By The Jerusalem Post (World News) | Created at 2025-01-04 02:05:05 | Updated at 2025-01-06 05:36:54
2 days ago
One of the survivors, Yasmin Porat, was recorded saying that the IDF had accidentally been shooting at hostages due to a lack of coordination on the ground at the scene.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF JANUARY 4, 2025 03:59
Destroyed house in Be'eri
(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
New recordings of a hostage-taking situation during Hamas's October 7 attacks in Kibbutz Be'eri were published by Channel 12 on Friday.
The recordings were from Be'eri resident Pessi Cohen's house, which became notable during a situation on October 7 where 40 terrorists barricaded themselves in the house with 15 hostages. Only two of the captives survived.
The recordings were taken in real time by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the report noted. As negotiations with the terrorists for the hostages' release were held, an intense firefight between Hamas and Israeli forces raged outside the residence.
Cohen's house became a symbol for the battles that went on in the kibbutz, and the fight at her house lasted for about six hours.
The recordings that were found
One recording released was between one of the two survivors at Cohen's house, Yasmin Porat, speaking to a Shin Bet representative saying "I am here in Kibbutz Be'eri with 50 hostages along with Palestinian guys, everyone here is crying a lot. They want to take us with them to Gaza."
Porat continued, saying "Things are very bad, there's one person here badly injured, another already starting to feel unwell, and one that was killed. They're taking us with them either way - alive or dead."
She then recalled that the Hamas terrorists saw that she wasn't "nervous enough" and that she was "speaking calmly," the report quoted her as saying.
Porat then reportedly noticed the Hetzroni children near her begging for their lives. Their pleas were captured by the recording. The children were later discovered to have been killed by Hamas.
Also with her in the recording is a Hamas terrorist, which the N12 report named as "Hassan."
"I have 50 people hostage with me," the recording captured Hassan saying. "I want to go with the 50 to Gaza. Listen to my instructions now, so that I don't start murdering them. You now have five minutes for me to leave the settlement and take them to Gaza. Any attempt at intervention by the air force, fighters, tanks, or vehicles - I will murder all 50."
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The Shin Bet representative tried to buy time with the Hamas terrorist, the N12 report added, asking him for 20 more minutes to update the Israeli forces on the ground.
Hassan and other terrorists did not cooperate with the representative's request. Instead, they tried to take the hostages to jeeps that would head towards Gaza, but are prevented to do so by Israeli forces who were operating outside the house.
As the Shin Bet representative was reportedly trying to communicate to the IDF soldiers that they should not shoot, Hassan was recorded saying, "The army came to me, here the army came to me."
Suheib Abu Amer, a bus driver from east Jerusalem who was kidnapped from the Nova Festival to serve as an Arabic interpreter for the terrorists, came onto the line.
"I am also one of the hostages," the N12 report quoted him as saying. "I am from Jerusalem, from Beit Hanina. There was a nature party and I am a minibus driver. I have been running since this morning, I don't know where to hide."
The Shin Bet official responds saying he needs to know Amer's location so that he is not harmed by Israeli forces.
Hassan, on the line with the Shin Bet official, said he would give the the Israeli forces five minutes to reveal themselves, and if they failed to do so, he would shoot a hostage. He went on to threaten to shoot another every five minutes if his demands were not met.
He also said to the Israeli official "You stay on the line and hear them die."
The Shin Bet personnel responded by saying "I won't be able to help you if you start killing people."
"Don't make me get to a point where I kill people," Hassan responded. "We want to die, we don't care. I want you to tell the little girl that it's a shame she's going to die," referring to a hostage he was holding inside the house named Liel, the report said.
Liel asked the Shin Bet official, "Can you please come and pick us up? We're asking. I'm a girl, I have school tomorrow, I need help!"
Hassan also said, that at the time the recording was made, that "more than a hundred hostages are already in Gaza."
Yamam Unit arrives at the scene
The IDF's Yamam Unit later arrived at the house, and the Hamas terrorist used Porat as a human shield to try to get past them, the report noted.
The Shin Bet official reportedly told Hassan that he was not in communication with the unit that arrived at the house.
Other Hamas terrorists used hostages at the house as human shields when Israeli forces arrived.
"Let the army kill them, we will not kill them," Hassan was quoted as saying.
"Listen, did you like what happened?" he asked the official.
"What you heard was an exchange of fire between us and your army," he said, demanding the official try to withdraw the Israeli forces.
Continuing to use the hostages as human shields, the terrorists fled inside the house and forced about six of those they had captured to stand outside, the report noted.
Porat was later quoted from the recording telling the Shin Bet official, "Save us, they're shooting at us here, we're about to die, you're not normal - the IDF is shooting at us!"
The Shin Bet representative was in a command post far from Be'eri at the time of the phone conversation, and Israeli forces at the kibbutz had not received all the information about the Hamas attacks at the time, N12 noted.
Even after Porat explained to the Israeli representative that there are hostages outside, including her partner Tal, the information was not passed on to the soldiers on the ground, and they continued to shoot at the house.
Upon being asked by the official of her exact location, Porat said that she's "inside the house."
"I'm lying here on the floor, I'm scared to death," she said. "The terrorists are everywhere, they're next to me, there are a lot of them, there are about 40, they're everywhere. They started shooting so I went inside, and I'm still thinking about the rest outside."
Amer also echoed Porat's statements that the IDF was mistakenly shooting at them, adding "that there are small children."
According to N12, this is the last statement he said before his death. Porat's partner, Tal, who was outside as the terrorists' human shield, was also heard screaming for help in the recordings.
The Hamas terrorist on the line continues to berate the Shin Bet representative, saying "you hit a house with hostages in it, here there are wounded hostages on your side – we didn't shoot, you were the ones who shot," while the Israeli representative was trying to get the forces at the scene to stop firing.
Hasan later eventually said he would turn himself in at around 4:30 p.m., to which the Shin Bet representatives said "no problem, let all the hostages come out and no one will shoot at you. If you turn yourself in, you have to come out unarmed. Anyone who turns themselves in will not be shot."
Hasan said that only he would come out, but the Shin Bet official insisted that every Hamas terrorist come out of the house and remove their clothing to their underwear.
Only Hasan went out, with Porat accompanying him, and the former was then interrogated by the Yamam Unit.
The exchange of fire continued with the rest of the terrorists at the house. Thirteen hostages were killed, with those outside killed in the exchange of fire.
