The IDF published its investigations regarding the failures of October 7. Be'eri residents say that there are many questions left unanswered. Although the IDF listed several blunders on its part, many believe the investigation does not include the heroic acts of the first responders and the soldiers who sprang into action.
Imad Habaka, Lieutenant Colonel Salman Habaka's father, said: "It's true there were many failures, but it's also important to know that many soldiers entered Be'eri and fought there. My son did not hesitate upon entering Be'eri. When everything started, he didn't wait for orders, but took responsibility, took a tank, entered Be'eri, and fought there along his comrades. Salman moved from house to house, saved people, and tended to the wounded. Every soldier I met who told me about the battle in Be'eri explicitly said that the tanks that entered prevented a much greater disaster in Be'eri."
Sharon, the sister of Major Benjamin Trakeniski, who assisted in evacuating the wounded from Be'eri and was killed in action, posted on Facebook stating that an IDF representative spoke with them before publishing the investigation. "I want to clarify a point here. The title - the IDF has failed. And there is no doubt that there is truth here. The intelligence, the plans, the response time, and everything was not close to the level it should have been at, therefore the tragic results."
"At the same time, there is the IDF at the organizational level and there is the IDF at the personal level," she added. "The failure is at the organizational level, and these are the lessons that we must learn today. On the other hand, on the personal level, without soldiers with a moral compass, full of fighting spirit, eager to engage, and filled with love of their homeland, the tragic results would have been multiplied. These are traits they received from home and then in the army. I ask you to pay attention to the difference between organizational failure and personal heroism.
"Pure people like Benji put the defense of the country before anything else while being exposed to sights that I wish were not real," wrote his sister. "I ask that you cherish the sacrifice, that you remember the dozens of people he saved, that you recognize the elimination of dozens of terrorists during his 14 hours of fighting, and the fact that with failure comes excellence. Thank you Benji, we will be better for you."
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also posted a message before the investigation was published, stating, "It's a mistake to focus the discussion on tactical errors of one commander or another, on whether it was right or wrong to fire a tank shell at a house, because to me every soldier, commander, police officer, and civilian who got into their car on October 7 and charged into a confrontation against masses of terrorists displayed almost unnatural bravery and courage."
"Mistakes were made, but that's the most logical thing to happen in an unprecedented and inhuman situation. Everyone who went southward is a hero. The colossal failure belongs to the state institutions, the government, and the security organizations, the IDF and the Shin Bet, but not to the soldiers themselves. It's a moral failure to direct the blame to soldiers and commanders in the field instead of the enormous failure at the top of the political and military hierarchy," he added.