A PARLIAMENTARY panel has released a report detailing the events of the Hamas pogrom in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and it makes for harrowing reading.
In more than 300 pages, the report by the All-Party UK-Israel Parliamentary Group records in painstaking detail the fates of the 1,182 people killed by Hamas and its allies, and the 210 taken hostage. Three quarters of those killed were civilians; nearly half of those taken hostage were women and children. The youngest victim was just 14 hours old: shot in the womb as her mother was driving to hospital to give birth. The oldest, a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor. Statistics such as these give no indication of who the victims were, and what they experienced in their last moments. The report, on the other hand, very much does.
The purpose of the report is to act as a bulwark against denial of the atrocities inflicted upon thousands of people on that horrendous day. As Lord Roberts of Belgravia, who chaired the panel, noted in his foreword: ‘Holocaust denial took a few years to take root in pockets of society, but on 7 October 2023 it took only hours for people to claim that the massacres in southern Israel had not taken place.’
Yet in meticulously recording the details of the attack, the panel has compiled more than a simple historical record, more than the ‘unvarnished truth about the sheer barbarism that Hamas and its terrorist allies unleashed’, as Lord Roberts put it. The report is an act of defiance, a gauntlet thrown at the feet of those who, in sorrow or in indifference, turn away.
As a country, we in Britain have turned away. Seventeen of the victims killed on October 7 were British nationals. Two more were taken captive, only one of whom, Emily Damani, has returned alive. Emily has made the headlines as a survivor, yet who among us can name any of the others?
They were:
● 12-year-old twins, Yannai and Liel Hetzroni-Heller. Yannai and Liel were ‘vibrant’ children, living with their grandparents on Kibbutz Be’eri. Their grandfather was killed in the attack on the kibbutz, while they, along with their grandmother, were rounded up and placed in a neighbour’s house by Hamas militants who were collecting hostages. The Israeli police and army tried to negotiate for their release, but an intense firefight broke out in which all but two of the hostages were killed.
● Lianne Clair Brisley [Sharabi], 48. Noiya Sharabi, 16. Yahel Sharabi, 13. Lianne was born in Bristol and moved to Israel aged 19, to work on a kibbutz. There she met her future husband Eli, and had two children. Yahel loved to ride her bike at breakneck speed around the kibbutz and film dance videos with her friends. Noiya was quieter, loved helping disabled people, and wanted to train as a social worker.
Hamas terrorists broke into their home, shot the family dog, and forced the door of the safe room open before taking the family out and setting fire to the house. Lianne and her daughter’s bodies were identified a week later. Eli was held hostage in Gaza for 491 days, learning only on his release that his family and brother had been killed.
● Maj. Benjamin ‘Benji’ Trakeniski, 32, lived in Tel Aviv with his fiancee, Rotem Simone. Benji was killed rescuing civilians from Kibbutz Be’eri.
● Rotem Kalderon, 66, was a beloved educator and counsellor. After retiring she volunteered at a centre for victims of sexual assault and an organisation supporting IDF veterans with PTSD. Rotem was alone at home when the attack took place, and held the door to her safe room closed for over two hours. It took two weeks for her body to be identified.
● Yonatan Rapoport, 41, was born on the Isle of Wight and was a Manchester United fan. He worked as a gardener on Kibbutz Be’eri. When Hamas broke into his house he told his children, Yosef, nine, and Aluma, six, to hide under the bed in the safe room. He died protecting them.
● Aner Shapira, 22, was at the Nova music festival when terrorists attacked. Along with other festival-goers, Shapira sought refuge in a roadside bomb shelter, which then came under attack. As militants threw live grenades into the shelter, Shapira stood at the entrance and threw seven back. An eighth went off in his hands, killing him.
Aner is credited with saving seven lives and is considered a hero in Israel. In December 2023, his actions were commemorated at the start of a football match; music he had written was played in the arena, while pictures he had painted were projected on screens.
● Danny Darlington, 34, was a photographer from Manchester. He was on holiday in Israel at the time of the attack, staying with a friend, Caroline Bohl, at Kibbutz Nir Oz. Both were found in the safe room, shot dead.
● Sgt. Nathanel Young, 20, grew up in north London. Described by his brother as someone who ‘always had strong Jewish pride,’ he had moved to Israel only a few months earlier, enrolling in the IDF for his mandatory military conscription. When reports came in in the early hours of the 7th that a female soldier was in trouble, Nathanel was one of eight soldiers who rushed to her aid. They fought Hamas infiltrators for over an hour, saving the lives of others stationed at the base.
● Bernard Cowan, 57, was from Newton Mearns, near Glasgow. He moved to Israel aged 19 and settled in Kibbutz Sufa where he married, raised three children and welcomed two grandchildren. He was killed in his kitchen.
● Roi Popplewell, 54, and Nadav Popplewell, 51. Roi and Nadav grew up in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. Roi was shot in the back of the head outside his home; Nadav and their mother Channa were taken hostage. Channa was returned in November 2023 as part of the first ceasefire deal; Nadav was killed in captivity, but it is not known when.
● Jake Marlowe, 26, was from Potters Bar in Hertfordshire where his family still live. He was a bassist who had toured globally with the UK band Desolated. He was working security at the Nova festival, and helped evacuate festival-goers. He was shot nine times by Hamas; his father was able to identify the body only from tattoos on his leg.
● Sgt. Maj. Dvorah ‘Debbie’ Abraham, 40, was a dedicated police officer who was killed at the Nova Music Festival where she was on duty with police security and helped festival-goers to escape. When terrorists breached the police blockade she refused to leave in vehicles evacuating the site and died protecting civilians in the bar area of the festival.
● Sgt. 1st Class Joseph (Yosef) Malachi Guedalia, 22. A great-grandson of Holocaust survivors, Yosef’s grandfather moved to Manchester after the war and his mother grew up there before moving to Israel. Along with his unit, Yosef made four trips to Kibbutz Kfar Aza on the morning of October 7 to rescue civilians and was killed in the fighting. His comrades refused to let Hamas take his body hostage.
● British-Israeli Dor Hanan Shafir, 30, was at the Psyduck music festival on October 7 with his fiancée, Savyon Hen Kipper. They were killed fleeing the festival, but it is unclear how.
● Emily Damari, 28 was the only British hostage to be released alive. Her mother Mandy grew up in Beckenham, Kent; the family lived at Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Mandy was hiding in her safe room when Hamas militants broke into her home. She was saved from abduction or death by a bullet that lodged in the lock of the door.
Emily was found by Hamas militants hiding in her safe room at another location. She was shot in the hand, possibly while holding her dog, Chooca, which was later found dead in her room. Fellow hostages later reported how in the tunnels Emily ‘helped hold everyone together even in the worst times’. She marked her 28th birthday as a captive.
Where is the outrage for these British citizens? While they were still under attack in their own homes, as their bodies lay still warm, Hamas supporters in the UK were already applying for permission to march through the streets of London in solidarity with their murderers. Where were the marches in solidarity with Debbie and Jake and Bernard? Why were the images of 12-year-old twins Yannai and Liel not on our television screens? Do British lives not matter if they also happen to be Jewish?
Why did the British government do nothing to get Emily back? Upon her release Emily revealed that for at least part of her captivity she was held at UNWRA facilities (and not afforded the medical attention she needed for her wounds). Yet UNWRA’s material contributions to Hamas, including cash payments laundered through the Palestinian Authority, were well known long before Emily confirmed UNWRA’s complicity with Hamas. Why, then, was reinstating funding to UNWRA one of the first acts of this Labour government?
It wasn’t until January 2025, some 15 months after her abduction, that a question was raised in the House of Commons over the steps the government was taking to secure Emily’s release. David Lammy used the question to ‘call on all parties [ie, including Israel] to show flexibility at the negotiation table’, before reminding the House ‘that humanitarian access, for which we have continued to press for the people of Gaza, is hugely important’ adding almost as an afterthought: ‘and it is as important for the hostages’.
So the report is needed, not just as an historical record of the events of that hellish day, but as a thorn in the side of all who look away. The October 7 attack was the worst pogrom on Jews since the Holocaust, but it was also a double blow against British Jewry. The first blow was the loss of 18 lives. The second was the silence that followed their deaths. That silence stands in testament to how far Britain has fallen from the image we like to have of ourselves as a nation which stands up to antisemitic hate.
While the deaths of the 18 British victims are beyond contemplation, their stories are the merest glimpse of the full horror unleashed in the October 7 attack. Children lost parents and parents lost children in front of their eyes. Some victims were mutilated, both before and after death. Rape played a large role in the atrocities of that day. To understand truly what took place, the full report is recommended reading.
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