Israel war: Aussie gran Galit Carbone confirmed dead, more stranded
A 66-year-old woman is the first Australian death confirmed in Israel as more are missing and feared abducted or dead. See the Aussies caught up in Israel’s war.
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A 66-year-old woman has become the first Australian death confirmed in Israel.
Galit Carbone was found outside her home in a kibbutz where more than 100 were killed.
Cousin Julian Cappe said the family was “numb” after getting confirmation she had been killed.
The Sydney-born mother of three, and grandmother of two, was among those in the Be’eri kibbutz, 5km from the Gaza Strip border, when Hamas terrorists stormed over the border and executed 10 per cent of the village’s population.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said: “The Australian Jewish community is already devastated and confirmation of an Australian grandmother murdered in her home brings us new pain and sorrow.
“This is the latest chapter in an unfolding horror and coincides with the discovery of 40 murdered babies, some decapitated in a village overrun by Hamas.
“This mass atrocity has transcended Israel’s borders and devastated communities and nations throughout the world.
“We mourn with the Carbone family at this terrible time and stand with the people of Israel and all the nations affected by this mass atrocity.”
Australians bunkering down in safe rooms in Israel have spoken of their devastating grief for friends they’ve lost, fears for loved ones called up to fight and the uncertainty over what will come next.
ADI KAPLON
The two young grandsons and daughter-in-law of an Australian have been abducted and his son’s girlfriend brutally killed after their village was raided by Hamas terrorists.
Adi Kaplon is believed to be among hundreds captured by insurgents who crossed the Gaza border into villages and towns in southern Israel early on Sunday, according to The Australian.
Ms Kaplon’s childhood friend Moses Ben-Giat spoke to The Australian as he revealed the harrowing moment terrorists entered his friend’s home, kidnapping her and using her infant son as a “human shield.”
Speaking on behalf of Ms Kaplon’s distraught Australian father-in-law, Yonadav, Mr Ben-Giat said Yonadav’s two sons live with their families in the village of Kibbutz Holit, just two kilometres from the Gaza border.
Both of Yonadav’s sons were out in a neighbouring Kibbutz, pinned down by gunfire when Hamas terrorists commenced a surprise attack on Holit.
Mr Ben-Giat said they stormed Yonadav’s youngest son’s home first, killing his girlfriend as she slept.
“Her body is still there, on the bed, we can’t reach that yet,” he said. “The men continued on, going from ‘house to house’ forcibly removing defenceless families from their homes, killing those that resisted.
“They took entire families in their house, anyone who opposed them, by any means … they would kill. They weren’t struck by a bomb, they were killed one by one.”
SOLLY VANUNU
Sydney-born Solly Vanunu, 14, is grieving the loss of his mate and family who were slaughtered in their home by Hamas terrorists.
“I only saw Saghi the other day, we hung out at the mall in Tel Aviv,” Solly, who is one of 10,000 Aussies living in Israel said on Tuesday.
“It’s hard to concentrate on your maths homework when you know he was murdered in cold blood.
“I pray he got shot before his parents so he didn’t have to watch them die.”
With sporadic rocket attacks and militants still at large, every Israeli citizen was told on Monday, to buy enough food and toiletries for 72 hours and be prepared to take sanctuary in shelters or safe rooms.
Like everyone, Solly is waiting “for it all to start”, but it is not the air raids that scare him, but the terrorists, who are “not human”.
HAYLEY ALPERN
Hayley Alpern, 35, who grew up in Sydney, and is mum to newborn Aria Jade, has not heard from two of their friends – one American and one Israeli who had attended the doomed music festival, which saw 260 people massacred.
On Sunday she said goodbye to her husband Zohar, who was called up to the military reserves.
“My husband on the morning of his 30th birthday yesterday had to leave us and our eight week old baby,” Ms Alpern said, her voice cracking with emotion.
Ms Alpern, who lives an hour north of the Gaza border, spoke of how her nine-month pregnant sister-in-law living in the south had escaped gunman, with her two kids lying on the floor of their car.
Her husband’s uncle’s family, sheltering in a safe room, heard families being massacred outside, through a broken window.
“We have seen unprecedented experiences like from a horror movie,” Ms Alpern said.
Despite the atrocities happening in her country, she said she would not be leaving Israel for the safety of Australia because it was “important to support our people on the ground, now more than ever”.
YIGAL NISELL
In between delivering parcels to soldiers on the frontline, Yigal Nisell, 40, who returned to Israel in 2022 after more than seven years working for the Jewish National Foundation in Sydney, paid tribute to his “kind friend” gunned down on Saturday by militants.
Mr Nisell, who posted a picture of the pair of them in Sydney on his social media, said Ofir Leibstein, 51, was a father-of-four and the Mayor of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, “promoted peace” and “was kind, an amazing human being with a unique personality”.
Mr Nisell, like many others, have been buying provisions for soldiers as well as their own families. The supermarkets have been “stripped bare”.
He travelled down with his Aussie friends to hand them out to grateful soldiers, who only 24 hours before had been told to leave their families and fight.
For Mr Nisell and his wife and three kids, in Ra’anana, north of Tel Aviv, their 13-year-old daughter’s 3m by 3m bedroom is their safe room.
It has strengthened walls, a heavy metal door and metal shutters to protect them from bomb blasts.
They have 90 seconds to get everyone in after the siren goes off.
Ari Neumann, 40, who grew up in St Ives, Sydney, has the same amount of time to get her three children under eight down the stairs and into the bomb shelter under their apartment building in Tel Aviv.
ASHER LILLEY
Darwin resident Asher Lilley said she was preparing to flee Tel Aviv alongside her parents and sister on Tuesday, three days after the Palmerston family’s hotel was narrowly missed by a missile as part of Saturday’s surprise co-ordinated bombing campaign.
Ms Lilley said a missile struck within 50m of their beachfront hotel in a “terrifying” attack, with the family forced to shelter in a nearby stairwell.
The Darwin-based photographer said her family were “getting ready to evacuate where we are” after spending the past few nights in a bomb shelter as the sounds of fighting and missiles continued to ring out around them.
Ms Lilley there had been no support from the Australian government for those stuck in the conflict, with no contact from the Israeli Embassy for 48 hours.
“My biggest issue is how shocking the Australian government has been at keeping us informed,” she said. “We are lucky to have good friends that live here but so many Aussies don’t have that support.”
NOA AND TAMAR CHESTER-HAVIV
Two Gold Coast teenagers had arrived in Israel days prior to the unprecedented violent attacks, with their shocked mother back home saying it’s like “missiles seem to chase them”.
Somerset College students Noa Chester-Haviv, 16 and her 13-year-old sister Tamar landed in Tel Aviv a week ago to visit family before travelling to northern Israel to stay with grandparents.
The teenagers were to be joined next month by their mother Maya Chester before Israel declared a state of war after hundreds were killed by Hamas fighters in shock attacks on Saturday.
On Sunday, Ms Chester told the Bulletin: “We’re trying to get them out and we can’t.
“I can’t find flights, there’s nothing available in the next few days – they’ve cancelled all flights by non-Israeli airlines.”
GABRIELLE BRINER
Brisbane-born Gabrielle Briner, 30, a freelance journalist who has lived in Israel for the past eight years, described how her fellow Israelis were in “complete shock and confusion” following the attack by Hamas on Saturday.
“I’ve never in my life felt like this,” Ms Briner said. “It’s in the middle of the night, but I would say most people are awake. There’s hundreds of families with loved ones still missing, kidnapped.”
“The streets are absolutely deserted. People are so scared, still in complete shock and confusion,” she continued. “It’s heartbreaking. There are so many dead. Seven hundred people died in one day, the biggest Israeli death toll in a single day since the holocaust.”
She said where she lived in Tel Aviv people were staying at home and many businesses were closed.
ADI ALPRON
An Adelaide mum has described the harrowing moment her family narrowly escaped being victims of Hamas’ horrifying attack on Israel.
Adi Alpron and her SA family moved to Israel just months ago and spoke of the fear they are now living through, with the war forcing them to flee their home away from relatives, who are among the thousands under attack.
“My little boy was born in Adelaide and they have never been exposed to anything like this, the sirens,” she told 9News Adelaide.
“They are OK, they want to go back home, home to Adelaide. Right now the family are safe, having fled to a friend’s place in the north, but other relatives are still in hiding.”
KEREN LEWINSOHN
More than 100 terrorists had flooded their tiny kibbutz (community) on the border of Gaza and Israel, shooting their parents and baby sister dead as they went door to door dragging people from their homes, slaughtering families and kidnapping civilians, young and old.
Keren Lewinsohn, of Caulfield South, said her parents – who are also from Melbourne and were also in the kibbutz – “miraculously” survived the onslaught.
Her mum and dad, who were eventually rescued by Israeli soldiers, told her the boys – both under seven years old – hid for hours as they waited to be saved.
“Their grandma was on holiday, so they called her overseas from the cupboard, but she couldn’t organise any help for the kids because there were terrorists everywhere,” she told the Herald Sun. “They were in the house on their own for eight hours.”
Ms Lewinsohn’s parents, meanwhile, hid in a safe room, reading the desperate pleas from neighbours for help which flooded the kibbutz community group chat.
She said: “People were saying, they’re in our house, please come and help us now. They’re killing us, they’re taking our kids.”
EMILY GIAN
Emily Gian, an Australian expat living with her family in Yehud, about 20km outside Tel Aviv, has taken to social media while sheltering with her husband and three children in a bunker.
“My heart is breaking, trying to follow the news, reading story after story of family members searching for loved ones they have lost contact with throughout the day,” Emily Gian wrote.
“In the meantime, this is where you will find us every time a red alert siren goes off.”
The Melbourne woman, whose LinkedIn profile lists her as an Israel-based part-time director of social media at the Zionist Federation of Australia, said her family had hope the Israeli army would prevail.
“My 4.5 year old just told us ‘Our army is too strong. No one can break them because they can get anyone. Except for people on our team.’ Yep you are right, little man. We’ve got this,” she wrote on X.
ALAN AND MARILYN JANKELOWITZ
Tourists Alan and Marilyn Jankelowitz, from Sydney, who are visiting family in Rehovot, just 40km from Gaza, managed to get an early flight home on Thursday.
They have experienced multiple rocket attacks, and felt “incredibly vulnerable”, and feared for the family they would leave behind, especially two nephews called up to fight.
Other tourists are holed up in hotels as they await evacuation plans, as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade advised Australians to avoid all non-essential travel to the country due to the volatile security situation.
ARSEN OSTROVSKY
Human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky — who was born in Bondi in Sydney — fled with his wife and two young children, aged two and six, to their apartment bunker in Tel Aviv as the building shook from rocket attacks.
“Imagine having to run into your kids‘ room when you hear the siren,” he told A Current Affair.
“I grabbed one of our daughters literally from her crib and my wife grabbed the other daughter and we ran into the shelter.
“My six-year-old daughter looks at me and says, ‘Daddy why are they doing this? Why do they not like us?’ And I have to explain that, I have to look her in the eye and explain that. No father should have to do that.”
Australians in need of emergency consular assistance should contact the Australian Government’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135 (Australia) or +61 2 6261 3305 (if overseas).
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Originally published as Israel war: Aussie gran Galit Carbone confirmed dead, more stranded
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