Kinneret Gat, 67: A dedicated teacher who loved to travel
Murdered by Hamas terrorists in her home on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7
Kinneret Gat, 67, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.
Her daughter Carmel Gat and daughter-in-law Yarden Roman-Gat, who were visiting Kinneret and her husband Eshel for the Simhat Torah holiday, were both kidnapped that day. Yarden was released on November 29 as part of a Qatari-brokered cease-fire deal which saw the release of 105 civilian captives. Carmel was murdered by Hamas in captivity and her body retrieved in September 2024.
Kinneret’s son, Alon, and his three-year-old daughter, Geffen, were also seized by terrorists, but were able to escape their captors and remained free.
From text messages in the family WhatsApp group that were pieced together after the attack, the family understood that Kinneret had motioned to Eshel to stay hidden in the bathroom, where he happened to be when the terrorists burst into their house just before 7 am on October 7. He survived despite terrorists spraying their house with bullets and trying to set it alight.
After being dragged from the house, Kinneret was seen in videos that surfaced in the days after the attack with her hands tied, walking alongside elderly residents being led by Hamas fighters through the kibbutz before they were shot.
Her death was confirmed on December 16, and her family held a memorial service for her in the Jordan Valley, “to accompany her on her final journey.”
Born on Kibbutz Degania Bet, Kinneret was a dedicated teacher and tour guide who loved to travel and reveled in sharing that love with the people around her.
A fellow member of Kibbutz Be’eri, Adi Zohar, described Kinneret as “a woman of values and an out-of-the-box thinker.”
“I could speak to her about anything and most of all I loved it when she told me stories about the ‘old days,’ when she’d just moved to Be’eri,” Zohar added in a post on Facebook. “Kinneret loved to travel, to find new places in Israel and abroad. Every time they’d get back from a trip I’d be in awe of how much she loved to travel.”
On November 7, on what would have been her 68th birthday, Kinneret’s grandson Gil Dickmann, who has been a vocal advocate in the effort to secure the release of the hostages held in Gaza, dedicated a song to her on Army Radio.
“Kinneret was an amazing woman and educator, and more than anything she loved to sing and to travel. When she wasn’t traveling she loved to sing,” he said in the dedication. “On her 60th birthday, we got together with all of her friends, and she printed a list of 50 songs and asked me to learn to play all of them on my guitar, so everyone could sing along. Songs from the ’50s and ’60s, from her childhood.”
Dickmann said that at her memorial service, the friends and family sang songs of peace. “I want to believe that we can still believe in our fellow man, in human beings. On both sides, Jews, Arabs. That we can live in this place and in this world in peace.”
