Israeli military claims it failed to protect civilians – DW – 14.07.2024

In the early hours of October 7, Hamas-led militants managed to breach the state-of-the-art security fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel. In a surprise attack, the militants overran several communities and military bases.

Some entered Kibbutz Be’eri, a rural community a few kilometers from the border. The community was heavily damaged and destroyed, with over 100 of its 1,100 residents killed and 32 people kidnapped. It became a symbol of the horrors of the Hamas attack.

On Thursday, the first internal investigation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) into the conduct of the attacks on Kibbutz Be’eri was presented to survivors. Most of the residents were relocated to a resort on the Dead Sea and have not returned home.

Reactions to the report were mixed, with many residents angry at the failure of their military but also acknowledging that it took responsibility.

“We should be aware that Kibbutz Be’eri did not need the results of the investigation to feel the IDF’s failure every minute since 6:29 a.m. on this Black Shabbat,” said a written statement from Kibbutz Be’eri residents. “The army’s failure has been etched into our bodies and hearts for nine months.”

Restoring trust in the military

This is the army’s first detailed investigation into one of the numerous attacks on October 7. The investigations can be seen as an attempt by the Israeli military to restore the public’s trust. In total, around 1,200 people were killed that day and 251 were taken hostage.

“The Israel Defense Forces failed to protect the residents of the kibbutz,” said Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. “It is painful and difficult for me to say this: the Israel Defense Forces were supposed to protect the residents of Kibbutz Be’eri, but unfortunately we were not there for many hours during the fighting. For hours, the residents of Be’eri protected their families with their bodies and faced the terrorists alone.”

By midday, the IDF report said, there were about 340 militants in the community, including at least 100 members of Hamas’ elite Nukhba unit. They were able to go from house to house, abducting, killing and abducting civilians for most of the day.

Israeli media outlet Haaretz reported that investigators were shown WhatsApp messages from residents of Kibbutz Be’eri, some of which ended with the question “Where the hell is the IDF?”

Some of these people are no longer alive.

The report describes in detail the confusion and chaos that prevailed for many hours, saying that the Israeli forces were “unprepared for the full-scale infiltration scenario of October 7” and had difficulty in establishing an “accurate situational assessment of what was happening in the kibbutz” until the afternoon.

The investigation found that the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri began at around 6:45 a.m., when the militants entered from two directions. The community’s civil security team and local residents were the first to fight the intruders, then waited for hours in vain for reinforcements. This surprise attack was repeated simultaneously in many other communities and army bases along the Gaza Strip.

IDF tank fired at hostages

Between 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., Hamas was in control there, the IDF report said. During this time, “the first IDF soldiers arrive, are hit, evacuate the wounded, leave the kibbutz and position themselves at the entrance of the kibbutz.” During this time, the 32 hostages from Kibbutz Be’eri were taken to Gaza, the report said.

It was not until after 1:30 p.m. that “a large number of security forces” arrived at the gate to the settlement. “Operational control” over the area was only restored on the night of October 7-8, the report says, when surviving residents were finally rescued and evacuated.

The Israel Defense Forces investigation also described one of the most controversial incidents on October 7, when the army ordered a tank to fire on a house where Hamas militants were holding 15 people hostage. Fourteen hostages were later found dead in the house.

In total, 101 residents and 31 security personnel were killed in Kibbutz Be’eri, including members of the community security team, soldiers and police officers. Another 30 residents and two Israelis who had fled to the area from the nearby Nova music festival were abducted to Gaza. Eleven of them are still being held captive there.

For most residents of the evacuated Kibbutz Be’eri, and even for the Israeli public, the findings of the IDF report came as no surprise. Since October, many surviving residents have told stories of waiting for hours for help.

Public pressure is growing

The investigation also failed to answer key questions, including why so many soldiers gathered at the gate of the settlement but did not enter for hours, and what caused the intelligence failure that allowed Hamas to enter southern Israel in the first place and then continue without an adequate response from Israeli security forces.

“The long hours during which the kibbutz residents had to survive without any help from the army, the lack of command and control and the lack of coordination that led to troops being kept outside, and above all the discovery that in some cases soldiers evacuated or treated the soldiers before the civilians – these are incomprehensible findings, especially for those who grew up with the myth that the Israel Defense Forces is the best army in the world,” Israeli journalist and columnist Sima Kadmon wrote on Friday in the Tel Aviv-based newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

Nearly ten months after the Hamas attack, public pressure is growing to hold those responsible for the failures to account – even as Israel’s military retaliation campaign in the Gaza Strip continues. According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military’s campaign. There were growing calls for further investigations, and experts said investigations like the one released this week were unlikely to be enough to calm public demands for accountability.

Several security officials have publicly claimed responsibility, but only a handful have resigned.

On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry.

“It must examine all of us: the decision-makers, the experts, the government, the army and the security services, this government – and the governments of the last decade that led to the events of October 7,” Gallant said at a graduation ceremony for Israeli officers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also attended the ceremony. Netanyahu himself has repeatedly rejected the idea of ​​an independent commission during the war with Israel.