Israeli Army Probing Death of 12 Hostages in Kibbutz Be'eri House Shelled on Orders of Senior Officer

An Israel Defense Forces General Staff team has begun investigating an incident in which 12 hostages held by Hamas terrorists were killed in the home of Pessi Cohen in Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7.

Yasmin Porat and Hadas Dagan, the only two survivors of the incident, say that the house was shelled by a tank. That has raised suspicions that Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, the commander of the army's 99th Division who led the fighting in the kibbutz, ordered a tank crew to fire on Cohen's house even though he knew hostages were being held there.