Israel Prize laureate Menachem Kalmanson could not hold back tears in the Channel 12 studio on Wednesday when he recounted the moment his brother, Elhanan Kalmanson, was shot and killed while rescuing residents in Kibbutz Be'eri on October 8th, 2023.
The Kalmanson brothers left their home in Otniel on the morning of October 7th and reached the Gaza envelope independently. That evening, they entered Kibbutz Be'eri, where they were later joined by their nephew, Itiel. For 16 hours, the three moved from house to house on the kibbutz, rescuing residents besieged in their safe rooms.
Kalmanson shared that in the morning, after a night of rescues and combat, he had difficulty continuing due to exhaustion.
He said that he asked his brother to complete one more rescue. "I told him, let's finish this house, number 611, the Levy family's home. In that house, Elhanan went in first; there, in the dark house, we no longer had battery left on our weapon flashlights."
At this point, Kalmanson choked up and had difficulty continuing. "In the dark house there, a terrorist waited, and my brother stepped inside, and the terrorist got up and fired a burst. I stood right next to him, and together with Itiel, we just saw Elhanan get hit and fall."
Kalmanson revealed that he was also wounded in the incident: "I couldn't pull him out myself. I was wounded very quickly after him; I was hit in my right arm and got shrapnel in my face. Blood was flowing into my eyes, and I just couldn't see properly. We were stuck there for hours; we weren't able to extract Elhanan, even though he was in my arms."
Only once IDF forces passed through the area did they manage to extract Elhanan. Kalmanson recounted that he ran toward a military jeep to call the soldiers, and he later learned that they nearly shot him because they didn't know who he was.
The brothers were evacuated to the entrance of the kibbutz and lay side by side on stretchers. “When they evacuated me, I said, 'Evacuate him. They told me, a helicopter will get to Soroka before you. But when I arrived at Soroka, I realized that he had already been pronounced dead."
Kalmanson said he did not have the chance to say goodbye to his brother, but the final moments by his side remain etched in his memory. “I had the privilege of being with my brother in his final moments. Moments that, despite the immense pain, I would not trade for anything. He was in my arms, I was looking at him, and he knew I was trying."
He said that when he left Be’eri, he still believed his brother might survive. “When I left Be’eri, I still thought there was a chance. I saw the injury, the amount of blood he had lost, but I hoped. Only at Soroka did I learn that he had already been pronounced dead there."
Toward the end, Kalmanson stressed that the story of “Elhanan’s Team" was only one of many stories of heroism from that day. He mentioned soldiers and civilians who fought for hours, including brothers Noam and Yishai Slotki and Capt. Uri Shani.
“Not only the heroism of the fighters, and I want to emphasize that," he said. “I saw the heroism of a father holding the safe-room door for 17, 19, 20 hours. I saw a mother under fire calming her children, telling them everything would be okay, stroking them, and that is no less an act of heroism."
He concluded with a message to the residents of Be’eri: “When we saw you, we saw angels. We did not see helpless people. We saw a great deal of pain, but we saw angels protecting their families."
In March 2024, it was decided to award the Israel Prize for National Revival and Civilian Heroism to “Elhanan’s Team" - Menachem, his late brother Elhanan, and their nephew Itiel Zohar - for their actions in rescuing residents of Be’eri during the massacre.