Israeli soldiers said dozens of civilians were killed by Hamas commandos on Saturday. These include “women, children, small children and the elderly.”
“War crimes”, “massacre”, “slaughter”… Since the Hamas attack on Israel on Saturday October 7th, the number of victims of the war between Israel and Hamas continues to rise at a dizzying rate, with thousands dead in total five days after the surprise attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement from Gaza.
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According to an Israeli army spokesman, more than 1,200 people were killed in Israel. According to NGOs, more than 200 people were killed in two kibbutzim in southern Israel, near Gaza, in Kfar Aza and Be’eri. Franceinfo takes stock of our knowledge.
In Be’eri, commandos go from house to house
At dawn on Saturday, several dozen Hamas terrorists – 70 according to the Israeli army – stormed the Be’eri kibbutz, four kilometers from the Gaza Strip. According to a report by several Israeli NGOs, confirmed by the international editorial team of Radio France, the Hamas terrorist attack caused more than 100 deaths in this village alone, the largest kibbutz near Gaza, which had 1,200 inhabitants before the attack.
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The residents were woken up by shots and the sounds of explosions: the attackers went from house to house, executing civilians, some of them still in their beds, with automatic weapons and setting fire. Many corpses, many seriously injured and many missing people, including a young 18-year-old woman who was probably taken hostage, described the first aid provided by the international editorial team of Radio France.
On the occasion of the Sukkot holiday, families gathered for hours: some had time to seek refuge in the “Mamad”, these safe rooms in the houses, but which were intended more for emergencies. Arugula, widespread in the region. Barricaded, survivors said they waited for hours in a cramped room in the dark. Li-el Fishbein, 25, said he heard shots and smelled burning for the first time: the explosions had lasted for many hours. He states that he saw hooded terrorists, among them young silhouettes and behind the hoods the eyes of young people.
Locked up with his mother and grandmother, with no electricity and no water, Le-il admits to seeing his “94-year-old grandmother doing her business in a bag” in a “tiny and airless” room. After 22 hours of waiting, Israeli soldiers arrived and freed the young man and his family.
In Kfar Aza the question of “killed babies”
Kfar Aza: The name of this other kibbutz has been the focus of concern since Tuesday afternoon, October 10th. But what really happened there? “It’s not a battlefield. It is a massacre,” Major General Itai Veruv said before journalists entered Kfar Aza, which was attacked by Hamas commandos on Saturday.
Because in order to better understand the horror discovered in Kfar Aza, the conditions of this visit must be specified: The IDF contacted several media outlets and offered to visit the site. Not all media were invited. The reporters present on site often belong to very reputable newsrooms, such as CNN, Agence France Presse or Le Monde. The visit therefore took place under Israeli military escort, 1,800 meters from the security barrier intended to prevent any intrusion from the Gaza Strip.
Journalists on the ground noted that, as in Bee’ri, entire families, including children, were shot in their small houses and others were burned. Some say at least 100 civilians were killed in this village of about 800 residents. Several dozen bodies of Hamas fighters were also found. And some media outlets report scenes of horror: couples killed in their sleep, massive blood stains in living rooms or bedrooms, bloodstained children’s beds and babies killed, some of them decapitated. However, this is information that cannot be verified at the moment: these are journalists from the channel I24News who will provide the information in French and English through their broadcasts on Tuesday October 10th. Visibly shocked, the reporters spoke live on television about the deaths of around “forty children and babies” and spoke of “beheadings”. These videos were immediately picked up on social networks and shared widely.
However, the Israeli army officers present on site, including Major General Itai Veruv, do not specifically mention multiple cases or children. They also remained inaccurate regarding the total number of victims.
This is confirmed by Samuel Forey, correspondent for Le Monde, who was at the scene: in an interview with franceinfo, he confirms that the bodies of the terrorists were uncovered on the ground, while the bodies of the Israelis were in body bags that were always closed. They were not summarized in a single point, making accurate assessment difficult for observers. According to an AFP report, “several Israeli soldiers interviewed reported more than 100 civilian deaths, sometimes 150.” Unlike in Bucha, Ukraine, no journalist was able to see or count bodies in one location.
Regarding the conduct of the massacre, a spokesman for Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, says he is unable to confirm the information, particularly about the beheadings of dozens of babies, as broadcast by certain media outlets . That’s not to say it didn’t happen, but at the time it wasn’t documented.
Do these murders constitute “war crimes”?
The deaths of more than 100 people in the Kibbutz of Be’eri and the “massacre” in Kfar Aza mentioned by the Israeli army constituted a “war crime,” Nathalie Godard, head of action at Amnesty International France, confirmed on Wednesday October 11 on France Inter. “The situation between Israel and Palestine is classified as a permanent armed conflict under international humanitarian law,” she said. Therefore, “the various parties, whoever they may be, must respect international law and the rules of war.”
Furthermore, “there is nothing that could justify both attacks against civilians and taking civilians hostage,” she specifies. The “seriousness” of the facts in these kibbutzim “shows that there are red lines in the atrocity that are currently being crossed,” she added, four days after the Hamas offensive against Israel. “There is Amnesty International Israel, which is on the ground, and we also have researchers who are on the ground,” promising that the result of their investigation will be available “very soon.”
After all, “imposing a total siege” on the Gaza Strip is “also a war crime,” she emphasizes, because “it is a form of collective punishment for the 2.2 million Palestinians” who live there. “The director of the Gaza hospital says he has five days of water reserves and in five days he will run out of water,” she warns.
1,200 people have died in Israel since Saturday, October 7, and the start of the Hamas offensive, the deadliest attack in the country’s 75-year history. In the Gaza Strip, the number of deaths rose to 1,055, according to an upwardly revised figure on Wednesday, October 11.