The Israeli military released an assessment of its failures to protect the residents of Be’eri, one of the communities hit the hardest in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, where more than 100 people were killed and dozens taken hostage in an assault that left much of the kibbutz destroyed.
The report, based on an internal inquiry and released Thursday, said the Israeli military “failed in its mission” to protect the kibbutz, a few miles from the border with the Gaza Strip, because of grave errors in Israel’s response to the multipronged assault.
The Israeli military, the inquiry found, was not prepared for the “extensive infiltration scenario” led by the militant group that day and had only trained for the possibility of isolated infiltrations.
This is despite reports that the Israeli military had reviewed a detailed blueprint of Hamas’ plans months before the attack. Military analysts’ early warnings about the threat had been dismissed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stood defiant throughout the war amid calls for accountability and a growing body of evidence that his government missed or ignored critical warnings about Hamas’ plans.
He has also rebuffed calls for a comprehensive state inquiry into Israel’s failings surrounding the Oct. 7 attack.
Because troops were not prepared for an attack like the one Oct. 7, the inquiry found, there had been “no additional reserve forces in the area” to send to Be’eri.
Residents were instead left to defend themselves for hours as militants swept through the area; 101 people were killed, and at least 30 people taken hostage in the area, according to Israeli officials.
“We appreciate the army taking responsibility and acknowledging its catastrophic failure to protect us,” the kibbutz Be’eri said in a statement in response to the IDF’s report. “We are grateful for their apology for abandoning us for so many hours while we were under constant and vicious attack.”
“While the investigation is a step toward answers, critical questions remain unanswered,” it added, “such as why the army forces at the kibbutz’s entrance didn’t enter the kibbutz despite our desperate pleas for rescue.”
‘They left us to die’
Survivors of the attack on Be’eri described hiding in their homes for hours desperately trying to reach loved ones as more than 300 militants, according to the inquiry, flooded the kibbutz, leaving homes and buildings burnt out and destroyed, and the smell of death hanging in the air.
“They left us to die,” one Be’eri resident, Liel Fishbien, had told NBC News of Israeli forces shortly after the attack.
More than nine months later, on Friday, he said that while he appreciated the inquiry’s findings, “I know they failed. It’s not new to me that they failed.”
“Taking responsibility’s important, of course, but I care more about what they’ve learned to make this thing not happen again,” he said.
The inquiry found that not only was the IDF not prepared for such an attack, but that it also “struggled to create a clear and accurate situational assessment” of the assault unfolding in Be’eri that morning and only began to grasp the reality of the situation later that afternoon, despite the community’s own emergency team providing an updated assessment earlier in the day.
Even when security forces did arrive at the entrance of the kibbutz, they failed to engage in combat amid scattered or conflicting orders, the inquiry found.
Some were following a command decision to “wait in order to evacuate civilians.” Others were fighting, then exited the kibbutz in response to a command decision, while some waited for a force commander and others remained outside the community to set up a perimeter.
“This lack of order characterized many combat focal points during October 7th and is currently being examined as part of the general inquiry,” the report said.
‘Operational errors’
The inquiry further found that there were “instances where IDF soldiers acted inappropriately in their conduct towards civilians,” particularly in the security provided to residents evacuated from the area and “in the addressing of basic needs by the security forces.” The statement did not elaborate further on the inappropriate conduct documented.
The inquiry appeared to clear commanders and forces of wrongdoing in one incident, however, in which there had been speculation that hostages had been killed by tank fire from the Israeli military.
Security forces, the report said, took the decision to breach a house in a bid to save 13 people held hostage after gunfire was heard and militants “communicated their intent to commit suicide and kill the hostages.”
It said tank fire toward an area near the house was “carried out professionally” following a joint decision made by commanders from all security organizations in a bid to put pressure on the militants and “save the hostages.”
The inquiry team determined that no civilians inside the building were harmed by tank shell fire, except for an isolated incident outside the building in which two civilians were injured by shrapnel. IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari separately said it was “highly likely that one of them was killed as a result.”
It was not immediately clear what precise information led investigators to that conclusion, but the team determined that “most of the hostages were likely murdered by the terrorists,” though it added that further inquiries and reviews of additional findings were necessary.
Since early on in October, the Israeli military had faced scrutiny over its response to Hamas’ attack, with questions raised over whether civilians might have been killed in forces’ frantic response.
Asked by NBC News at a media briefing in late October during which footage of the Oct. 7 attacks was played whether it was possible any civilians might have been caught in the crossfire of Israeli forces’ response, IDF Maj. Gen. Mickey Edelstein said it was possible that “mistakes” were made.
Despite “operational errors and mistakes in force deployment,” the inquiry sought to also highlight “acts of heroism” and courage by Israeli forces, as well as from security personnel and residents of the kibbutz.
On Friday, the kibbutz said in a statement that many of its community members remain “refugees in our own country” after their homes were destroyed.
Fishbien, who has been living in Jerusalem, said he would love to return to a restored Be’eri one day and “make a life” there, but the possibility seemed out of reach. He said he no longer felt safe and did not feel confident Israel’s leadership had shown a “deep understanding” of the lessons of Oct. 7 and the ongoing war.
“I don’t see myself ever living there again,” he said.
The findings from the IDF’s inquiry came as Israeli forces continued operations across the Gaza Strip, with fresh fighting in Gaza City as the military ordered residents to evacuate the area and move south.
Biden on Thursday said progress was being made in efforts to negotiate a cease-fire, but he said there were still “gaps” to be filled.
