Be’eri

Kibbutz Be’eri was witness to one of the worst massacres carried out by Hamas terrorists on October 7, as part of their surprise attack on Israel; suffering heavy losses of life and property, leaving both people and the kibbutz devastated and shattered. More than 100 well-armed terrorists infiltrated Be’eri, killing more than 130 and kidnapping at least 27.  The chilling aftermath of the Be’eri massacre exposed a scene of merciless brutality, with approximately 80% of the recovered bodies showing signs of torture. According to the testimonies of the ZAKA forces, most of the murders were committed by shooting and burning people alive. Particularly harrowing were the ZAKA official accounts describing two piles of ten children each, with their hands bound together, burned to death. It is evident that many of the bodies of the dead were mutilated, including harsh descriptions of beheadings, slitting throats, and burning.
According to the civil defense team, the terrorists infiltrated the kibbutz from three different locations: the front gate, the back gate, and another gap they created in the fence. Most of the members of the kibbutz’s civil defense team were killed; the IDF 13th Battalion fighters and police officers suffered heavy casualties as well. After occupying the kibbutz in its entirety, Hamas terrorists went from house to house, trying to break in  and capture the people inside. Many residents tried to hide in safe rooms, but the militants blew up the safe room doors and killed those inside. They shot at buildings and set them on fire to force their residents to leave their houses, and then shot them to death. A paramedic, who was in Be’eri after the massacre, testified that he saw the bodies of two girls in a house in the kibbutz who were executed after being raped.

The terrorists were accompanied by a camera crew and journalists, who documented the actions and hailed them as a “Palestinian victory”. Videos from the kibbutz were published on social networks showing residents being led barefoot by Hamas terrorists along a street of the kibbutz. The kibbutz’s security cameras also recorded Palestinian citizens, including children, the disabled and the elderly, raiding the kibbutz throughout the morning of October 7, and looting everything nearby.

The IDF force to arrive at the kibbutz first was a team from the commando Shaldag unit that landed by helicopter at 8:37 and began to fight. Five crew members were killed and another was wounded in the battle. Later, forces from other units also arrived (Sheitat 13, Yehalam, Battalion 890, the Lotr Unit, Unit 504, Yamam, a force from the prison service Sierat Harob and more) under the command of Brigadier General Barak Hiram, and in hard fighting, which lasted for over 24 hours, the kibbutz was finally cleared of terrorists. The IDF were able to rescue a group of civilians that the terrorists had barricaded themselves with, after a long 18-hour battle.

Vivian Silver, a 74-year-old resident from Kibbutz Be’eri was murdered that Saturday. Silver was a veteran Canadian-Israeli peace activist, founded the “Women Making Peace” movement and the “Ajik” organization, was a board member at “Betzlem” and a volunteer for the “On the Road to Recovery” organization, in which she accompanied cancer patients from the Gaza Strip to hospitals in Israel. Silver was a widow and left two children and four grandchildren.

The last contact with her family was on the morning of October 7, when she hid in a closet in her house and corresponded with her son. “Well, the terrorists are in the house,” she wrote. When her son wrote to her “I am by your side,” she replied: “I feel you.” Silver’s friend Anat Sargosti remembers her as, “A woman of compassion and humanity and an endless, deep and continuous commitment to Jewish-Arab partnership and peace. Yes, peace.”

The “Ajik” organization paid tribute to Silver, “She was a woman of peace who worked to achieve it in countless ways. We send our condolences to her family, friends and acquaintances, and promise to continue her path to an equal and just Arab-Jewish partnership.” On 24 October 2023, the IDF reportedly killed Abed al Rahman, deputy commander of the Nuseirat Battalion, who had led the Be’eri massacre.