Report: Israeli military says it failed to protect civilians

In the early hours of October 7, Hamas-led militants made their way through the high-tech 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, badly damaged and destroyed, with over 100 of its 1,100 residents killed and 32 people kidnapped, became a symbol of the horrors of the Hamas attack.

On Thursday, those who survived were presented with the first internal Israel Defense Forces (IDF) investigation into how the Kibbutz Be'eri attacks unfolded. Most residents have been relocated to a Dead Sea resort and have not returned home.

Reactions to the report were mixed, with many residents angry about their military's failure but also acknowledging that it was taking responsibility.

"We should note 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 that black Shabbat," a written statement released by Kibbutz Be'eri residents said. "The army's failure has been burned into our bodies and hearts for nine months now."

Rebuilding trust in the military

It is the army's first detailed investigation into one of the many different attacks that took place on October 7 and can be seen as part of the Israeli military trying to rebuild trust among its public. Altogether some 1,200 people were killed that day and 251 people were taken hostage.

"The Israel Defense Forces failed to protect the residents of the Kibbutz," said Daniel Hagari, the IDF's spokesperson. "It is painful and difficult for me to say this: The IDF was supposed to protect the residents of Kibbutz Be'eri but, unfortunately, we were not there for many hours of the fighting. For hours, the residents of Be'eri protected their families with their bodies, facing the terrorists alone."

By midday, the IDF report said, about 340 militants were inside the community, among them at least 100 members of Hamas' elite Nukhba commando force. They were able to move from house to house, brutalizing, killing and abducting civilians for most of the day.

Israeli media outlet Haaretz reported that investigators were given the WhatsApp messages of residents in Kibbutz Be'eri, some of which ended with: "Where the hell is the IDF?"

Some of those people are no longer alive.

The report detailed the confusion and chaos that prevailed for many hours. It said the IDF was "not prepared for the extensive infiltration scenario that occurred on October 7" and that it struggled to create an "accurate situational assessment of what was happening in the kibbutz until the afternoon."

The inquiry found that the attack on Kibbutz Be'eri began at around 6:45 a.m. when militants infiltrated from two directions. The community's civilian rapid response security team and local residents were the first to fight the intruders. They then waited in vain for hours for reinforcements. This surprise attack was replicated in many other communities and army bases along the Gaza Strip simultaneously.

IDF tank fired on hostages

Between 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Hamas was in control there, the IDF report said. During that time, "the first IDF soldiers arrive, are hit, evacuate the wounded, exit the kibbutz and position themselves at the entrance of the kibbutz." It was during that time that the 32 hostages from Kibbutz Be'eri were taken to Gaza, the report found.

It was only after 1:30 p.m. that "a more significant presence of security forces" began to arrive at the gate to the community. "Operational control" over the area was only restored during the night between October 7 and October 8, the report said, when surviving residents were finally rescued and evacuated. 

The IDF investigation also detailed one of the most controversial incidents on October 7, when the army ordered a tank to fire into a house where Hamas militants were holding 15 people hostage. Fourteen hostages were later found dead inside the house.

In all, 101 residents and 31 security personnel, including members from the community's own rapid response security team, soldiers and police, were killed in Kibbutz Be'eri. A further 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 of the evacuated Kibbutz Be'eri residents and even the general Israeli public, the findings of the IDF report did not come as a surprise. Since October, many surviving residents have told stories about how they waited for hours for help.

Public pressure growing

The investigation also failed to answer the most critical questions. These include questions about why so many troops gathered at the community's gate but did not enter for hours, as well as what caused the intelligence failure that allowed Hamas to infiltrate southern Israel in the first place and then go on without an adequate response from Israeli security forces.

"The many hours in which residents of the kibbutz were left without any help from the army, the lack of command and control, and the lack of coordination, which led to troops being kept outside, and above all the discovery that in some cases soldiers evacuated or treated the soldiers before civilians — these are incomprehensible findings, certainly for those who were raised on the myth that IDF is the best army in the world,"  Israeli journalist and columnist Sima Kadmon wrote in Tel Aviv-based newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, on Friday. 

Almost 10 months after the Hamas attack, public pressure is increasing to hold those responsible for the failures to account, even as Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza continues. Over 38,000 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF's campaign, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. There have been growing calls for further investigations, and pundits have said investigations like the one released this week are unlikely to be enough to quiet public calls for accountability.

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

On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called for a state commission of enquiry.

"It must examine all of us: The decision-makers, the professionals, the government, the army and security services, this government — and the governments over the last decade that led to the events of October 7," Gallant said at a graduation ceremony for IDF officers.

The ceremony was also attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu himself has repeatedly dismissed the idea of an independent commission while Israel is at war.