Elite Israeli soldier tells how he faced horror Oct 7 dilemma: Defend kibbutz from Hamas or try to save bros at festival

A HEROIC Israeli special forces soldier told of driving Hamas terrorists from a kibbutz and storming a hostage tunnel site.

Barak Deri, 33, battled bloodthirsty fanatics for months before he was hit by a grenade and multiple gunshots.

His life changed forever on October 7 last year after he discovered propaganda footage shared online by extremist butchers.

Palestinian gunmen had poured over the Gaza border and filmed their shooting of a police car from a mounted pickup truck.

Brave Barak ran straight to his motor to join his unit, as harrowing tales of massacres at Kibbutz Be’eri came in over the phone.

During his journey he received messages from three of his brothers who were taking refuge from killers at the Nova festival.

Barak told The Sun: “As I was heading down south I was starting to receive messages. They will stick with me forever.

“We are a family of five boys and I began to receive messages of goodbye – and their pleas of ‘come to rescue us’.”

Barak’s brother Amit, 26, was shot twice in the leg during his attempt to flee from terrorists, joined by Lahav, 34, and Sahar, 22.

But the soldier was ordered to Kibbutz Be’eri by his commander – as it became clear a full-scale invasion was underway.

He made the agonising decision to join fellow servicemen and take the fight to growing waves of marauding Jihadists.

Barak said: “We were told there is something bigger going on there – and I faced probably one of the most difficult decisions I had to face in my life.

“My choice was whether to go to my injured brother’s location or to go to Kibbutz Be’eri to try and solve something huge that is going on.

“I decided to go to the kibbutz because on the way there I started to see the bodies on the side of the road.

“Despite my brother being injured I understood that there is something way bigger happening – something we’ve never seen before.”

Barak, a reserve operator in the Israel Defence Force (IDF) special forces, came under fire with comrades and was driven off the road.

He said: “On the way three pickup trucks full of terrorists began shooting us. Fortunately they continued driving.

“We were able to get out of the vehicle and start to walk to Kibbutz Be’eri through the forest.”

They trekked more than two miles under the cover of bushes and trees as gunfire crackled out in the distance.

We are a family of five boys and I began to receive messages of goodbye – and their pleas of ‘come to rescue us’

The unit then began gunning down fighters on their entrance to the kibbutz, as the scale of the atrocities became clear.

Barak, a dad to a child of two, remembered: “We shot them. The next thing for us was to go inside.

“There we saw all the atrocities the terrorists had committed, from children, women, men elderly people.

“They had been slaughtered, shot in the living room, in the streets, everywhere.

“A lot of burnt houses you know, the smell of blood, fire and also a lot of sights that probably will stick with me forever.

“There were many incidents that we encountered, civilians that were hidden inside their shelters and the rest of their family that they butchered in the living room.

“It was a very tough day and we had so many firefights with the terrorists, there were hundreds of them.”

As the day’s conflict drew to a close, Barak counted 110 dead terrorists in the kibbutz, with many more fleeing back to Gaza.

He learned his family was safe and were being treated in hospital. But for Barak, the war was only just beginning.

More than 1,200 Israelis were killed on October 7 and hundreds more were kidnapped in the space of 24 hours.

Barak fought to save hostages for months afterwards – and as part of a mission uncovered a transfer site to enemy tunnels.

He said: “We decided to raid this house and to try to save whoever was inside.

“I was supposed to be the first one to enter the room and I knew there was a good chance that I was either gonna get injured or killed.

“Because of that I just took a sheet of paper and I set my affairs in order and wrote letters to my loved ones and make everything clear in my mind, that I will go with a clear heart.

“During an intense firefight a grenade blew up next to me and after my body hit the ground from the blast.

“I got shot several times from the internal room in the house.

“I was lying on the floor and my primary weapon, the barrel had a bullet lodged inside. It was stuck in the barrel which can show you how close the bullets went next to us.

“So I just grabbed a grenade of my own and threw it to the room where I was shot from and after that there was a big explosion, then just quiet and darkness.

“My team waited for me – it was two minutes but it felt like eternity.”

Barak, left with wounds across his stomach and broken legs, said he considered taking his own life to avoid further torture from Hamas.

He woke up fighting for his life on a helicopter with five wounded comrades before being taken to hospital for urgent treatment.

Barak, who must now rely on crutches and a walking stick, says he has no regrets about what took place.

He said: “It took me a very long time to understand if I’m alive or dead. I had a lot of difficulties with it during this long recovery.

“It was one of the most traumatic times of my life because every hour and a half I had morphine injection into my vein. I didn’t have the attention for a song, for a conversation or for a movie, nothing.

“Gradually things got better and better and just two days before my arrival here I got out of the hospital.

“I still have like seven surgeries to go and I will be disabled for the rest of my life, because of this you can see me walking with crutches and a walking stick – but still I have totally no regrets for what happened.

“It was just where I was supposed to be and in many ways it’s one of the greatest things that ever happened to me because it gave a lot of power to my life.

“Being so close to death and living just makes all the important things in life that we all share in common like love and family, makes it more clear and that’s it.

“My decision to come to London on October 7th was the least that I could do. I can’t go back to combat duty anymore. These are historic times for us.”