Newly revealed footage from Hamas’s October 7 attack last year shows Kinneret Gat, a 67-year-old teacher from Kibbutz Be’eri, sticking her tongue out at Hamas terrorists shortly before they murdered her during the cross-border onslaught.
The footage, which was shared by Israel’s official social media channels, was part of a one-hour report aired on Channel 12’s Uvda investigative program on Thursday, using security camera footage as well as video shot by terrorists depicting the Hamas operatives storming the community’s gate and massacring citizens, as well as the kibbutz’s outnumbered and outgunned civilian security squad who had worked to fight them off.
The assault saw a total of some 1,200 people killed, mostly civilians, and 251 taken hostage to the Gaza Strip, amid horrific acts of brutality as families were targeted in their homes.
Kinneret Gat, whose daughter Carmel Gat and daughter-in-law Yarden Roman-Gat were taken hostage that day, had previously been seen in videos that surfaced in the days after the attack with her hands tied, walking alongside other elderly members of the community who were led by Hamas fighters through the kibbutz before they were shot. Her death was confirmed last December.
Carmel Gat, Kinneret’s daughter, was among the six hostages murdered in a tunnel under southern Gaza’s Rafah late last month, whose bodies were recovered by the IDF days later, prompting outrage in Israel and drawing hundreds of thousands to the streets demanding a deal with Hamas to secure the remaining captives’ release.
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Yarden Roman-Gat was released in November as part of a hostage deal.
From @Uvda_tweet and @bnshani :
"This is Kineret Gat, the mythological teacher from Be'eri. mother, grandmother, wife.
In a short while, her son, Alon, her daughter-in-law, Yarden, and her small grandchild, Gefen, will be abducted. In a short while her daughter Carmel will be… pic.twitter.com/SlyrCHDREx— Elad Simchayoff (@Elad_Si) September 26, 2024
National Unity party leader MK Benny Gantz shared the image of the defiant Kinneret Gat on X Thursday night, alongside photos of Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav, a hostage freed during the weeklong truce in November who stared down her Hamas captors as she was released to the Red Cross, and Yaffa Adar, 85, who was seen in videos shortly after her kidnapping from Kibbutz Nir Oz, smiling as she was carried to Gaza in a golf cart. Adar was also released during the weeklong truce last year.
“Kinneret Gat, of blessed memory. With her kibbutz going up in flames behind her, and terrorists about to brutally murder her in front, she didn’t lower her head in the face of evil, not even for a second,” the opposition lawmaker said. “A nation of heroines and heroes. We will not forget — and we will not forgive.”
כנרת גת ז״ל. כשמאחוריה הקיבוץ עולה באש, ומלפניה המחבלים שעוד רגע ירצחו אותה באכזריות – לא הורידה ראש אל מול פני הרוע. אפילו לא לשניה.
כמו רימון קירשט, שהישירה מבט אל חוטפיה.
כמו יפה אדר, שחייכה ברגעי חטיפתה, כאומרת – עברנו את הנאצים, נעבור גם אתכם.עם של גיבורות וגיבורים.
לא… pic.twitter.com/VSLgawv0AF— בני גנץ – Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) September 26, 2024
The Channel 12 documentary aired the footage with the permission of Gat’s family, describing her as “the legendary educator from Kibbutz Be’eri.” It emphasized the absence of the Israel Defense Forces, which took hours to arrive at the border community — the hardest hit in the attack — by which time 101 civilians and 31 security personnel had been killed, and a further 30 residents were taken hostage.
An IDF probe released in July highlighted the heroism of Be’eri’s local security team and other Israeli forces who participated in the fighting, as well as the army’s colossal failures that enabled the massacre.
In a statement following the documentary, the IDF spokesperson’s unit said: “On October 7, the IDF failed in its mission. At the same time, IDF soldiers, reservists, civilian defense squads and civilians fought heroically across the Gaza border area.” It then noted the findings of the internal probe.
“The IDF shares in the sorrow of the bereaved families and the families of the hostages,” the statement added.
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