Hundreds of Hamas terrorists searched the kibbutz, knowing exactly where to go
Three days after Hamas’s barbaric attack on Israeli communities on the Gaza border, the Israeli government’s press office had already understood what its most important task was: to invite foreign journalists and photographers to the destroyed kibbutzim to describe the unspeakable and share it with the world tell you what exactly happened on October 7th. This morning, October 22nd, I took a tour of Kibbutz Be’eri.
Journalists from all over the world are crowded on the bus: from India, Russia, Ecuador, Great Britain, Azerbaijan, the Netherlands, Serbia, Turkey. We are all equipped with helmets and bulletproof vests. Without this equipment we cannot board.
As we approach the Gaza border, we notice that most of the cars passing by are either army vehicles loaded with equipment and ammunition or private cars driven by men in uniform. It’s both striking and frightening. There is also an impressive presence of Israeli flags, on cars, at the numerous police checkpoints set up every kilometer, on village fences.
We reach the entrance to Kibbutz Be’eri. We don’t have the feeling of entering a kibbutz, but rather a military camp. Tanks and military vehicles on all sides, numerous soldiers and volunteers from the Zaka Corpse Identification Unit are deployed in the area. No bus or car is allowed to enter without strict controls.
Kibbutz Be’eri was founded in 1946. Its residents have experienced a lot over the years: terrorist infiltrations, fires caused by Hamas fire kites, as well as systematic bombings during the various rounds of fighting between Palestinian terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and Israel.
But what happened here on this Saturday morning, the Jewish holiday of Simcha Torah, October 7th, was different… Hundreds of Hamas terrorists invaded the alleys of the kibbutz. They knew exactly where to go. Divided into squads, each group had its own mission and area of operations. One of them took over the kindergarten. He knew that daycares were designed to be emergency shelters, so he made them their headquarters.
Kibbutz Be’eri’s Amnon Garden and Tamar Kindergarten became Hamas’ local headquarters on October 7. Thirteen days later, dozens of journalists replaced them and interviewed 70-year-old resident Rami Gold, Israeli army spokesman and Zaka representative. In English, Gold explains that the kibbutz defense team fought the terrorists alone until the army arrived. As they fought, the terrorists moved from house to house, trying to break in and capture the people inside. They shot at buildings and set them on fire, forcing their coughing and gasping residents to come out and shoot them down.
IDF special forces were finally deployed to the scene on Saturday afternoon, October 7th. In a fierce battle that lasted until midday on October 9, they “cleared” the kibbutz of terrorists, including those who had barricaded themselves, some with Israeli civilians, who were released about 18 hours after the conflict began. At the end of this battle, 103 terrorists were eliminated.
On the evening of October 9, Zaka’s spokesman was able to announce in an inconclusive report that 108 residents of the kibbutz in the Gaza Strip had disappeared, been killed or taken hostage.
I walk among the huge bloodstains, among the ashes and rubble, within the walls of the destroyed kindergarten. I move from the library area to the play area, between the toys and the small kitchen. How much innocence and beauty was there before October 7th? I imagine the battle that took place here, the battles between terrorists and special forces of the Israeli army who came to liberate the kibbutz. I’m talking to a Chinese journalist. She works for her country’s state news agency and did not want to be named. I ask her how she feels when she sees the kibbutz being destroyed. “You know, in China you have to be careful. I need reported facts, facts, there is no room for emotions. “I would like to describe what I feel when I see these horrors, but they will remove these sentences from the article,” she explains to me.
There is a Turkish film crew next door, the photographer and the journalist have been here for a week. I ask the journalist whether she thinks her reporting here will influence public opinion. She answers me without hesitation: “No. The Turkish people do not support Hamas, but they support the Palestinian people, the Palestinian citizens, and that’s why I honestly don’t think my articles will change anything.”
The Arabs are here too, in this Tower of Babel. The Arab-American news channel Al Hora sent a team to Kibbutz Be’eri. And when I try to find out what the journalist thinks, he refuses to be interviewed, instead asking me to wait and listen to his live report. “We are in Be’eri, which was part of the October 7 attack, to bring you the dimensions of destruction and murder.
“We are talking about 1,400 Israelis dead, most of them within a few hours. This is the highest number of Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust in World War II. This is what horrifies Israelis and this is also what unites them.” against an enemy: Hamas and Islamic Jihad.” Then he turns to me: “I’m shocked, look, here people were in their Houses were burned alive; in other parts of the kibbutz, children were murdered in their beds. And I don’t care if some of my viewers don’t.” I don’t like what I’m saying. The visit is over. Loud explosions continue to be heard as Israel bombs the Gaza Strip. Executives at the government press office are calling on journalists and photographers to return to the buses. Rami Gold concludes another interview among the dozens he has already given today. “We will come back here,” he promises. “We’re going to rebuild this place.”
