Kibbutz Be'eri Still in Shock after Hamas Massacred 10 Percent of its People

KIBBUTZ BE'ERI, Israel – Still in shock, many Israelis are saying life will never be the same after the Hamas massacres in Israeli communities along the border with the Gaza Strip.

One week after the attacks, CBN News visited Kibbutz Be'eri on the Gaza perimeter. Myriam Kadouch is a tour guide who regularly brought groups to Be-eri before that fateful day, October 7, 2023. 

"I bring delegations of people who want to know this beautiful area called – you know, the “fringe of Gaza” – because people don’t know these places used to be so green, to be paradise.  The place you wanted to grow your children in. This used to be paradise, all green full of flowers," Kadouch recalled.

Ten percent of the people of Kibbutz Be'eri were killed. In just one of the community's buildings, 19 were killed, including 8 children.

"You see this devastation here," Kadouch reflected. "It’s not only the heart who bleeds. It’s like you’re saying to yourself, how will we be able to come back alive from that? This is just the pure devastation and the misery, and you understand all these people came to kill. An army of terrorists – thousands of them – were prepared, and they came to kill." 

According to the commander of Israel's National Search and Rescue, Col. Golan Vach, Hamas operatives walked in the front gate, intending to capture the entire community and hold it hostage.

"I just learned that here on this house on the back, there was a small baby, a small baby found dead. Look at this burnt house. They came to the houses. They killed a family. They opened the stomach of mothers who had eight-month-old baby in her stomach. How can you survive that?," Kadouch asked.

Vach says there were two waves of those who entered the kibbutz from Gaza.

"The first wave consists of terrorists,." Vach explained. "I would say more than a thousand, but the other – I would say, few hundreds – were robbers, robbers with no Kalashnikovs (rifles), only with knives and bags. 

They believe that the second wave consisted of some of the thousands of Palestinians who entered Israel daily for work. Kadouch says Israelis will have much to cope with after these attacks.

"And in terms of Zionism, what is left now? I believe that this is going to be a new Israel from now on," she stated. "We can only grow from the lowest point.  This is the lowest point we ever went. These people were sure that somebody was keeping their back, somebody was keeping themselves safe, and it’s not the case. It is so sad, and it’s beyond words, and I can’t talk anymore."

Kadouch urged the international community to recognize the brutality of Hamas – that their aim is to destroy Israel. She cautioned against equating Israel's retaliation with the butchery practiced by Hamas. She also sounded a common theme among Israelis: that Hamas, with tens of thousands of terror soldiers in a population of nearly 2 million people, has taken the population of Gaza hostage for years, in addition to some 200 Israelis now being held as bargaining chips in a war that may just be getting underway. 

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