Be’eri security team member says he spoke to Netanyahu at 11 a.m. on Oct. 7; PM told him, ‘We’ll deal with it’

Elam Maor, a member of Kibbutz Be’eri’s local security team, tells Channel 12 that he spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 11:00 a.m. on October 7, and told him that there were hundreds of terrorists inside the kibbutz.

Netanyahu, he says, assured him that the incident would be dealt with.

“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 marvels.

“It happened,” Maor replies.

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 force 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 commends the IDF for acknowledging and detailing its failures in today’s probe, and insists that a state commission of inquiry into the events leading up to and on October 7 is essential. Tactical and strategic lessons must be learned, he says.