The Israeli army issued an assessment that it had failed to protect the residents. BeeriIt is one of the communities hardest hit by Hamas attacks. Attack on October 7The attack left more than 100 people dead, dozens taken hostage, and destroyed much of the kibbutz.
The report, released Thursday based on an internal investigation, said Israeli forces “failed to fulfill their mission” of protecting the kibbutz. A few miles from the border Gaza StripThis is because there were serious errors in Israel’s response to the attack from multiple directions.
The investigation found that the Israeli military was not prepared for a “large-scale incursion scenario” led by militant groups that day. They were only training for the possibility of an isolated incursion.
This was despite reports that the Israeli military had reviewed detailed blueprints of Hamas’ plans for the attack months before. Early warnings of the threat by military analysts included: Fired.
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu Amid growing demands for accountability and evidence that the government had neglected or ignored its responsibilities, it remained defiant throughout the war. Critical Warning About Hamas’ plans.
He also Comprehensive A national investigation into Israeli missteps surrounding the October 7 attacks.
The investigation found that the forces were not prepared for an attack like the one on October 7 and that “there were no additional reserve forces in the area” that could be deployed to Beeri.
Israeli officials said residents were forced to defend themselves for hours as militants swept through the area, leaving 101 people dead and at least 30 people taken hostage in the area.
“We are grateful that the military has taken responsibility and acknowledged its catastrophic failure to protect us,” Be’eri Kibbutz said in a statement in response to the IDF report. “We appreciate the apology for abandoning us for so many hours while we were under constant and brutal attack.”
“While the investigation is a step towards answers, important questions remain unanswered, such as why the military forces at the kibbutz’s entrance did not enter the kibbutz despite our desperate pleas for help,” the report added.
“They left us to die.”
According to the investigation, survivors of the Beeri attack described hiding in their homes for hours, desperately trying to contact loved ones as more than 300 militants swarmed into the kibbutz, leaving homes and buildings burned and destroyed and the stench of death in the air.
“They left us to die,” Beeri resident Liel Fishbien told NBC News about the Israeli forces. Immediately after the attack.
More than nine months later, on Friday, he praised the investigation’s findings but said, “I know it failed. Failure is nothing new to me.”
“Obviously it’s important to take responsibility, but what’s more important to me is what they learned to make sure this never happens again,” he said.
The investigation found that not only were the IDF unprepared for such an attack, but they “struggled to provide a clear and accurate situation assessment” of the assault as it unfolded in Beeri that morning, only beginning to grasp the reality of the situation late that afternoon, despite regional emergency teams providing updated assessments earlier in the day.
Even when security forces arrived at the kibbutz’s entrance, they did not engage in fighting because their orders were scattered or contradictory, the investigation found.
Some were following the command’s decision to “stand by and allow civilians to be evacuated.” Some were fighting and others were leaving the kibbutz in response to the command’s decision, while others remained outside the community to wait for their unit commanders or to set up perimeters.
“This lack of order was evident at many focal points during the fighting on October 7 and is currently being investigated as part of the general investigation,” the report said.
The investigation further found “incidents of inappropriate behavior by IDF soldiers towards civilians,” particularly in the safety provided to residents evacuated from the area and “the response of basic needs by security forces.” The statement did not go into further detail about the inappropriate behavior documented.
But in one case where a hostage was speculated to have been killed by Israeli tank fire, an investigation appeared to clear the commander and his unit of any wrongdoing.
According to the report, after gunfire was heard and the militants “signaled their intention to commit suicide and kill the hostages,” security forces decided to storm the house to rescue the 13 hostages.
The paper said the tank fire near the house was “professional carried out” following a joint decision by commanders of all security services to put pressure on the militants and “rescue the hostages”.
The team concluded that, apart from an isolated incident in which two civilians were injured by shrapnel outside the building, no civilians inside the building were harmed by the tank shells. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said separately that “it is highly likely that one in two people died as a result.”
It was not immediately clear what information investigators had used to reach that conclusion, but the team concluded that “it is highly likely that most of the hostages were killed by terrorists,” but added that further investigation and consideration of additional findings was needed.
Since early October, the Israeli military It faced intense scrutiny over its response. The Hamas attack raised questions about whether the military’s desperate response may have led to civilian deaths.
NBC News Questions Media briefing in late October Asked whether civilians could have been caught in the crossfire of Israeli return fire when footage of the October 7 attack was released, IDF Maj. Gen. Mickey Edelstein said there may have been a “mistake.”
The investigation also sought to highlight the “heroism” and bravery of Israeli troops, security personnel and kibbutz residents, despite “operational errors and troop deployment mistakes.”
The kibbutz said in a statement Friday that many of the community members “remain as refugees in their own country” after their homes were destroyed.
Fishbien, a Jerusalem resident, said he would one day like to return to a restored Be’eri “to live there,” but that seems unlikely. He said he no longer feels safe and is not convinced that Israel’s leaders have shown a “deep understanding” of the events of October 7 and the ongoing war.
“I don’t think I’ll ever live there again,” he said.
At the time the IDF findings were released, Israeli forces were continuing operations across the Gaza Strip, new fighting had broken out in Gaza City and the army had ordered residents to evacuate the area and move south.
Biden said Thursday that efforts to negotiate a ceasefire were progressing but that there were still “gaps” that needed to be filled.
