IDF probe finds kibbutz members likely killed by friendly fire on Oct 7

Dikla Arava was shot in her car while being kidnapped, son Tomer was hiding in bushes in Nahal Oz.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A mother and son in Kibbutz Nahal Oz were likely killed accidentally by IDF forces battling Hamas terrorists there on October 7, the army said on Friday.

While saying that “It is not possible to determine with complete certainty what caused” the deaths of Dikla Arava and her son, Tomer Eliaz Arava, the IDF presented as full a picture as it could based on “various sources” as well as eyewitness testimony of soldiers, commanders and members of the kibbutz who were there at the time.

According to the report, which was presented to the family on Thursday, the chronology of events showed that on the morning of the mass invasion from Gaza, after dozens of terrorists overran the kibbutz, several broke into the Arava-Elyakim family home and shot at the door of the safe room where the family was hiding and took the family captive.

As a result of this shooting, the head of the family, Noam Elyakim, was wounded badly in the leg.

The terrorists then used Dikla’s cell phone to broadcast a live video feed on Facebook of forcing Tomer, 17, at gunpoint, to walk around the nearby houses in the kibbutz and call on the neighbors to come out of their homes.

“After about an hour and a half,” the report said, “Tomer managed to escape from the terrorists and hide. A few minutes later, a combat force, which had been engaged in intense fighting for six hours in the kibbutz” against the numerous infiltrators, “identified a suspicious figure” and shot at him several times.

The investigation concluded that this person was most likely Tomer, who was killed by this tragic case of mistaken identification.

As for his mother, the report said that terrorists put her in the family’s car along with her partner, Noam, and his two daughters, Ela (8) and Dafna (15), and started driving towards the Gaza border to take them hostage.

The analysis of events concluded that “amid fierce combat with numerous terrorists,” IDF soldiers shot at the fleeing car, hitting it in the back, and that it was “a reasonable possibility” that at least one of the bullets killed Dikla.

“After the shooting, the terrorists abandoned the vehicle within the kibbutz, leaving behind” her body, the report stated.

Noam’s body was also found later. The two girls were eventually released among others from the kibbutz and more than 80 other Israeli women and children in the only hostage deal to date, in late November 2023.

The team leading the investigation was headed by Col. (res.) Yaron Sitbon, who is also in charge of the parallel inquiry into the entire 12-hour battle for Nachal Oz, which has yet to be completed, the army said.

Twelve other kibbutz members were murdered by the terrorists on the kibbutz, as well as a student from Tanzania whose body was stolen into Gaza, and a Border Police officer who was killed in the battles.

Two members of the kibbutz, Tsachi Idan and Omri Miran, are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip.

The IDF expressed its “deep condolences to the Arava-Eliaz-Elyakim family and the Nahal Oz community” upon presenting the report.

The kibbutz published a statement calling the investigation “unbearably difficult and heartbreaking.”

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