IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari is expected to meet on Thursday in a Dead Sea resort with members of Kibbutz Be’eri to present to them the army’s internal investigation into the events of October 7 in their kibbutz. Hagari will be accompanied by Major General (reserve) Miki Edelstein, who conducted the investigation. Earlier this week, a similar meeting was held with the relatives of the dead who were held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Pessi Cohen’s house, the house on which Brigadier General Barak Hiram ordered tank shells to be fired.
Leaked passages from Edelstein’s report show that Hiram is expected to be cleared of responsibility for the killing of the hostages in Pessi’s house and that his conduct there would not be an obstacle to his appointment as Commander of the Gaza Division.
This is a poignant and in-depth investigation, in which Edelstein reveals the depth of the IDF’s failure to protect the settlement before and during the Hamas attack, including the prevention––because of the absence of an explicit order––of forces that had already arrived at the kibbutz from entering to combat the invaders, and the departure of other forces that had participated in the fighting without receiving permission to do so.
The investigation states that the decisions made in Pessi’s house incident were reasonable, and shows that the order to fire a tank shell at the house followed consultation between the IDF and the special police force, which were conducting several parallel efforts at the locations where the hostages were held and required immediate responses. The Commander of the police special force, Deputy Inspector H, who was in a different location at the same time, conducted the consultation through one of his company commanders who was in Be’eri.
The commander of the 143rd Gaza Division, Brigadier General Avi Rosenfeld, in early June, announced his intention to end his service in the IDF. His replacement is Brigadier General Barak Hiram, but the latter’s appointment is frozen until the end of an investigation of an incident in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 in which Hiram ordered a tank crew to shoot at a house where 12 hostages were being held by Hamas terrorists (As Gaza Division Commander Resigns over October 7 Failure, his Successor’s Appointment Is Frozen over October 7 Triumphs).
In a letter Brig. Gen. Rosenfeld sent the heads of municipalities in the Gaza Envelope, he wrote: “On the morning of Simchat Torah, a war broke out by surprise, without warning. For many hours we were unable to protect the settlements, the tens of thousands of residents, the thousands celebrating at the party in the Re’im parking lot, and the forces in the military outposts against the thousands of terrorists who invaded our territory through dozens of routes in an all-out attack by the Hamas terrorist army.”
Hiram is praised in the investigation report for coming to Be’eri from his home on his own initiative, taking command of the events, and conducting intense fighting for more than a day until all the residents were evacuated and the kibbutz was cleansed of terrorists. He did this despite the chaos that prevailed in the kibbutz and the sector, and when the Gaza Division functioned only partially and confusedly and had difficulty responding to the problems and needs that arose in the field.
Edelstein’s conclusions pave the way for Hiram to take over the command of the Gaza Division. He is scheduled to take office within a few weeks.
Edelstein’s investigation is the first of its kind to be published by the IDF, and therefore it is of great importance as a test of the seriousness of the self-examination process which is carried out by the IDF. This is a poignant and in-depth investigation, in which the depth of the IDF’s failure to protect the settlement of Be’eri was revealed before and during the Hamas attack, including holding back troops from seeking combat, and the unauthorized departure of other troops.
