Parliamentary report names 18th British victim of 2023 Hamas attack

All 18 British nationals killed in Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023 have been named for the first time in a report commissioned by MPs and peers.

Rotem Kalderon, a 66-year-old dual UK-Israeli national, had not previously been named in lists of British casualties.

A teacher and lifelong resident of Kibbutz Be’eri, a settlement around three miles from the Gaza Strip, she lay unidentified for two weeks after an attack on her home on October 7 2023.

Her name appeared for the first time among the list of British casualties with the publication of a report on the October 7 attacks commissioned by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Israel and led by historian and Conservative peer Lord Andrew Roberts.

Some 16 British nationals killed in the initial attack had already been identified, along with a further UK citizen, 51-year-old Nadav Popplewell, who died while being held as a hostage by Hamas.

His brother, Roi Popplewell, 54, was killed at his home in the initial attack while their 79-year-old mother Channah Peri was also taken hostage but released in November 2023.

Lord Roberts’ report was commissioned in January last year as an attempt to establish the exact sequence of events that took place on October 7 and counter misinformation about the attacks.

The historian said Hamas and its allies “have sought to deny the atrocities, despite the ironic fact that much of the evidence for the massacres derives from film footage from cameras carried by the terrorists themselves”.

He added: “The present report has been undertaken to counter such pernicious views, and to lay down incontrovertible proof – for now and for the years to come – that nearly 1,200 innocent people were indeed murdered by Hamas and its allies, and very often in scenes of sadistic barbarism not seen in world history since the Rape of Nanjing in 1937.”

It found a total of 1,182 people were killed in a “large-scale, coordinated assault” by around 7,000 Hamas militants that had been years in the planning.

Civilians accounted for 73% of the victims, the report found, with the youngest being a new-born baby and the oldest a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor.

It also found evidence of widespread sexual violence and desecration of corpses including mutilation, beheadings and booby-trapping of bodies with grenades.

Lord Roberts added: “The purpose of commissioning our report has been to chronicle the events of October 7 with clarity and meticulous, fact-checking precision, to ensure it is never forgotten.”

Along with Ms Kalderon and the Popplewell brothers, the other British nationals killed by Hamas were: Bernard Cowan, 57; Sgt Nathanel Young, 20; Danny Darlington, 34; Jake Aaron Marlowe, 26; Aner Shapira, 22; Sgt Maj Dvora Abraham, 40; Yonatan Rapoport, 41; Lianne Sharabi, 48; Noiya Sharabi, 16; Yahel Sharabi, 13; Maj Benjamin Trakeniski, 32; Yannai and Liel Hetzroni-Heller, both 12; Sgt 1st Class Joseph Malachi Guedalia, 22; Dor Hanan Shafir, 30.

Published: 18/03/2025 by Radio NewsHub