Shameless: Iran Media Claim IDF, Not Hamas, Slaughtered Kibbutz Families on October 7

The Iranian propaganda organization Tasnim News outrageously accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a report on Tuesday of killing more than 100 civilians during the October 7 Hamas terror spree against the community.

Of those, the outlet — providing no substantive evidence — claimed that Israeli forces killed 25 people at Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the communities most devastated by the October 7 attacks, which the genocidal terrorists of Hamas refer to as the “al-Aqsa Flood.” Israeli first responders found widespread evidence of atrocities in the kibbutz, including body fragments of children of all ages, bodies charred and desecrated beyond recognition, and the ransacking of homes and community centers. The terrorists appeared to both destroy a kindergarten and later use it as a resting spot mid-attack, the Times of Israel reported.

Kibbutz Be’eri is believed to have lost 110 of its 1,200 residents in the Hamas attack, though experts have cautioned that the devastated state of many of the human remains at the site makes it difficult to conclusively determine a death toll. The Israeli government has brought in archaeologists to help identify the victims. Overall, Hamas jihadists killed an estimated 1,200 people throughout Israel on October 7 and are believed to be keeping about 250 hostages in Gaza.

WATCH — Graphic Content Warning: Home Where Hamas Murdered an Israeli Family in Kibbutz Be’eri:

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart News

Tasnim News, a pro-regime Iranian outlet, claimed that 25 of those killed in Kibbutz Be’eri were victims of Israeli forces, not Hamas terrorists, and that Israeli “errors” resulted in the killing of 110 civilians throughout the country during the Hamas attack.

It is possible that a handful of civilians were killed during the firefight to liberate Israeli communities from Hamas terrorists, but it is unclear if that was the case, and the Iranian news agency provided no evidence.

“During the Al-Aqsa Storm operation on October 7, Israeli security forces killed over one hundred settlers, 25 of whom were Be’eri Kibbutz inhabitants, when they encountered unexpected challenges that resulted in over 1,100 [sic] casualties,” the outlet claimed. “Israeli forces killed Israeli residents in the occupied territories, both accidentally due to a lack of preparedness and errors by the forces, and intentionally to prevent their capture by the resistance forces.”

The report provided no clear evidence for its claims. Instead, it said that the IDF decided to kill civilians to prevent them from being taken hostage, and claimed that evidence of an explosion at a kibbutz kindergarten suggests “heavy Israeli firepower,” but not Hamas bombs, hit the site. No experts on weaponry or explosives appear in the article to back the claim.

Israeli experts and defense officials have examined the aftermath of the violence at the kibbutz and found evidence that Hamas terrorists used hand grenades to attack shelters in buildings such as schools, as well as individual residences.

Tasnim speculated:

During the Be’eri Kibbutz confrontation, the resistance forces [Hamas terrorists] managed to transfer more than 30 captives with them to Gaza. … In light of these circumstances, Israeli security and military forces have opted to eliminate some captives, considered to be at higher risk compared to others, aiming to prevent further captives. It is believed that one of Israel’s primary objectives in its assault on Gaza is to either secure the release of the captives or, if not feasible, eliminate them to avert future consequences.”

“Furthermore, based on released images, certain concrete structures in Be’eri Kibbutz lay in ruins. The destruction appears to be a result of heavy Israeli firepower,” it added, without further context.

Tasnim also made a spurious allegation that the Israeli military suffered “cyberattacks” on October 7, basing the suspicion on the fact that Kibbutz Be’eri’s local security responded to the attack before the IDF. The report does not account for the fact that security officials in the kibbutz were already on site when the attack began, as opposed to soldiers stationed elsewhere in the country.

Tasnim conceded that the original source for the claim that Israeli forces killed civilians during the Hamas attack was Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah.

Tasnim News is a media site founded by members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and a formal arm of the Iranian military.

“Tasnim has supported the IRGC and other instruments of the regime in various ways, including suppressing dissent by helping the IRGC, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and LEF to crowdsource the identities of protestors,” the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) explained in September, announcing sanctions on the organization.

International anti-Israel organizations have begun to share similar allegations that Israeli forces were responsible for the October 7 Hamas terror. In the United States, the anti-Israel site “Electronic Intifada” produced a video spreading a similar claim.

The Israeli government has allowed international media organizations, including Breitbart News, to freely tour Kibbutz Be’eri in the aftermath of the Hamas slaughter.

WATCH — Footage Shows Devastation to Library in Israel After Hamas Terror Attack:

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart News

Ample surveillance video shows Hamas terrorists raiding homes and killing entire families, many in their sleep. Graffiti reading allahu akbar, or “Allah is superior,” appears on the walls of some buildings, hardly an IDF calling card. Much of the video footage existing of the October 7 attack was taken by Hamas terrorists themselves, who filmed their killing, torture, and desecration of corpses – sometimes using the mobile phones of their victims to upload the images to their social media profiles. Dozens of bodies of Hamas terrorists found in the community also serve as proof of who perpetrated the attack.

Eyewitnesses also survived to describe the Hamas assault. One survivor, 70-year-old Rami Gold, described to Breitbart News’s Joel Pollak his hours-long battle against Hamas terrorists, fighting alongside his neighbors until the arrival of IDF soldiers.

WATCH — Rami Gold, 70, Describes Fighting Terrorists at Kibbutz Be’eri:

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart News

The government of Iran, which Tasnim News is openly friendly toward, did not respond to the October 7 massacre as if it were an Israeli military operation. The Islamic regime organized street parties nationwide to celebrate the killing of Jews and foreigners simply visiting the country. In Tehran, locals handed out free lemonade and the government put on a fireworks show in response to the killing.

A Hamas spokesman told the BBC on the record on October 7 that Hamas had “direct backing” from Iran to orchestrate the attack.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

Editor’s Note:  This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel.  The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.