that they were in control of the kibbutz while the full elimination of all militants was reported in the afternoon of 9 October.

Killing and causing bodily harm

Section titled “Killing and causing bodily harm”

  1. Once attackers entered the kibbutz, they proceeded to shoot at residents, cars, pets and houses. From 08:30 onwards, they systematically moved from house to house,entering by force, killing and injuring many residents and abducting others to Gaza. Since most of the residents had been hiding in safe-rooms, attackers blasted and shot at doors and used hand-grenades and other means to set houses on fire, all in an attempt to force people to leave their safe rooms.

  2. The victims of the attack on Be’eri included at least 42 women, 10 children and 45 older persons (aged over 65).3 The youngest victim was Mila Cohen a 9-month-old baby, while the oldest victim was 88-year-old Hana Kritzman. Sixteen families lost two or more family members as a result of the attack.4

  3. In one incident investigated by the Commission, members of three generations of the Cohen family were killed by members of armed groups and other people from Gaza, including 73-year-old Yona Cohen, her 43-year-old son Ohad Cohen and his 9- month-old daughter Mila. Ohad’s wife and their two other sons survived the attack. At the onset of the attack, the family hid in the safe room of their house. At 11:47, Ohad texted to his cousin that militants were massacring residents and burning homes. By this time, Ohad’s mother, Yona Cohen, had already been killed by the gunmen in her house located in the western part of the kibbutz. The Commission assesses that at approximately 12:50 militants broke into the safe room, shot and killed baby Mila Cohen, who was held in her mother’s arms, and shot and killed Ohad Cohen. Attackers then captured Ohad’s wife and their two sons and brought them to the back gate of the kibbutz, where they encountered Israeli Security Forces’ firing in their direction. All three were seriously injured in the crossfire but survived.

  4. In another incident investigated by the Commission, three members of the Sharabi family, mother Lianne and daughters 16-year-old Nova and 13-year-old Yahel were killed by members of armed groups, while father Eli was abducted to Gaza. Eli’s brother Yossi, residing in an adjacent house, was also abducted to Gaza where he was killed in captivity. On 9 February 2024, Israeli Security Forces released the results of an internal investigation, where it concluded that Yossi Sharabi was likely killed as a result of the Israeli Air Force strike on a building, which caused the collapse of the nearby structure where he was held.

  5. In another incident investigated by the Commission, four of the six members of the Even family were killed by members of armed groups: mother Rinat Segev-Even, father Chen Even and their sons 16 -year-old Alon and 14-year-old Ido. Two remaining sons, 11 and 8 years old, survived the attack. According to the Commission’s investigation, the family had been hiding in the safe room of their home in the Vineyard neighborhood when at around midday, militants set their house on fire. The parents decided to take their children and jump out of the window of the second floor of the house. They landed safely and hid under the trees lining the perimeter of their house. At few hours later, militants located them and shot and killed the parents and the two older sons. The two youngest sons hid under their parents’ and brothers’ bodies and survived.

  6. Some Be’eri residents were also killed by militants while being abducted to Gaza. In one incident investigated by the Commission, at around 10:30 , five Israeli civilians were taken barefoot from their homes along the road separating the Vineyard and Olives neighborhoods of the kibbutz. Four of the five are seemingly dead in another video filmed sometime between 10:30 and 11:00, with their bodies located close to the kibbutz perimeter fence.

Abduction

Section titled “Abduction”

  1. Thirty Israeli civilians were abducted from kibbutz Be’eri to the Gaza Strip by members of the military wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well as armed and unarmed civilians from Gaza. 5 Nine women and ten children fromBe’eri were released from captivity during the temporary ceasefire and exchange between Hamas and Israel from 24 to 30 November 2023.6 Six abductees from Be’eri have died or were killed in captivity by Israeli Security Forces and Palestinian armed groups, including two women and two older persons.

  2. In one abduction case, a 57-year-old Be’eri woman was captured by Palestinian militants and unarmed civilians from Gaza and forcibly taken to Gaza. In a video verified by the Commission she is seen barefoot and forcibly led by unarmed men in civilian clothes. She is surrounded by four unarmed men in civilian clothes, walking and cycling. In the video, the abductors call her “dog” while passing by another armed militant waiting on the other side of the fence.

  3. Throughout the day, Palestinian militants and civilians from Gaza also took Israeli bodies and transported them to Gaza, to be used in future prisoner release negotiations. In one such example, at 10:33, two Palestinian men in civilian clothes approached the body of Yonatan Samarno, who had been shot in a vehicle at the entrance of the kibbutz earlier that day (see para 35 above), loaded him into a white SUV and left the kibbutz to Gaza.

Destruction of property

Section titled “Destruction of property”
  1. According to satellite imagery analysis carried out by the Commission, kibbutz Be’eri sustained 26 structures completely destroyed, four severely damaged and 27 moderately damaged. This corresponds to around 34 percent of the total structures in the kibbutz. The Vineyard and Olives neighbourhoods experienced the most significant damage, with 16 destroyed and damaged structures in the Vineyard neighbourhood and 12 destroyed and damaged structures in the Olives neighborhood.

Source

Footnotes

Section titled “Footnotes”

  1. https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/swords-of-iron-civilian-casualties; https://oct7map.com ↩

  2. https://govextra.gov.il/media/qxpetcbv/isra%C3%ABl-hostages-bring-them-home-october-24-english.pdf ↩

  3. https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/swords-of-iron-civilian-casualties; https://oct7map.com. ↩

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

  5. https://govextra.gov.il/media/qxpetcbv/isra%C3%ABl-hostages-bring-them-home-october-24-english.pdf ↩

  6. https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/return-of-hostages-24-nov-2023 ↩