Be’eri security team member told PM ‘hundreds of terrorists here’ at 11 a.m. on Oct. 7
Elam Maor spoke by phone with Netanyahu, who told him, ‘We’ll deal with it’; IDF arrived at 1:30 p.m.; Hamas took 32 hostages, killed 132 at the kibbutz
A member of the Kibbutz Be’eri local security team said Thursday that he spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 11 a.m. on October 7 and informed him that there were hundreds of terrorists inside the kibbutz.
Netanyahu, said Elam Maor, assured him the situation would be dealt with.
Maor recounted the conversation in a Channel 12 interview on Thursday evening following the publication of the IDF’s probe into what happened in Be’eri during the Hamas terror group’s onslaught that day.
Maor had previously mentioned the conversation in a Channel 12 segment last November, retracing the footsteps of the Be’eri security team as it fought back the tide of invading Hamas terrorists. He explained then that contacted him via his cousin, who worked in the Prime Minister’s Office, to receive a status update from the field.
He offered more details on Thursday:
“Somehow you managed to get through to Netanyahu, at around 11 in the morning on that Sabbath, in a telephone call,” news anchor Danny Kushmaro marveled.
“It happened,” Maor replied.
Kushmaro: “And you told him, ‘We need help?'”
Maor: “Be’eri is alone. Be’eri is abandoned. There are hundreds of terrorists here.”
Kushmaro: “And he tells you, something like, ‘It’s okay, the IDF is on the way?'”
Maor: “Not, ‘It’s okay’. He says, ‘We’ll deal with it.’ It was 11 o’clock, and the incident was a long way from being dealt with. In fact, the additional military forces arrived at Be’eri at 1:30 [p.m.].”
Kushmaro: “In retrospect, would you have told him something different?”
Maor: “I think that was the most accurate thing I could say… We were there at Be’eri alone for many hours.”
Maor commended the IDF for acknowledging and detailing its failures in Thursday’s probe, and insisted that a state commission of inquiry into the events leading up to and on October 7 was essential. Tactical and strategic lessons must be learned, he said.
Conservation coincided with Netanyahu’s ‘We are at war’ post
Be’eri was the hardest-hit community in Hamas’s terror onslaught, during which some 3,000 terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, massacring some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.
In all, 101 civilians and 31 security personnel were killed in the kibbutz — home to a community of around 1,000 residents — and a further 30 residents and two more civilians were taken hostage, 11 of whom remain in Gaza.
The findings of the IDF probe into the battle at the kibbutz concluded that the IDF had “failed in its mission to protect the residents of Kibbutz Be’eri.”
The probe found that the army had difficulty building a clear picture of what was happening in Be’eri until the afternoon, despite the local security team — including Maor — providing information on the fighting starting early in the morning.
The probe also found that security authorities did not provide Be’eri with adequate warning about the attack.
Maor’s account places his conversation with Netanyahu around the same that the prime minister posted a short video to social media from IDF headquarters, telling the country ‘We are at war,’ as the rampage was ongoing throughout the Gaza border area.
Investigating the failures
Netanyahu has refused to say explicitly that he is responsible for what happened on October 7 — unlike many Israeli security and military officials and some political figures.
In May, Netanyahu was asked by American TV personality Dr. Phil whether he held himself to a “standard that you failed in some way.”
The prime minister responded, “I hold myself and everyone on this” — the closest he has come to publicly accepting responsibility — but he seemed to indicate immediately afterward that he felt intelligence chiefs were primarily to blame.
Netanyahu has also declined to initiate a state commission of inquiry into Israel’s failures leading up to the massacre, arguing that it would harm the war effort and should only commence after the fighting ends, and not explicitly committing to a state commission as opposed to a less powerful inquiry body.
A state commission of inquiry, while formed by the government, operates independently and consists of members appointed by the President of the Supreme Court. It is typically chaired by a retired Supreme Court justice.
Netanyahu, whose government attempted to radically overhaul the judiciary last year, has reportedly begun to seek out means to establish a panel of inquiry headed by someone of his own choosing instead.
Ministers from across the political spectrum have called for a state commission of inquiry, however, and polls show that some 85 percent of Israelis support one.
In June, the High Court of Justice gave the state a July 28 deadline to explain its decision not to open a state commission.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara also implored the prime minister in June to form one, arguing it is essential to fend off ongoing actions against Jerusalem in the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
In a statement Thursday, Kibbutz Be’eri demanded the establishment of a state commission of inquiry. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking at an IDF officers’ graduation event with Netanyahu in the audience, directly demanded one.
“It needs to examine me, the defense minister, it must examine the prime minister, the chief of the staff and the head of the Shin Bet, the army and all the national bodies subordinate to the government,” Gallant said, to applause.
