Israel military says ‘highly likely’ killed kibbutz resident during 2023 attack

The Israeli army said Friday that an internal inquiry found it “highly likely” it killed a kibbutz resident as it fought Hamas militants during their October 7, 2023 attack.

The inquiry, which heard testimonies from soldiers and civilians, sought to establish cause of death for Tomer Eliaz-Arava and his mother Dikla Arava, two residents of kibbutz Nahal Oz, one of the communities worst hit by the attack.

The army said that according to the inquiry team’s assessment, Eliaz-Arava had first been abducted by Hamas militants and forced to go door to door to persuade residents to come outside.

The inquiry found that after an hour and a half, Eliaz-Arava managed to escape and hide.

Soldiers from a unit that had come to the kibbutz’s aid saw “a suspicious figure”, whom they shot at.

“The inquiry concluded that it is highly likely the figure was Tomer Eliaz-Arava, who was mistakenly killed by (Israeli army) fire due to a misidentification.”

The statement said that in the meantime Hamas fighters abducted Eliza-Arava’s mother taking her in a vehicle towards Gaza.

“During the drive towards Gaza, the vehicle was fired upon from the rear,” resulting in her death.

“The inquiry suggests a reasonable possibility that Dikla Arava was killed by (Israeli army) fire after being in a vehicle identified by the forces as belonging to fleeing terrorists,” the army said.

It added that “in both cases, it is not possible to determine with absolute certainty what caused the deaths.”

In the aftermath of the attack, concerns that several Israelis may have been killed by friendly fire led the army to launch inquiries.

In kibbutz Beeri, another hard-hit community near the Gaza border, witnesses told Israeli media a tank fired at a house in which 14 people were being held by Hamas.

The 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures. A further 251 people were abducted.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 46,006 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.