The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday released the results of an investigation into the Hamas massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, finding that the army failed to protect civilians and that armed civilians intervened.
Breitbart News was one of the first media outlets granted access to Kibbutz Be’eri a few days after the attack, reporting:
Buildings blown apart. Walls and houses riddled with bullet holes. Blood stains, broken glass. Spent shell casings. Crushed bicycles. A kindergarten with a gaping hole from a rocket-propelled grenade.
This is a scene in one of the communities hardest hit by Palestinian terrorists on October 7th.
On this collective farm, located a few kilometers from the Gaza border, 108 of the approximately 1,100 residents were brutally murdered, resulting in the loss of 10 percent of the kibbutz’s population.
…
Kibbutz resident Rami Gold, 70, recounted how he and about 10 neighbors fought 120 Hamas terrorists for several hours until the last bullet, when Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) patrols arrived to take over the ammunition.
Joel B. Pollack/Breitbart News
An investigation by independent IDF officers not involved in the operation found that the military failed to defend Be’eri for a number of reasons. First, the IDF had trained for single terrorist incursions and had not anticipated a divisional invasion. Second, Hamas positions along the access road massacred soldiers who arrived on the scene to relieve the kibbutz’s defenders. Furthermore, when the soldiers finally reached the kibbutz, they were unaware of the scale of the massacre taking place just inside its gates, and spent hours outside waiting for orders.
Beeri, Israel, October 25, 2023. Destruction caused when Hamas fighters entered the Beeri kibbutz, near the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel, on October 25, 2023. (Photo by Dima Vazinovic/Middle EastImages/Middle EastImages via AFP) (Photo by Dima Vazinovic/Middle EastImages/AFP via Getty Images)
However, many soldiers rushed to the scene of the fire, as well as armed civilians from the kibbutz security forces, and an IDF investigation praised the latter for their bravery.
IDF spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari Said:
The conclusion of the investigation is clear: October 7 was one of the most difficult days since the founding of the State of Israel. The IDF failed in its mission to protect the residents of Kibbutz Be’eri. It pains me to say this. The IDF was supposed to protect the residents of Kibbutz Be’eri, but unfortunately we were not present for hours of fighting, when the residents of Be’eri stood alone against terrorists for hours, risking their lives to protect their families.
Thanks to the extraordinary heroism and resourcefulness of the kibbutz residents, a defensive line was stabilized within the first hours of the fighting and prevented the terrorist attacks from spreading to other areas of the kibbutz. Alongside the Rapid Response Team, the Community Emergency Team also performed heroic actions, guiding forces, assessing the operational situation and providing support to the residents.
In one controversial incident, when Israeli tanks shelled a house where Hamas terrorists were holding 14 hostages, the army concluded that it had acted professionally and only opened fire as a last resort. Only one hostage survived.
The IDF recommended that troops should now be trained to immediately attack terrorist threats rather than waiting for orders, and that injured civilians should be evacuated before wounded soldiers.
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday The show airs Sunday nights from 7 to 10 p.m. (4 to 7 p.m. ET) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of “Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” which is available for preorder on Amazon. He also wrote,The Trump Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency” is available on Audible. He is the 2018 recipient of the Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter. Joel Pollack.
