A 66-year-old grandmother has become the first confirmed Australian death in Israel.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil confirmed the death of Galit Carbone on Sunrise on Wednesday morning. Her lifeless body was found by Israeli soldiers near the Gaza Strip border.
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Ms Carbone was found just metres from her home in the Be-Eri kibbutz where she had previously worked as a librarian and raised her three children.
Heavily armed Palestinian militants stormed the kibbutz, home to 1,200 residents and set homes alight to force families out of their safe rooms, before executing them.
Ms Carbone was one of 108 victims of the storming.
Her cousin, Julian Cappe, told the Herald Sun the family were in “a state of numb shock”.
“Over the last few days they’ve just gone through all the ranges of emotion, from hearing what happened to thinking that she’s been a prisoner to hearing confirmation that she was killed,” he said.
“We’re not sure if she was killed in her home or dragged out and killed, but her body was not found in her house. She may have been dragged around.”
Ms O’Neal said it was “heartbreaking” news for the family of the Sydney-born woman and the 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,” Ms O’Neal said.
“What’s happened here is a senseless act of violence that will get more [violent] 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 and you. I express my deepest condolences for what has happened here.”