An Australian woman living in Israel, Galit Carbone, has been killed in the Hamas attack, the Australian government has confirmed.
Carbone, 66, was reportedly found dead outside her home in the Be’eri kibbutz in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip border after the attack.
The Sydney-born grandmother is the first Australian victim known to have died amid the conflict.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the loss of life from these attacks “has been devastating and unacceptable”, and that the department was providing consular assistance to Carbone’s family in Israel and Australia.
“The Australian government has received confirmation of the tragic death of Galit Carbone, an Australian citizen murdered in the attacks on Israel by terrorist group Hamas,” she said in a statement on Wednesday morning.
“On behalf of the government, I wish to convey my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Ms Carbone.
“Australia unequivocally condemns the attacks on Israel by Hamas. There is no excuse for the deliberate killing of innocent civilians.”
Wong said Australia has called for the attacks to stop, for the “immediate and unconditional release of all those taken hostage”, and has urged that civilian lives be protected at all times.
Home affairs minister Clare O’Neil said on Wednesday morning the confirmation of Carbone’s death was “heartbreaking news” for her family and her community.
“Our hearts go out to … the people who knew her and the Jewish community, who are suffering from what is a violent, abhorrent and unjustified act of terrorism against this country and citizens,” O’Neil said on Sunrise.
“What’s happened here is a senseless act of violence… and the Australian government condemns it in the strongest possible terms.
“I say to the Jewish community: we’re standing with you, wrapping our arms around you and I express my deepest condolences for what has happened here.”
Meanwhile, Australians in Israel are telling of their terror as missile strikes continue, while the government has announced it will begin to provide assistance for those wanting to leave.
One, Janet Goodvach, has told Guardian Australia that in some towns there are only seconds between a siren and a missile strike.
Goodvach, 47, lives in Tel Mond, north-east of Tel Aviv with her husband and three teenage children. She works for the Israel Australian Chamber of Commerce and the Victorian government’s trade and investment office.
She’s part of a WhatsApp group with about 15 other Australians in Israel.
She said Tel Mond locals have 90 seconds to find safety once the siren sounds for an imminent missile strike. In the border town of Sderot or the beach town of Ashkelon, the window of safety is as little as 10 seconds.
“They live with that. People there are sleeping in bomb shelters because it’s just safer,” she said.
“Life has just stopped here. We’re in a warzone.
“We woke up to a siren on Saturday morning. They place sirens directly where missiles will hit, we couldn’t work out whether it was over us and so we wondered whether to go to the shelter but we went back to sleep.”
It’s “harrowing” that someone has “pressed the pause button” on what is usually a thriving and happy place, she said.
“We woke up Sunday morning to the news that one of a very, very close friend’s sons had been killed.
“Funerals have been cancelled because of security warnings.”
Emily Gian, who moved to from Melbourne to Israel in July, has about a minute to hustle her three young children to the bomb shelter that sits next to their basement.
They go when they hear the siren, or when they hear the Iron Dome air defence system working to intercept rockets.
“It’s a tiny little fortified room. It’s not even big enough for us all to lie down, and it’s uncomfortable, and not a pleasant place to be,” she said.
The children – aged 10, 8 and 4 – know “age appropriate” versions of what’s going on.
“They’re scared, we’re all sleeping together, they just want to be close to us,” Gian said.
“We’re in the centre of Israel so I haven’t been directly physically affected by what happened in the south, but it’s the single most horrific thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.
“Hearing stories - my husband, one of his best friends and brother live in one of the kibbutzes that were attacked in the south. They managed to get out without knowing where the other one was.”
The family is contemplating what to do next, but flights out are not easy to come by, Gian said.
There have been reports of young, dual Australian–Israeli citizens signing up to fight, and of Israeli reservists in other countries flying in to join the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said only dual citizens already in Israel were conscripted into the IDF.
“There are no Australians who have hopped on a plane from Australia,” the co-chief executive officer, Peter Wertheim, said.
“There are plenty of dual nationals who live in Israel, there’s something like 10,000 dual nationals who live in Israel. I think we would have heard of it [if Australians were flying over].”
With some exemptions, Israelis over the age of 18 must serve for at least two years.
Lisa Segelov, an Australian living in Tel Aviv, told ABC Radio Melbourne three of her four children were called up.
“It’s probably the hardest thing in the world to say goodbye to your children when you don’t know if they’re going to ever come back,” she said.
“As a mother I think it’s the worst nightmare that you ever have to face.”
Singer and actor, Hugh Sheridan, has told of a narrow escape after he was offered a ticket to the Supernova festival, which was attacked by Hamas. He turned it down. During the attacks he took shelter in a stairwell, and later left the country, fleeing to Greece, he told the Today show.
Channel Nine’s Europe and Middle East correspondent, Adelaide journalist Edward Godfrey, was in Israel near the Gaza border and was forced to duck for cover when Hamas launched rockets overhead, he told The Advertiser.
Inside Kfar Aza. The kibbutz right next to the Gaza border, one of the first and hardest hit. Nobody’s been in since the attack began, until now. What happened here is horrifying. @9NewsAUS @TheTodayShow pic.twitter.com/1BAacna1id
— Edward Godfrey (@EdwardGodfrey9) October 10, 2023
Prime minister Anthony Albanese announced on Wednesday that Australia will begin the “assisted departure” of Australians who want to leave Israel.
“We understand that many Australians are experiencing difficulties with delays and cancellations with commercial flights,” he said.
“For Australians who do not already have plans to leave through commercial options, Australian government assisted departure flights will depart from Friday.”
Australians who want a seat must register with the Australian government’s 24-hour consular emergency centre.
