The Civil Commission on the October 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, under the leadership of Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy in consultation with former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, coined a new war crime titled kinocide and argued in favor of it receiving international recognition.
By Rachel Avraham
The Civil Commission on the October 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children recently published an 80-page report titled “Kinocide: Uncovering the Weaponization of Families on October 7, 2023.” The report presents a convincing case for why international law as it presently stands does not adequately address the intentional targeting of families in conflicts across the world, which includes what happens on October 7, but not only: Kinocide also took place during the Yezidi Genocide in Iraq and Syria, in the Ukraine, Bosnia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and other places as well. The Civil Commission on the October 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, under the leadership of Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy in consultation with former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, coined a new war crime titled kinocide and argued in favor of it receiving international recognition.
According to their proposed definition, “Kinocide should mean any of the following acts deliberately committed with the knowledge that they will likely lead to the destruction of a family, familial relationships or the disintegration of family units. These acts are characterized by the exploitation of familial bonds to exacerbate suffering, or committed against family members in front of or in the presence of other members of their family. The acts must also be carried out as part of a widespread or systematic attack, where the perpetrator is aware of the context and implications of this overarching attack on families. These acts may encompass but are not limited to”:
- Killing of family members
- Inflicting serious bodily or mental harm on family members
- Torturing family members
- Committing acts of sexual violence, including rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, or enforced sterilization against family members
- Separating family members by force or the threat of force
- Hostage-taking
- Broadcasting or disseminating any of the above acts or their effects on family members
- Committing other inhumane acts of a similar nature that cause significant suffering or harm to family members
In their scathing report, the Civil Commission on the October 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children documented how Hamas committed kinocide on October 7, 2023 and afterwards. In one of the instances documented, they wrote: “The Idan family of Kibbutz Nahal Oz is one among many whose peaceful lives were shattered on October 7. That morning, the perpetrators invaded the family’s home. As the family tried to hide in their saferoom, the perpetrators shot and killed eldest daughter Maayan, age 18, in front of her father Tsachi, her mother Gali, her 11-year-old sister Yael, and her nine-year-old brother Shahar.”
The report continues, “The surviving members of the family were then forced outside at gunpoint, as the parents attempted to shield the children with their bodies. The perpetrators commandeered the mother’s Facebook account and live-streamed the entire ordeal for the family’s loved ones to witness in real time. The video shows the family members clinging to one another as they digest the death of their daughter and sister. The children’s fear, their facial expressions, and their trembling bodies reveal the depth of their terror.”
According to the report, “At one point, the perpetrators attempted to separate Shahar from the rest of the family. Shortly after, Tsachi was forcibly separated from his family and taken hostage into Gaza. As of the writing of this report, Tsachi has been held hostage for more than a year. Gali and the surviving children continue to suffer the psychological trauma associated with not knowing his fate.”
“Also in Holit, Rotem Matias (16) had to inform his sisters about the death of their parents he had just witnessed over text messages, as he remained hiding under his mother’s lifeless body,” the commission reported. ““Mom and Dad are dead. Sorry,” his sister recounted the words her brother texted in the aftermath of the attack. In an interview from his hospital bed, Rotem said, “The terrorists opened the doors, shot, and threw in a grenade that exploded. The last thing my dad said was that he lost his arm, and then my mom died on top of me … I just stopped my breathing and lowered it down as much as I possibly could. I didn’t move. I was terrified, and I didn’t make any noise… And I prayed for any God, I didn’t really care which God. I just prayed for a God that they won’t find me.””
According to the commission’s report, “In another case, Roee Idan, a father in Kfar Aza, was shot and killed while holding his three-year-old daughter, Abigail, in his arms, with his two older children witnessing the murder. Their mother, Smadar, was also shot and killed in front of them. After seeing their parents murdered, two of the children hid in a closet beside their mother’s dead body for hours, waiting for help. Meanwhile, they were uncertain about the fate of their younger sister, Abigail, who fled to another house and was later abducted into Gaza.”
“In Holit, four-year-old Eshel Kaploun told his father how his mother, Adi, tried to protect his four-month-old brother (Negev) from the perpetrators, and then “she was gone,”” the commission noted. “The children were kept alive, while the mother was shot and killed. It was reported that the mother’s last words to her sons were, “Remember, mommy loves you more than anything in the world.” The perpetrators then filmed themselves with the children, widely shared the video over social media, and used it for propaganda. They then attempted to abduct the children into Gaza..”
According to the report, “Similarly, at the Berdichevsky’s home in Kfar Aza, perpetrators shot and killed the two parents while leaving their 10-month-old twins to fend for themselves. At the Karp family home in Reim, 10-year-old Daria and her younger brother hid for hours in a room with the dead bodies of their father and his girlfriend, who were shot in front of them.” In other cases, the children were also not spared: “One example is 13-year-old Hadar Bachar of Be’eri, who fought for over 12 hours to save her severely injured father, mother, and brother. The perpetrators shot and threw grenades at the family’s saferoom. Audio recordings capture Hadar’s attempts to call for help and report the injuries. She describes in detail her efforts to save her parents and brother. Her father survived but lost his leg. Her mother and 15-year-old brother bled to death in front of their family.”
According to the report, these wanton acts of violence targeting families in Southern Israel were not isolated incidents: “the Commission’s team identified clear, recurring, and methodical patterns of operation of the October 7 attack that were specifically directed against families, indicated the organized nature of the attack. These include the forced separation of families; killing and/or severe injury of family members in front of their loved ones; deliberate destruction of entire familial lineages; abduction and hostage-taking of children and family members; the use of social media and live streams to widely disseminate the atrocities to the general public and directly to the victims’ loved ones, including the use of the victims’ own social media accounts; and the burning and extreme vandalism of family homes, often while families were still hiding inside.”
The report emphasized, “One pattern repeated in virtually all the impacted communities that Hamas and its collaborators invaded is the methodical burning, looting, and extreme vandalism of family homes. In many cases, homes were set on fire with the families still seeking shelter inside, their charred bodies later discovered in the rubble. According to a community representative from Nir Oz, for example, 60 percent of the homes in the community were burned down. Hamas and its collaborators documented themselves gloating and cheering at the destruction of homes.”
Sunshine Levy from Kibbutz EinShlosha told the commission how much this tactic of kinocide adversely affected her: “[my] children have been everything to me since they came out of my womb. How do you say goodbye to something so sweet and innocent and beautiful, that makes you happy every day? It cannot be that you can die so easily inside your safe room, in your place, in your home — in the safest place in your home.”
Throughout the report, it was documented that Hamas did not only burn homes down: “the destruction was also aimed at objects of sentimental value, including family photos, cherished mementos, and children’s toys. The killings of family pets were also documented in several locations, sometimes in the presence of their owners. These acts not only destroy physical possessions, but also deeply impact the emotional well-being and cultural heritage of the affected families and communities.”
According to the report, “On October 7, 251 individuals were taken hostage. Among them were 37 families and 41 children, ranging in age from four-and-a-half months to 17 years, who were violently abducted from their homes. Thirty-six of these children were taken into Gaza and held hostage there (the remaining five escaped or were abandoned before crossing the border). The abduction of children under age 18 took place in six different communities. The perpetrators killed the parents of many of these children before their eyes, moments before their abduction.”
The report added, “The perpetrators forced virtually all of the abducted children to separate from one or both parents prior to their abduction, during their time in captivity, or upon their release. A third of the children were kidnapped completely alone, without a parent. This group includes four-and-a-half-month old Eshel Kaploun and his four-year-old brother Negev from Holit, whose mother was murdered (although the children were abandoned by their captives right before reaching Gaza), and four year-old Avigail of Kfar Aza, who witnessed the murder of her parents before being taken hostage.”
According to the report, “Yagil (12) and Or (15) Yaakov were home alone when they were abducted. Their captors separated them from each other during their time in captivity and held them in separate locations. The boys’ father and his life-partner were taken hostage separately from their nearby home. The father, Yair Yaakov was murdered. Yagil describes this separation from his family as the most excruciating element of his captivity. An additional seven children were forced to separate from both their parents and spent all or part of their time in captivity without a parent to care for them. This group included Emma Cunio, a three-year-old separated at gunpoint from her twin sister Yuli and both her parents for ten days upon her abduction.”
In fact, with the present hostage crisis, Hamas continues to engage in kinocide. For example, Iair Horn was released from Hamas captivity, but his brother Eitan is still held hostage, even though he was wounded in the leg. Thus, by releasing Iair but not Eitan, even though Eitan is wounded, Hamas is callously separating the brothers. In fact, even during their captivity, the brothers were separated. According to various reports in the media, the brothers were held together in the beginning, but were then separated. Especially given that Eitan was wounded, this tactic of kinocide intensifies the psychological distress for the brothers and the entire family.
Another known example is that of Yarden Bibas. His plight is especially dire because he does not know if his wife Shiri, and two children Ariel and Kfir, are still alive, and if they are alive, in what condition they are in, as they are still held hostage by Hamas. Thus, by releasing Yarden Bibas but not his wife and small children, and Hamas not even telling Israel about the fate of Yarden Bibas’s wife and children, Hamas is engaging in kinocide, thus stabbing another dagger into the heart of Yarden Bibas and his entire family.
But Hamas’s cynical exploitation of families does not end there. In the recent hostage release ceremony, Hamas forced Iair Horn to hold up an hour glass with the phrase “time is running out,” with a picture of the hostage Matan Zangauker. For the families of the hostages, such tactics by Hamas cause significant psychological damage. This intentional targeting of families should be classified as a new war crime.
If kinocide was already recognized as a war crime under international law, it would be greatly beneficial in ensuring justice to victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity across the world. After all, there is something that is in-between genocide, the intentional murder of a nation in whole or in part because of their race, religion or ethnic group; democide, which is when a leader slaughters his own people in order to stay in power, like what Assad did in Syria; and just the standard massacre, terror attack or murder charges. There is crime against humanity that is in-between called kinocide and it best describes what happened on October 7, 2023. After all, October 7 was greater than a massacre or terror attack; but because the Hamas invasion was thwarted, it did not lead to genocide, although Hamas certainly has genocidal intentions. But thankfully, it did not develop into genocide for their invasion was halted. However, it did result in kinocide and this grave crime is begging for international recognition under international law. The community of nations for the benefit of the victims should recognize the crime of kinocide at the soonest possible date.
