When the deadly terrorist attack began on Saturday, Superintendent Amit Levy, a police officer, was off work. He ran with his wife and five children to the safe room, but when he heard the shooting, he put on an identification cap and took his M16, and went to defend the house. Soon enough, he realized that the army would not arrive on time. At that time, no one realized that it would take forever.
The Dimensions of the Disaster at Kibbutz Be'eri // Oren Ben Hakon
Amit left his wife and children at home, confined in the safe room, and organized a combat squad with two members of the alert squad, Michael and Stas. After getting organized, they headed toward the kibbutz fence, where they encountered three terrorists.
They killed two terrorists and the third escaped. Then they came under heavy fire and retreated
towards the houses. They found a high position and from there conducted fighting and observation as much as they could against more than 20 terrorists armed with heavy ammunition.
When the army arrived, Amit joined them, assisted in the fighting and also commanded. At this point, he continued to function calmly, beginning to receive names of comrades in the force who had been killed, and his family was still trapped inside the safe room.
IDF soldiers next to bodies still being exposed in the envelope, Photo: AFP
When he began mopping up houses and rescuing families to a concentration point in the club, Amit did not run to his house. He stayed with the alert squad and the army to rescue families in order of houses. The army was shocked by the sights, so Amit took command of the soldiers and began managing them and the rescue.
The only time he stopped, for a minute, was when his family was rescued from his house. Throughout the day, he continued to receive more names of friends and police officers who had been killed.
Without stopping, without stopping, Amit organized the defense of the club to which the families were rescued, and then kept a list of those who still needed to be rescued.
He did not stop until he made sure that the last of the residents had been rescued and that the house had been cleared of terrorists. Next, they transferred everyone to kindergartens, which are protected structures, where the kibbutz residents spent the night. Amit did not come to the protected building to rest. He continued to work throughout the night and the next day.
A dog near the protected area near the Gaza Strip, photo: None
At 17:00 P.M., the families left the kibbutz in a secure convoy to Eilat. A colleague did not join. He stayed with three other men to defend the kibbutz and help the military forces there.
Kibbutz residents said, "He's still there. And if that's not enough, he takes care of the domestic animals left behind, and every evening gives us an orderly report about the animals in each house, what they ate, drank and how they are doing."
"The performance of this man and officer as I saw with my own eyes was amazing," added one resident. "Thanks to Amit, many of our people stayed alive."
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