Col. Golan Vach, Tank Fire, and "8 Babies" Killed at Kibbutz Be'eri

October 7 Massacre in Israel, Part 5: Col. Golan Vach, Tank Fire, and "8 Babies" Killed at Kibbutz Be'eri

December 11, 2023

(rough, incomplete) updates 12/13, 1/5/24

Before I get to wrapping up my 5-part overview of the October 7 massacre in Israel, at least one related set of claims required some special attention. I suppose it could become the new part 5 and push off a (final?) part 6. Sure. Let's do it. 

Col. Vach Admits Killing Israelis?

"Pelham" on X (Twitter) got 1.2 million views with this claim: https://twitter.com/Resist_05/status/1733008513163784237

"Israeli Army Commander admits they handcuffed 2 couples inside a house then used tanks to destroy the building." Presumably in Gaza, just now, since it's the first we've heard about it? There's a supporting video attached, but the screen says it's in Kibbutz Holit, Israel, one of the settlements invaded by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Was Pelham saying the IDF handcuffed Israelis before killing them with tank fire on October 7? And they admitted this on a video no one noticed until now? That's fairly absurd.

A Community note pinned to the post says: "The video is edited in the middle (0:18) to make it seem like the Israeli officer “admitted” that an Israeli tank killed Israeli hostages. In reality, he is saying that these were the actions of Hamas." 

In this clip, Vach says he found "2 couples - 2 men, 2 women, handcuffed" on the lawn in front of the house. Elsewhere he specifies they had been killed. "Inside this house were another 15 burnt people, among them 8 babies. They were concentrated them, and they killed them, and they burned them." Other videos of this presentation are clear "they" are Hamas terrorists, not any of Israel's people. 

Then there's a cut before Vach resumes, seeming to answer a question about massive damage to the house: "Our tanks attacked." A reporter asks: "Fired on them?" Vach replies: "Yeah," with a gesture of regretful acknowledgment (shown below). "Because they were blocked in these houses, and we need to conquer back the whole settlement. And it couldn't be happen without the tanks."

The commander is Col. Golan Vach, presumably uninvolved in the military attack. He's a search and rescue guy, known for leading a rescue effort in Florida after a tower collapse in Surfside a few years back. He's helped with disasters in Brazil and Turkey, at least, besides within Israel and places where it wages war. He also sings and plays guitar, as I gather from a quick search. 

Vach had risen by 2023 to be the overall commander of the IDF's search and rescue unit. In that position, he candidly admits the IDF failed to prevent the 10/7 attack, and vowed to do the right thing now and deliver the "perfection" the people need. He bore witness to numerous Hamas crimes, illustrating the enemy's inhumanity and explaining why the "people of light" need to eliminate them entirely from the region (Gaza) if Israelis ever want peace and security.  See here. 

But at least some of the crimes he reported apparently never happened.

He was an original beheaded baby witness: In Kibbutz Be'eri, he says he found a woman killed and set ablaze, still burning when he arrived. She'd been shot in the back, and was hunched over, as he found, protecting a "baby" - a young child he estimated at 1-2 years old. But the baby was somehow decapitated, despite the protection. He's not clear if he found the body, the head, or both, but he suggests they were deliberately separated by Hamas terrorists using blades. (I24 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9w21N5oYa4)

Add 12/13: "People ask me how come you did not take a picture. I said: ‘I’m sorry, I have children. I have limitations. I have limits. I do not take a picture of a decapitated baby," Vach said. (France 24) "Then, unprompted, he took out his phone and started showing me photographs he did take, one corpse after another. “Wait,” he said, swiping. “You will see the pile. They brought gasoline with them. Their intention was to burn.” (The New Yorker)

There's been visual evidence presented of one charred baby's head with no body, and to me it seems the head was mangled as it was torn off its body in a powerful blast. It doesn't appear to me severed with a blade, although that's possible. It was photographed next to a charred knife, but that obviously proves nothing (see part 4). 

It's not clear if this is what Vach refers to, or if he alleges a second "beheaded baby" here. Per the widely-cited Ha'aretz list of Israel's dead, just one baby is clearly listed as killed in the entire massacre. That could be an oversight or exclude some confirmations due to privacy concerns, for example. But Ha'aretz recently affirmed "According to sources including Israel's National Insurance Institute, kibbutz leaders and the police, on October 7 one baby was murdered, 10-month-old Mila Cohen. She was killed with her father, Ohad, in Kibbutz Be'eri. .... The police have no evidence showing that other babies were killed." (Ha'aretz - MSN)

And still, I urge caution that the list - even the released police info - might be somehow incomplete. We've been shown visuals for at least 2 or maybe 3 babies killed (#1 "shot" in the head - #2 charred head, no body - #3 a charred lump, maybe the body to #2?), and there might be more. I was thinking it was just 2-3 or maybe about five babies killed in the whole attack on over a dozen settlements. Even that leaves little room for a second "beheaded baby" and so he probably refers to that ambiguous case.

Anyway, back to the part where tank fire was mentioned. Community notes pinned to Pelham's post cited another video from UK tabloid The Sun, posted October 15. This includes Col. "Vac" saying much of the same, but in a different edit. As in all related footage, he stands in front of a certain window into this damaged home. There's no mention of tanks here, but a view of one shell's likely impact point is seen nearby to the right. 

This video includes other useful views from the left, with Vach in front of his window ...

The damaged section sticks out relative to that window. In a later view we'll discuss below, this damaged section has been removed by early December. 

The Sun video includes two views inside the damaged home - one looking in through Vach's window - the burned baby pile he pointed to is roughly at center here ...

Another view of another room (I'm not clear just how it connects):

Vach speaks here about a Hamas practice of "concentrating people to one place to kill them and to burn them. What exactly is the reason I do not know. But after a few days I knew that I should follow the fires." At each site, he would find people gathered and burned by Hamas, and at least in this case,  coincidental damage from IDF tank fire. Maybe Hamas did this to pre-absolve the IDF of any deaths? 

The tank fire was clearly mentioned by Vach at the same presentation filmed by many others. Yet no reports that I've seen, aside from the one in question, includes anything about this detail. It wasn't in the Sun report. It's not in a report from Christian Broadcast News, October 14, hearing from Col. Golan "Zach." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI-bb0tfCgs

Here, he found "a family" outside "exactly where we are standing now" at the same window. "They were laying here, 2 couples, handcuffed and murdered. 2 women, 2 men. But this was only the beginning of what we saw inside. In this corner of this living room [pointing to a spot with elevated smoke stains], we find a concentration of 8 babies burned, among 15 other people, all in the same whole - in this living room and the next one." Again, there's no mention of IDF tanks in this report.

A report at PJMedia cites this presentation: "Standing before a burned and ravaged house, Col. Vach explained to a journalist, “I found here two couples, two men and women, and inside we… found eight babies, burned, in this corner, among [other] people burned in the house, a total of 19 people.” That was just one house, and there were 19 people burned to death by Palestinian terrorists. Vach replied. One can only imagine how awful — and how horribly painful it was for the babies and adults to die that way, decapitated or burned to death." They pray for Israel's victory. Again, there's no mention of IDF tanks in this report.

Another interview at the same event, this one in Hebrew with no captioning available MIGHT discuss the tank attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQfLijnYqYI

I also found the same exact footage posted by "Pelham," complete with the same titles and the same edit, posted just then - December 7 - by Turkish Anadolu Agency. These are supposed to be professional journalists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQqxQXu0uQM This was related above, at the same location and about the same time, but delivered a bit differently as in the other videos - same delivery here, in a video from the Daily Mail, but in a different edit. 

Video description: "Anadolu obtained footage of Lt. Col. Golan Vach's statement on Oct. 14 to members of the foreign press in the kibbutz, where clashes occurred between the army and Hamas." Which Kibbutz? The description gives "the agricultural community of Kibbutz Kfar Aza" to the north, but onscreen it says Holit Kibbutz, to the south. Everyone else says it's Be'eri, in the middle. I'm with the crowd on this point. Continuing ...

"The commander of an Israeli search and rescue team stoked controversy last month while discussing the army's role in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, saying that Israeli civilians were killed when army tanks fired at houses to reclaim the agricultural community of Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian group."

They don't have the IDF handcuffing the victims, but still, this is some shoddy reading. Even here with the edit, he says "our tanks attacked" to kill the barricaded terrorists, but "they" had already "concentrated" and burned people in the same spot. Anadolu clip cons: confused location, confusing edit, confused/misleading interpretation - pros: the only one mentioning the supposedly coincidental tank fire - evident enough from the imagery.

But of course understanding what Vach factually said doesn't require us to accept what he said as fact. And as I'll show below, what he said here is pointedly NOT factual.

Alleged "Baby" and Children Tallies

Another video from the Daily Mail seems to record the same delivery as the Anadolu one, but edited to exclude the tank mention. This one adds "we knew where it was. I pointed out the house." I first read that as he pointed this damaged house out to the tank crew who then fired. But this apparently refers to another house with the decapitated baby. He's then asked if he saw the baby, he says he did, and confirms it was beheaded. 

Again, that makes for at least nine "babies" he saw killed in Be'eri. Again, per the widely-cited Ha'aretz list of Israel's dead, just one baby is clearly listed, and again "The police have no evidence showing that other babies were killed." Even if there were actually two or more, and both/all were killed at Be'eri, it's still hard to see how Vach could possibly see 9+ murdered babies there. Harder yet if there was just one.

Add 12/13: "two infants" were included on a list including those "killed by thousands of invading terrorists and by some of the thousands of rockets fired that day at Israeli cities" One may be from a rocket attack. So the direct massacre death toll of infants would be 1 or 2, and probably no higher. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/14-kids-under-10-25-people-over-80-up-to-date-breakdown-of-oct-7-victims-we-know-about/ar-AA1kZG3M

The problem also ranged wider: A ZAKA rescuer reported some 20 children's bodies, bound and burned, in 2 piles at Be'eri - seemingly additional to the 9 Vach found, but maybe including those, relocated - and one boy aged 6 or 7 was reportedly shot dead in a safe room (while no kids that age were confirmed killed), for a suggested total of about 21-30 murdered children vs. the nine now confirmed. 

But just sticking to Vach's portion, Ha'aretz reported December 4 how "a few false stories feed the deniers" (Ha'aretz - MSN): 

"As for Col. Vach’s remarks on the bodies of eight burned babies, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said he “described difficult sights that he saw during his various missions evacuating bodies at the start of the war. The review was conducted in English, and the officer used the word 'babies' to describe a number of children’s bodies that were found. The error was made in good faith and does not mitigate the severity of the atrocities committed." 

So Vach just affectionately called them all "babies," because they were all someone's babies, and not for any propaganda-related reason. Officially. 

And it was a "number" of killed children. The same Ha'aretz report says a total of "Nine minors were murdered at Be'eri." That wasn't connected to this claim, but I'll connect it here. I dug around to find the ages of these nine minors. The only agreed infant is one: Mila Cohen (10m). The others are the twins Yanai and Leil Hetzroni (12) - sisters Noya Sharabi (16) and Yahel Sharabi (13) - brothers Alon Even (16) and Ido Even (14) - plus Lior Tarshansky (16) and Tahel Bira (15). There were quite possibly a few more, including babies, that just aren't publicly listed, but Ha'aretz seems to think nine is the exact and final total. 

Overall death toll side-notes: Ha'aretz 12/4 reported 87 kibbutz residents were killed, and one (Yehudit Weiss) died as a captive in Gaza - their comprehensive list had 99 then 98 names from/killed in Be'eri last I checked - Oct. 7 map has 83 names of those killed including Weiss + 29 killed "on duty" = 111 in the attack - but others say 130 were killed (Oct. 7 map, Be'eri massacre pane: "the ruthless murder of over 130 community members" - Yossi Landau tally of 280 bodies, vs. estimates of 150 terrorists killed = ~130 civilians, and 80% of all (some terrorists included) bore signs of "torture" and/or unacknowledged IDF tank fire) (Sky News) - foreign workers, rave attendees who fled to Be'eri might be what adds up to 130 or even more. But there may or may not be additional children, including babies.  

The 12-year-old Hetzroni twins Yanai (brother) and Liel (sister) are the only kids I know the clear story of (see below) - killed in a house otherwise filled with adults, and none of the 6 other kids they were allegedly piled with. I doubt the other six were ever gathered in a single place either, so we probably have the 8 older children spread between at least 3 locales, not the one Vach describes.

Liel Hetzroni was identified from fragmentary remains over a month later. on November 13, and was publicly declared missing and perhaps kidnapped until then. But Vach's information might have included her death as confirmed, for 9 killed children to work with even then. 

If the Ha'aretz list is complete, then Vach presumably describes Mila Cohen (the only "baby" he described as actually very young) as beheaded in the foiled protection of, we would assume, her deceased mother. However: Ohad Cohen, 43 "was brutally murdered by ruthless terrorists. ... along with his infant  daughter, Mila, just 10 months old. His wife, Sandra, was gravely injured but survived." (Mapping the Massacres (oct7map.com)) Ha'aretz 12/4: "Ten-month-old Mila Cohen was murdered in the massacre, along with the baby still in the womb of her mother who died after her mother was shot on the way to hospital." 

That might be the same and only very pregnant woman described - by ZAKA head Yossi Landau - as found brutally executed with the fetus removed and stabbed to death. Ha'aretz reported on 12/4 how "Be'eri,” the police, and "a pathology source at the Shura army base" had no real information on such a killing, however much Landau tears up on recalling it.

Either way, she wasn't dead, on fire, and wrapped around a decapitated Mila. Was anyone? Or was this a different baby? If so, was it a different one that actually existed, or one Col. Vach simply made up?

And he claims he found the other 8 children - if that list is complete, including the "missing" Liel - all in that single pile, as if for sheer convenience of story-telling. Of course, they were all murdered, mutilated and burned before the IDF ever arrived. Now pause to consider ... Did he really see the bodies of three 16-year-olds, others aged 15, 14, 13, and two aged 12, piled and burned in this spot? Maybe the pile extended a ways from that wall, and wasn't too disturbed by the later and unrelated tank shelling? 

To be fair, their bodies would compress some with damage. Liel at least was in such small pieces others wouldn't see them for weeks. But it seems Vach made out her remains just fine, or he simply knew she was dead - after all, it was the sudden end to her screaming that clarified their tank shells worked - and so he included her for a total of "eight babies." 

Or did he make another "honest mistake" about the piling? The honesty part might be arguable, but his story makes little sense and furthermore, survivors from the actual events at this house describe a much different story, which many of us already know. 

Col. Vach vs. the Survivors 

Thanks to another timely video release and a tip from Qoppa, I can say this tank-damaged house in Be'eri that Col. Vach spoke at is the same house described by survivors Yasmin Porat and Hadas Dagan (see below or for more detail, see part 2). And they were clear IDF tank fire - not Hamas - killed everyone there. 

Just now, December 10, Uncaptured News passed on details from a new Israeli media report featuring more from Hadas Dagan. Fresh testimony reveals how Israel killed captives in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 (uncaptured.media) - Uncaptured News on X. The video including repeated footage of a single house - presumably the one where the described events unfolded. The interior shown in this video is the same one Vach pointed into. Below I compare a view from 2 combined frames (top) compared to the interior seen in the Sun video. Several exterior views also clarify it's the same house, albeit with a damaged section torn away since October (see above). 

Porat and Dagan describe 13 civilians killed here, not 19, and that included just 2 children - the Hetzroni twins - along with some 40 Hamas fighters, all killed when the IDF fired 2 tank shells into the house. I gave a detailed relation of their narrative in part 2, Who was Behind the Kibbutz Massacres? (The new Dagan account from uncaptured.media isn't included.)

Israeli official accounts announced “All that remains of 12 year old Liel Hetzroni is ash and bone fragments." (Israel on X) after she was murdered "in her home by Hamas monsters.” (Former PM Naftali Bennett on X). Now adding: Col Vach says she was one of "8 babies" found burned in this corner of, as it turns out, Pessi Cohen's home. He agrees Hamas did it and the tank shelling of the same house had no part. 

But Hadas Dagan confirmed to Porat that it was the IDF's tank shells and ensuing fire that turned Liel into charred pieces: “‘The girl did not stop screaming for all those hours … [but] when those two shells hit, [Liel] stopped screaming. There was silence then.” 

There were people on the lawn in that story, but no couples we know of. The 2 survivors' husbands both died there, along with 1-2 other people, after Hadas was blown aside but spared - perhaps both of the others were women, allowing the impression of 2 couples. There were then just 8 or 9 civilians inside, including the twins. All 13 fatalities named via uncaptured.media: Pessi Cohen, Hanna Cohen, Yitzhak ‘Zizi’ Siton, Tal Siton, Hava Ben Ami, twins Liel and Yanai Hetzroni, Ayala ‘Aylus’ Hetzroni (the twins' great-aunt), Zehava Hacker, Ze’ev Hacker, Suheib Abu Amer, Tal Katz (Yasmin Porat's husband or partner), and Adi Dagan (Hadas Dagan’s husband). Most were older people, and no source has claimed any minors present aside from the Hetzroni twins. 

Ha'aretz 12/4: "One case that sounds similar to the description by the Zaka member [of 20 dead children in Kfar Aza or Be'eri, depending on the version] occurred not on Kfar Azza but behind the dining hall at Be'eri, where dozens of Hamas terrorists held 15 Israelis in and around the house of Pessi Cohen and House 424 in the Ashelim neighborhood. Thirteen of the hostages were murdered, including the twins Yanai and Liel Hetzroni, 12." But this was already claimed as the site of Col. Vach's 8 burned babies, and it turns out that "murder" of 13 civilians was committed by the IDF.

But Vach had 19 civilians killed here, adding six to the established 13. He also has 6 children too many (8 vs. 2), besides calling them all babies. Is that exactly what he added? The other six minors he didn't already find beheaded? In fact, Liel's remains were here or nearby, alongside her brother Yanai. But it remains odd how Vach knew to count her, even though no one else could supposedly make out those charred fragments. 

But he clearly went beyond fact to have all the others piled here with them, as if to simplify the narrative. He went another step beyond in calling these teenagers all "babies." And did he honestly think Hamas killed those people, rather than  the IDF's tank assault? That seems possible but unlikely. He probably realized he was covering up the truth with more hateful anti-Palestinian propaganda about murdered Israeli "babies."

He might as well break out the guitar and strum us some mood music to go with his works of tragedy fiction. 

Add 1/5/24: I don't want to re-write the stuff above, but there were two further child death in Be'eri I had missed, and one was known at the time: Carmel Bachar, age 15. Considering that, Vach probably included him in that pile and had Liel just as missing as everybody else. So his pile of 8 "babies" would be aged 16, 16, 16, 15, 15, 14, 13, and just one aged 12. 

There was also a younger boy aged around 5, initially unidentified, "found inside a house set on fire by the terrorists after he tried to hide from them in an attic." (Mako 10/18). But he was only discovered 4 days after Vach's interview, so the "terrorists" didn't know to include that boy in the pile. I'm not sure if the boy was ever identified and included in later tallies. Something to find out.

A fuller edit of the Anadolu footage emerged, posted on X by Max Blumenthal the other day, starting some new discussion. 

Israeli Lt. Col. Golan Vach suggests his tanks killed at least 19 Israelis, including 8 children, in one strike on 10/7

During this presser on 10/14 in front of a destroyed kibbutz home (resembling the Pessi Cohen home in Kibbutz Beeri), Vach said, "This destruction is due to the attack by our tanks. Since these houses were seized by Hamas, we had to reclaim the entire settlement. It wouldn't have been possible without tanks... No one survived in this house."

The quote is paraphrased but close enough. Several readers challenged the "suggestion" that IDF tanks had killed the 19 civilians here. That's fair enough, so I felt compelled to step in and correct things for several people, as I did above, and clarify he blames Hamas, but he's wrong. It is exactly Pessi Cohen's house he spoke at, or the one shown on video as if it were hers, so we can directly compare his story with that of the two survivors. Aside from the 6-7 added "babies," he gives the right death toll of adults (11), even down to the 4 on the grass. Note how he denies there were any survivors. Oops for him. They exist and pretty well disprove his silly story.