A grandmother living in a kibbutz settlement in southern Israel has become the first Australian confirmed killed in the Hamas attack.
The body of Galit Carbone, 66, was found lying on the ground outside her home in the Be’eri kibbutz, The Australian reported.
Carbone, one at least of 1000 killed in Israel, is believed to have raised her three children at Be’eri, and previously worked at the settlement as a librarian.
9news.com.au has contacted DFAT for comment.
More than 100 bodies have been found in the kibbutz, a self-sustaining farming community of 1000 residents near Gaza.
It was one of first places targeted by militants who breached the border early on Saturday morning, and among the hardest hit.
Heavily armed militants arrived in Be’eri on motorbikes around 7am, just half an hour after they breached the typically high-tech, tightly guarded border wall between Gaza and Israel.
Carbone is the first known Australian victim of the conflict.
Terrified residents told Israel’s Channel 12 television station that assailants went door to door, trying to break into their homes.
Of the 107 bodies discovered in the aftermath, most were of local residents of the kibbutz, though some were Israeli security forces, an official confirmed.
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The IDF acknowledged that Be’eri was “very badly hit.”
Horrific details are emerging from various kibbutzim attacked by Hamas, as soldiers and search and rescue teams recover bodies and look for survivors.
There are reports of Hamas militants killing babies in front of parents, and the slaughter of old and young.
Traditionally agrarian, the kibbutzim were popular in the country’s early years, founded on ideals of communal living and agriculture.
About 125,000 people live on them today, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel, and there are approximately 250 kibbutzim across Israel.
At least 260 festivalgoers were killed.
Israel-Hamas war: What you need to know
- Israel continues to pound Gaza with airstrikes. More than 1000 are dead in Israel, and at least 900 in Gaza. An Australian grandmother has been killed at a kibbutz.
- Horrifying reports of babies being killed in front of parents and other atrocities are emerging from communities hit hard in the Hamas attack.
- The number of hostages held in Gaza is estimated between 100 and 150. American citizens are believed among the hostages.
- The US carrier strike force ordered to the eastern Med has arrived, and will act as a deterrent to “any actor hostile to Israel”, US Central Command said.
