Original subtitles

This programme contains scenes and descriptions of death and terrorism that will distress viewers

Kibbutz Be'eri is paradise, absolute paradise.

LOUD BANG

On the 7th, you could hear gunfire, you could smell houses burning.

Your mind went ballistic that day. It went into overdrive.

There was a slaughter. They came to slaughter.

EXPLOSIONS IN DISTANCE

Sunrise, Saturday, 7 October 2023.

MAN: Allahu Akbar!

Hamas fighters launch a surprise attack on Israel.

They smash through Israel's high-tech border fence

in more than 50 places.

As the attack unfolds, several thousand gunmen

strike Israeli villages and military outposts.

They kill more than 1,100 people...

..and take 250 hostages back to Gaza.

SHOUTING, HORN HONKS

Their main targets are small civilian communes

close to the Gaza border known as kibbutzes.

RAPID GUNFIRE

The kibbutz which suffered the highest death toll on October 7

is Kibbutz Be'eri, 50 miles from Tel Aviv and three miles from Gaza.

This is an account of what happened there on October 7,

told by some of those who survived.

I'm from Kibbutz Be'eri.

When I came, 1992,

Kibbutz Be'eri was one of the more successful kibbutzes.

We're very secular. It's a socialist structure,

a community of people working for the common good for each other.

It's a fantastic concept.

Kibbutz Be'eri was founded at the end of World War II

by Jewish immigrants from Europe and the Middle East.

It was one of 11 new settlements in the Negev desert,

established to enlarge the borders of the future state of Israel.

At Kibbutz Be'eri, they set up a farm and a printing press.

Assets and profits are shared

between all members of the community.

Everyone earns the same, from the CEO of the print -

we make a lot of money in the print -

to the person in the laundry, folding clothes.

We all get exactly the same salary.

We don't have a worry in the world. HE CHUCKLES

We didn't used to have any worries in the world,

apart from the missiles coming over regularly.

If I look out my back door, we can see Gaza.

A missile can come from any direction there.

LOUD BANG When things were getting worse

over the years with the missiles, with Hamas,

the government decided to build every apartment

with its own bomb shelter.

That was a great, great comfort.

Living in Be'eri for 30 years,

you get used to seeing the army all over the damn place!

There was always a massive army presence there,

so you felt safe and secure.

The 6th was a Friday.

My daughter Emily came up and said,

"Is it OK if I go and play with Hila and then sleep at Hila's?"

And me, as a 64-year-old father of a young child,

"Yes, definitely" - I get a night off!

Kibbutz Be'eri measures just half a mile from end to end.

Emily's friend Hila lives a couple of minutes' walk away

at House 83.

At 5am - as usual on a Saturday - the nightwatchman goes home,

leaving Kibbutz Be'eri's main gate unguarded.

PULSING CLUB MUSIC PLAYS

A mile and a half from Kibbutz Be'eri,

3,000 young Israelis are wide-awake.

As dawn breaks, a barrage of missiles from Gaza.

LOUD EXPLOSION, SCREAMS

Festivalgoers scatter.

HORN HONKS, LOUD WHOOSH

Some head north, towards Kibbutz Be'eri.

SIREN WAILS

All over Kibbutz Be'eri,

residents leave their beds and move to their bomb shelters.

Hila's next-door neighbours at number 84

are a schoolteacher and her husband, a car mechanic.

INDISTINCT SHOUTING FROM CHILD

THEY LAUGH

The dirt road along the northern perimeter of the kibbutz

leads straight to the Gaza border.

Three young men from the Nova dance festival arrive

at the kibbutz main gate, seeking shelter from the missile attack.

The advance party of two Hamas gunmen is now in the kibbutz,

looking for their next kill.

TOM: Our First Response Team,

they have a gun store with automatic weapons.

The leader, Arik Kraunik, was shot, ambushed

on the way to open up the armoury, to give out the guns.

Hunkered down in their bomb shelters,

families begin to share information.

The doors don't lock because the doors are made for missiles attack.

So, in case somebody has to come and rescue us,

someone from outside can come and help.

They're not made in thought of a terrorist attack.

With their leader gunned down in the opening minutes of the attack,

the First Response Team is down to ten men.

They will be Kibbutz Be'eri's only defence

until the Israeli army arrives.

MAN: Allahu Akbar!

SHOUTING CONTINUES

Three miles from Gaza, Kibbutz Be'eri is under attack.

By the end of the day, more than one in ten of its 1,200 residents

will be killed or taken hostage.

Gunmen from Gaza have broken through the perimeter fence with a digger.

Now, they're moving from house to house.

In the bomb shelter, you were like a caged rabbit.

You're terrified.

Emily, she spent the night at Hila's.

She's an eight-year-old without her father there,

without her mother there.

You could hear all the gunfire. You could smell houses burning.

I realised if I stepped foot out of the house, I would be dead.

There was... I would not make it.

So, I couldn't protect Emily that day.

You could see the WhatsApp messages -

"They're attacking my house,"

and then, "They're in my house."

"They're setting light to my house."

"Where's the army? Where's the army?"

The kibbutz is undefended

except for the First Response Team of 11 volunteers.

Two have already been killed.

Response Team member Hagi is shot through the chest

200 metres from his home.

Yair collapses in the dental surgery

next to two of his Response Team comrades - one wounded, one dead.

GUNFIRE

An hour into the attack,

the handful of residents defending Kibbutz Be'eri

are still on their own.

RAPID GUNFIRE IN DISTANCE

LAUGHTER

GUNFIRE

Instead of the Israeli army, more gunmen from Gaza.

As the attackers kill and kidnap their neighbours,

farm manager Avida, his wife and two teenage children are trapped

in their bomb shelter with a door that doesn't lock.

MAN: Allahu Akbar.

NEWS REPORTER: This was a surprise attack on Israel

by the militant Palestinian group Hamas.

NEWS REPORTER: A morning that has erupted into violence.

Hamas says its operation has only just started,

while Israel has declared a state of readiness for war.

LOUD RUMBLING

SCREAMING

GUNFIRE

INDISTINCT CHATTER, GUNFIRE

Dozens of gunmen prowl the kibbutz,

looking for Israelis to kill or take to Gaza.

Two hours into the attack,

the first Israeli soldiers arrive by helicopter -

just 14 men.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

I couldn't speak to Emily.

Phone completely dead, no electricity in the house.

Er...

Yeah.

Just hoping...

Just hoping she'd be one of the lucky houses.

Just after 12 noon, men from Gaza reach number 83,

where Tom's eight-year-old daughter Emily

had gone to stay with a friend.

As Emily, Hila and Raaya are being kidnapped,

their neighbours Mahol and Noy prepare their children

for the worst.

It's now four hours since farm manager Avida

and his teenage son Carmel were shot through the steel door

of their bomb shelter.

Three members of the First Response Team

are cornered in the dental surgery

with the kibbutz nurse, a doctor and a paramedic.

GUNFIRE

Surrounded by Hamas gunmen, three defenders and three medics

are trapped in Kibbutz Be'eri's dental surgery.

GUNFIRE

SOBBING

GUNFIRE

A stone's throw from the dental surgery at number 84,

Mahol's husband Noy has been holding the bomb shelter door closed

for seven hours.

BABY CRIES IN BACKGROUND

BABY CRIES IN BACKGROUND

BABY COUGHS IN BACKGROUND

LOUD GROAN IN BACKGROUND

CRYING IN BACKGROUND

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

LOUD BANG, GUNFIRE

SHOUTING

This programme contains scenes and descriptions of death and terrorism that will distress viewers

REPEATED BANGING

BANGING, GUNFIRE

SHE SIGHS

It's like I'm still there, you know?

INDISTINCT SHOUTING, GUNFIRE

RAPID GUNFIRE

GUNFIRE CONTINUES

Just before dusk,

a large group of Hamas gunmen is surrounded in House 424.

They're holding a dozen hostages, including the parents of Sa'ar,

a member of the kibbutz First Response Team.

RADIO CHATTER

The firefight continues,

and the Israeli tank fires several more shells into House 424.

By nightfall, everyone in the house is dead -

Hamas gunmen and Israeli hostages -

except Sa'ar's mother.

TOM: At 11.30 at night, I'm rescued.

Still heavy, heavy gunfire going all over the place.

The kibbutz - three statements. They said, "We found Emily.

"She's in the kibbutz - she was found in the kibbutz -

"and she's been found dead."

So...

Yeah, I...

I'll tell you, I was relieved.

We'd been hearing that people had been taken to Gaza as hostages,

and that... That is the one thing I did not want for her.

So if she was...

If she was dead, as reported...

..yeah, she was at peace...

..so...

So, I was at peace.

Emily, wow.

For 30 days, you still have it in your heart and your mind

that she's dead.

30 days afterwards, I'm on my way to a ceremony,

remembering the dead and the hostages,

and a neighbour came up and said,

"Somebody saw Raaya and Hila...

"..and...

"..Emily being led away by the Hamas terrorists.

So...at that point, I've gone in...

..to the worst nightmare that I'd thought I'd avoided.

Er...

They held her captive there for 50 days.

Hamas handed her over to the Red Cross,

the Red Cross to the Army,

and then the Army to me.

She's nine years old now. She had her birthday in Gaza.

Thank God they did not lay a hand on her.

They didn't hit her.

They didn't touch her.

Psychiatrists have told me I can't investigate or interrogate,

which makes sense.

She only...

I only get to know whatever little snippets come out.

Like, last night in the car...

..she just told me that she saw at least 12 dead bodies

at the fence...

..people that she knows,

dead at the side of the roads.

We used to be a kibbutz of about 1,200 members.

We lost a hundred people, almost 10% of our community -

dead, wiped out.

26 Israelis were taken alive from Kibbutz Be'eri to Gaza.

Five were later murdered by their captors.

18 were released alive.

Three are still being held hostage.

We're hoping for the rest.

We have to get them back.

We had people from Gaza working on our kibbutz

until the 7th of October.

They were friends. We would do whatever we could for them.

People that needed medical treatment in our hospitals,

people would go in their own time, with their own car,

pick them up, bring them to hospitals, wait for them,

bring them back - you know, shake hands, hug, the whole business.

They were... They were your neighbours!

If Emily isn't too afraid to go back to where she was kidnapped,

if she's not afraid of that, then, yeah, we're going back.

If the people of the south don't go back to the south,

Hamas has won.

And that's not going to happen.

I'm going back.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media