Kfar Aza massacre

Overview

The Kfar Aza massacre was the murder and abduction of residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, an Israeli community near Gaza, during the October 7 attacks of 2023. Hamas, a terrorist organization, sent attackers into the kibbutz as part of its assault on southern Israel. The attackers entered homes, killed residents, fought the community’s defenders and took 19 people hostage to Gaza. The documented toll was 62 residents killed, including members of the local security team, and 18 members of the responding security forces killed in the battle. Fighting continued after October 7 as Israeli forces worked to regain control of the kibbutz.

Kfar Aza was among the Israeli communities struck by massacres that day, alongside Be’eri. The assault also reached the roads connecting communities in the area, including Route 232, where attackers killed motorists. At Kfar Aza, the destruction of homes and the abduction of residents made the attack both a mass killing and a hostage-taking. Survivors later faced the loss of relatives and neighbors, prolonged displacement and the task of rebuilding the community.

Background

Kfar Aza was a kibbutz close to Gaza in southern Israel. Homes, shared facilities and a neighborhood for younger residents formed part of a community of several hundred people. Route 232 connected the kibbutz with other communities in the area, including Be’eri. Kfar Aza had a local security team whose weapons were stored in an armory in the center of the kibbutz. Its members were residents defending their own community, including Ofir Libshtein, an Israeli politician and head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council.

Hamas opened its October 7 assault with a rocket barrage at about 6:29 a.m. Attackers then crossed from Gaza into Israeli communities and attacked people in their homes and on nearby roads. Families and children were among those abducted to Gaza. Children taken from Kfar Aza and Be’eri included members of the Goldstein-Almog family, who were held for 51 days; Emily Hand and Hila Rotem Shoshani were released after 50 days in captivity. The attacks on these communities were part of the same assault, although each community experienced its own sequence of fighting, killings and abductions.

The scale and speed of the invasion overwhelmed defenses across the area. At Kfar Aza, the local security team had to respond while attacks were unfolding at numerous other communities and military positions. Residents sheltered in protected rooms as terrorists entered the kibbutz. Israeli forces struggled to reach them, and the first troops entered only after the attackers had already killed dozens of people. The delay left residents and their neighbors’ security team facing an assault far larger than the local defense system was built to withstand.

The attack

Hamas terrorists entered Kfar Aza shortly before 7 a.m. on October 7. They came through more than one entrance, using vehicles and motorbikes, and spread into residential neighborhoods. The local security team, which had 14 members that morning, moved toward the armory to collect its weapons. Its members fought the attackers nearby, but seven were killed and another was wounded. By about 8:10 a.m., the team could no longer function as a coordinated unit. Libshtein was among its murdered members.

The attackers gained control of much of Kfar Aza within the first hour. They moved from home to home, killed residents and carried out abductions while people hid in protected rooms. By approximately 8:30 a.m., 37 residents, including the seven local defenders, had been killed. Terrorists continued to operate in the kibbutz after the first Israeli troops arrived. In the northern neighborhoods, where troops arrived later, residents were abducted during the late morning. The 19 people taken hostage from Kfar Aza were transported to Gaza.

The first group of Israeli soldiers entered the kibbutz at about 8:33 a.m. Other forces followed, but they faced terrorists dispersed among homes and encountered serious problems coordinating their movements. Fighting in one neighborhood did not immediately secure another. Attackers continued to kill and abduct civilians while troops fought elsewhere in the kibbutz. Israeli forces gained control of most of Kfar Aza on October 8, continued clearing it on October 9 and killed the final terrorist remaining there on October 10.

Combat medic Yona Betzalel Brief reached Kfar Aza with his team at about 10:30 a.m. on October 7. They fought terrorists while trying to clear homes and rescue residents. When his commander, Maj. Ben Bronshtein, and teammate, Sgt. First Class Amir Fisher, were fatally wounded, Brief went to help them and was shot 13 times. He survived the initial battle and received prolonged medical care, but died of his wounds on November 26, 2024, more than a year after the attack. His death illustrates how the battle’s toll extended beyond the day of the massacre.

The killings at Kfar Aza occurred during a wider attack on Israeli civilians. Hamas-led attackers entered family homes and abducted people rather than confining their assault to military positions. On Route 232, which passes kibbutzim in the area, terrorists also massacred drivers. The violence at Kfar Aza and Be’eri formed part of the same October 7 assault, but the number of people killed and taken hostage at Kfar Aza refers to that kibbutz and its battle, not to the toll across the surrounding communities.

Victims

The documented Kfar Aza toll comprises 62 residents killed and 18 security personnel killed. The resident count includes members of the kibbutz’s local security team; the 18 were members of the forces fighting to defend or retake the community. Hamas terrorists also took 19 people hostage from Kfar Aza. These categories describe different groups affected by the assault and distinguish the community’s murdered residents from the responding personnel who died in combat.

Ofir Libshtein was 50 when Hamas terrorists murdered him while he defended Kfar Aza. He was an Israeli politician and peace advocate, and was the first person publicly named among those murdered on October 7. His 19-year-old son Nitzan Libshtein was also murdered. The same attack killed Ofir’s mother-in-law, Bilha Epstein, and his wife’s nephew, Netta Epstein. For the Libshtein family, the massacre therefore took four relatives across three generations: Ofir, Nitzan, Bilha and Netta.

Families throughout Kfar Aza endured similar losses. Residents were killed inside homes, in the neighborhood for younger members and while trying to defend others. Survivors later described waiting in protected rooms as terrorists moved nearby, with little knowledge of what had happened to relatives elsewhere in the kibbutz. The 19 abductions prolonged the ordeal for families after the immediate fighting ended. Two people abducted from Kfar Aza, Alon Shamriz and Yotam Haim, were later mistakenly killed by Israeli soldiers after escaping their captors in Gaza; their deaths must be distinguished from the murders committed by the October 7 attackers.

Perpetrators and responsibility

Hamas perpetrated the Kfar Aza massacre as part of its October 7 terrorist assault on Israel. Its attackers crossed from Gaza, overwhelmed the kibbutz’s local defenders, murdered civilians in their homes and abducted residents. The attack on Kfar Aza was one part of a coordinated assault on communities, roads and military positions across southern Israel. The murder of residents and seizure of hostages establish that the assault targeted civilians as well as security forces.

The Israel Defense Forces investigated the battle at Kfar Aza and found that it had failed to protect the community. The first troops reached the kibbutz roughly two hours after the assault began. Even after they entered, limited information and weak coordination impeded efforts to reach neighborhoods where terrorists were killing and abducting residents. That failure forms part of the account of how attackers retained control for hours; responsibility for the deliberate massacre and hostage-taking rests with Hamas and the attackers who carried it out.

Response

Israeli troops and other security personnel fought through the kibbutz over several days, rescuing residents and clearing homes. The prolonged battle left much of Kfar Aza damaged. Survivors were displaced while decisions about rebuilding homes, shared facilities and daily services lay ahead. The community’s losses included residents who had served in local leadership and emergency roles, adding to the difficulty of organizing recovery after the attack.

The Kfar Aza Foundation was established after October 7 to help residents rebuild their lives and sustain the community. Alon Futterman served as its director and chief executive during its recovery work. The foundation brought residents and outside professionals together around education, health, welfare, community support, commemoration and physical rebuilding. Those efforts addressed needs beyond damaged buildings: families also required places to live, services for children and support as they decided whether and when to return.

Michal Rosenberg, who survived the Hamas massacre at Kfar Aza, later spoke to visitors there about her experience. Futterman also spoke about the community’s recovery during a visit by entertainment industry leaders organized by the American Jewish Committee and Creative Community for Peace. Their accounts connected visitors with both the violence residents had survived and the work needed to restore community life. By 2026, some families had returned to Kfar Aza, while others remained in temporary housing or had not decided to return.

Remembrance

The physical remains of the massacre stayed visible to later visitors to Kfar Aza. Damaged homes, marks left by gunfire and first responders’ writing on buildings testified to the killing and the search for victims. Visitors also saw remains connected with the abductions. These sites became places where survivors could describe what happened and where others could confront the consequences of the attack on households rather than view it solely as a military battle.

Residents commemorated those killed at the kibbutz, including the members of its local security team who died near the armory. At a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the attack, mourners gathered there, lit memorial candles and remembered the defenders by name. The ceremony began with a moment of silence at 6:29 a.m., the time the opening rocket barrage had begun two years earlier. The damaged buildings and memorials gave the community both evidence of its loss and places to honor those who had lived there.

Ofir Libshtein’s defense of Kfar Aza and his advocacy for peace became part of the remembrance of October 7. The American Jewish Committee created the Ofir Libshtein Bridge Building Award in his memory, and his brother Doron Libshtein accepted it. Remembrance of Ofir also includes Nitzan, Bilha Epstein and Netta Epstein, whose deaths show how the massacre reached through one extended family. For survivors, commemoration has continued alongside the Kfar Aza Foundation’s work to rebuild homes and support the people who make up the kibbutz.