Into the Fire: A Family’s Heroism on October 7

When news of the October 7^th Hamas attack in southern Israel was being reported, hundreds of citizens raced down to the Gaza Envelope to try to protect others. Three of these brave people were brothers Elchanan and Menachem Kalmanson, and their nephew Etiel Zohar.

That morning, 42-year-old Elchanan Kalmanson’s cell phone started pinging. As the head of security in his community of Otniel in the Hebron Hills, and a veteran of the Mossad (Israel Secret Service), he heard news of the massacre early on.

“It doesn’t look good,” he told his parents and wife Shlomit, “and I need to go and help.” He called his brother Menachem who also lives in Otniel. After making some calls regarding his call-up to the reserves, Menachem told Elchanan that he would join him.

They packed army gear and started driving 60 miles to Kibbutz Be’eri, a scene of intense fighting. Thousands of rockets were being fired into Israel, but the two of them continued to drive toward the border. They could never have imagined what was awaiting them.

Under Attack

Kibbutz Be’eri’s 1,100 residents were under attack by hundreds of brutal terrorists. Those who had not been murdered were either taken hostage into Gaza, or trapped in their homes and safe rooms. Many were being held captive in the kibbutz dining hall.

Menachem Kalmanson

The tranquil kibbutz had become a battlefield. Their nephew Etiel Zohar joined them at the gate of the kibbutz. Their mission was to save anyone that they could.

Elchanan’s father, Rabbi Beni Kalmanson, said, “Elchanan had trained extensively in anti-terror security operations. When they arrived, the army already had many special forces in Be’eri, but the terrorists had overtaken tens of homes. The only way to help people was to go house to house, without knowing what you were going to find in each one.”

Etiel recounted, “The fighting was insane -- volleys of shells from our tanks, their anti-tank missiles, rockets falling, attack helicopters firing, grenades. Usually, you take out the threat and then evacuate people, but Elchanan was a security guy and understood immediately that the situation was different and we couldn’t wait until the fighting was over.”

Saving Lives

As one of the IDF’s special forces units worked on securing the perimeter of the kibbutz, Elchanan, Menachem and Etiel took an armored vehicle and began going from house to house to evacuate as many residents as they could. In some cases they saved entire families. In other homes they discovered that everyone had been murdered.

They saved children who had seen their parents murdered or kidnapped. In numerous instances they had to neutralize terrorists before they could enter the house. The trio was successful in freeing some families from their safe rooms, while their home burned around them. They would squeeze ten to fourteen people into a vehicle meant for four and drive them out of the front gate.

Families needed to be convinced that the trio were not Hamas operatives. When families asked what unit of the IDF they were in, they said, “Otniel---we are not from the army.” Menachem recounted, “When we got to the home of the Meir family, Michal refused to open the protected room door. She begged from behind the door, ‘Speak so that I can hear your Hebrew’ and she didn’t open the door until I cried Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad and only then the door opened. It wasn’t a prayer it was a cry: I’m a Jew, I’m here for you, please open the door.”

When they felt utterly exhausted and that they couldn’t go in again, they pushed themselves to continue, meeting frantic survivors who had family members still inside. As Menachem recently told a captive audience in my community, “Despite knowing the danger, we chose to enter the war zone repeatedly. We never questioned our actions; the “why” was clear. By midnight, exhaustion had set in, yet fear couldn’t stop us. As Etiel explained so simply, ‘When you know your brother is in danger, you no longer have freedom of choice.’”

“Stay With Me”

Menachem showed us a photo of the last house they entered on the morning of October 8^th. “Our batteries were spent and so we had no light source to help search for terrorists. Elchanan entered first, and I followed. Suddenly shots rang out. A terrorist was hiding in a dark corner. Elchanan fell backwards. I returned fire, and I was shot in my hand and there were fragments in my face. With blood dripping down my face so that I couldn’t really see, I dragged him outside. I took out a tourniquet but saw that he had been shot several times in his chest and so there was nothing I could do. I talked to him and kept repeating ‘Stay with me.’ Elchanan gave me eye contact.

“I ran to the park where I had seen some parachuters earlier, but they were not there. I ran back to Elchanan and Etiel. Even if I could have managed to pick up Elchanan to seek medical aid, I couldn’t leave my nephew alone with a terrorist.

“I heard a sound of a jeep. I ran to the other side of the house waving and screaming to get them to stop. I shot in the air. The jeep stopped and I tried to open the driver’s door but couldn’t. Later on, the driver told me that he had thought that I was a terrorist, and he had told the other two soldiers to get out of the jeep and take me down. When they heard me shouting in Hebrew, they realized that am an Israeli.

Elchanan Kalmanson

“They carried Elchanan to their jeep. Etiel and I drove in our jeep to the gate. We arrived first. I told the awaiting medical team to prepare for a critically wounded soldier. I was put on a stretcher, and a tourniquet was applied to my hand. The jeep with Elchanan arrived. I didn’t think that there was a chance to save him, but they worked on him feverishly, and that gave me some hope.

As I was carried to an ambulance, I made sure that my brother would be flown by helicopter to the hospital. After arriving at the hospital, I looked for Elchanan, but he was not there. He had succumbed to his wounds outside the front gate of Kibbutz Be’eri. His spot in the helicopter had been given to someone else who had been badly wounded.

Elchanan is survived by his wife, five children, parents and siblings. He was buried on October 12^th, 2023, in Otniel.

Heroes of Israel

At Elchanan’s funeral, his wife recounted, “Twenty years of many shared experiences, challenges, celebrations, conversations, tears.” Only two weeks earlier, she said, they celebrated two decades of being together. “Two weeks ago, twenty seemed like a lot. Now it seems like so little. I wanted forever with you. We dreamed how we would grow old together and what we would do over the years. We had so many plans for our long lives…You were my rock. You always knew immediately what I needed in any situation. You loved the children so much; you were so proud of them…For you, family was the highest value.”

In February of 2024 Etiel’s firstborn son was born, and he was named for his fallen great-uncle—Elchanan Or-Ami (light of my nation). At the brit, Etiel spoke, “My uncle had an entire life of activity, of dedication, of a sense of mission, of building, of unflinching concern for the safety and the life of the people of Israel in its land. I was privileged to learn so much from him in the 23 years that I was his nephew, and in the final hours I was by his side. He is first and foremost a beloved uncle, but also an incredible national and historical figure.”

Israel Prize recipient Menachem Kalmanson speaking at the award ceremony in 2024. (Screenshot, YouTube: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Elchanan’s Team was honored with the Israel Prize for civilian heroism. The team had saved around one hundred people. At the award ceremony, Menachem gave a really moving speech. He concluded it with Elchanan’s final words to Shlomit:

I believed in the path, I believed in the return of our people to our land, and I believed in small actions that accomplish much, a small detail or decision made with care that will save lives. If I die in the war for this land, let people remain and remind others that this is not just another war or intifada or other nonsense. It’s about the same long war for our land and the identity of our people that has been going on for almost 150 years. I wanted and tried to be a mensch, to be a Jew.

May his memory be for a blessing and may the family be consoled among the rest of the mourners of Jerusalem and Zion.