At least 300 people were killed Saturday as Hamas terrorists in Gaza launched a war on Israel, infiltrating towns, rampaging through military positions, shooting travelers dead on roads and firing thousands of rockets at a wide swath of the country in a shocking assault.
The dead included civilians and soldiers, young rave-goers mowed down as they fled through fields of yellowing grass, residents of kibbutzim and towns overrun by Hamas gunmen, a senior officer rushing to the front lines, a local politician killed trying to defend homes, soldiers caught off guard or overpowered by the brutal onslaught, a rescuer and firemen, elderly Israelis at a bus stop, workers and holiday making their way on normally peaceful roads, young children pulverized by rockets.
As gun battles continued early Sunday morning, only a few names of the dead had been released, their stories only beginning to be told.
Col. Jonathan Steinberg
The commanding officer of the Nahal Infantry Brigade, Col. Jonathan Steinberg, was killed Saturday morning during clashes with Hamas terrorists in the Kerem Shalom area near the border with the Gaza Strip, the military said.
Steinberg, from the southern town of Shomria, was en route to the site of clashes being managed by his subordinates when he was killed by a terrorist in an encounter.
Col. Jonathan Steinberg, the commander of the Nahal Brigade, in an undated photo (Israel Defense Forces)
He is one of the most senior Israeli officers to have been killed in combat in recent memory.
Ofir Libstein
The head of the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council, Ofir Libstein, was killed during fighting with Hamas terrorists Saturday morning, the council said in a statement.
“Ofir was killed when he went to defend a town during the terrorist attack,” the council said.
Ofir Libstein, head of Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council, attends a convention of newly elected mayors and heads of local councils, in Ashkelon, November 27, 2018. (Flash90)
Shai Hajaji, a friend and the head of the nearby Merhavim Regional Council, said Libstein was “always the first to defend residents of the council.”
“In death, as in life, Ofir was an exemplar of an ethical public figure fighting for his residents, even if it endangered his life,” Hajaji said in comments carried by Channel 12 news.
Aharon Haimov
Aharon Haimov, 25, was shot and killed as he drove an ambulance to his hometown of Ofakim to help treat victims of the assault, the Magen David Adom (MDA) rescue group said.
Haimov was a senior paramedic who began his career with MDA as a post-high school volunteer.
Aharon Haimov (Courtesy MDA)
He later joined the organization in a professional capacity as an emergency medicine paramedic and ambulance driver.
He died after being shot in an MDA ambulance by Palestinian terrorists as he was on his way to treat victims in his hometown of Ofakim as the coordinated attack on Israel by Hamas from Gaza unfolded.
In a statement, MDA said the married father of two always performed his duties in an exemplary way and was the first to respond to emergency events.
“He was a person who put the good of others and the value of life ahead of everything else — including today, on this tragic morning,” said MDA director-general Eli Bin.
Captain Shalom Tzaban
The Israel Fire and Rescue Services say the head of the Kiryat Gat station, Cpt. Shalom Tzaban, and a senior firefighter from the Netivot station, Yevgeny Galsky, were among those killed in the Hamas terrorist attack on southern Israel October 7, 2023. (Courtesy)
Cpt. Shalom Tzaban, 60, the head of the Kiryat Gat station, was killed Saturday, the Israel Fire and Rescue Services said.
Tzaban, 60, a father of two, was drafted into the fire service in 1992. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of deputy fire chief.
Yevgeny Galsky
Yevgeny Galsky, 34, a senior firefighter from the Netivot station, was killed Saturday morning, the fire service said.
Galsky joined the force three years ago. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of sergeant firefighter.
15 in Netiv Ha’asara
View of a concrete wall in the Israeli farming community of Netiv Ha’asara, December 12, 2014 (Doron Horowitz/FLASH90)
Netiv Ha’asara, a small farming town on the Gaza border, named 15 residents killed in the Hamas attack. It did not release details about the circumstances of their deaths.
They are:
Amit Wax
Yigal Wax
Adi Baharav
Tal Keren
Oren Stern
Ruti Akuni
Aryeh Akuni
Or Akuni
Orit Molcho
Shlomi Molcho
Nurit Berger
Havik Segal
Marina Almagor
Gil Ta’asa
Dani Vovek
Nine in Bedouin communities
Rockets are fired from Gaza City toward Israel on October 7, 2023. (SAID KHATIB / AFP)
Nine people, including a number of children, were killed when rockets struck their communities in the northern Negev, which do not have shelters, according to local authorities.
In Arara, Yazan Zakaria Abu Jama was killed when a rocket landed near his home. In Alba’at, brothers Malek Ibrahim Alkra’an, 14, and Jawad Ibrahim Alkra’an, 15, were killed in a direct strike. Alba’at cousins Amin Akal Alkra’an, 11, and Mahmoud Diab Alkra’an, 12, were also killed. Faiza Abu Sabaakh, 57, and her granddaughter May Zuheir Abu Sabaakh, 13, were also killed in Alba’at.
Arara resident Fatima Altilakat, 35, was also killed by gunfire near Ofakim, and Dalia Abu Madyam, in her 30s, from Rahat, was killed while working in the Gaza border area, under unclear circumstances.
