Families of the victims of Hamas attacks have warned Israel’s government that “revenge is not a policy”, amid mounting concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza.

Israel has launched an expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip, three weeks after Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, vowed “mighty vengeance” against the terror group.

But many of the 1,400 victims of Hamas’s onslaught on Oct 7 lived in kibbutzim with strong socialist roots and traditions of peace activism and support for Palestinians living in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Yotam Kipnis, 29, whose parents were killed at the kibbutz of Be’eri, said: “The call for revenge can be a natural reaction for some people. But revenge is not a policy.”

Speaking to the Telegraph on the rooftop of his apartment block, where dozens of friends and neighbours had come to pay their respects ahead of the funeral of his mother, Lilach Kipnis, he said “the goal of any military action should be to save lives”.

He added: “That includes lives in Gaza and lives of the soldiers.”

Be’eri has become a byword for Hamas’s atrocities after 108 people were killed there in one morning, but the kibbutz is a hometown for Mr Kipnis who spoke fondly of the western Negev desert and a nearby valley covered in wildflowers in spring.

Yet, life in the kibbutz a few miles from Gaza, which his grandparents helped to establish, was always about “95 per cent paradise, five per cent hell,” he said.

The Kipnis family, which protested against Israel’s 38-year military occupation of Gaza, had front-row seats to Israel’s air strikes on the Strip and Hamas’s rockets landing nearby.

Such violence, he said, has only hardened his opposition to the use of force in the territory, which is home to two million people.

The life of Yaakob Godo, 74, changed forever on the morning of Oct 7 when he called to check on his son Tom and his family living on the kibbutz of Kisufim, after air raid sirens went off across the country.

Tom, his wife and their three daughters were sheltering in their safe room when the first group of Israeli soldiers entered the kibbutz and told the family to stay put while fighting with Hamas gunmen was still raging.

During a chaotic battle that lasted more than 24-hours, the army failed to stop the terrorists from getting to the family’s house, where they fired into the safe room.

Two bullets went through the wall and killed Tom. His wife and children jumped out of the window and ran for their lives.

When Mr Godo laid his son to rest earlier in October, he spoke about his long-time activism against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and his belief that the Israeli government’s policies have created fertile ground for Hamas’s terror.

“What happened on Oct 7 is a catastrophe not only for me but for all of the people of the Gaza Strip,” Mr Godo told the Telegraph in the garden of his home at the kibbutz of Naan.

“What happened is unforgivable but the Israeli government doesn’t have its hands clean either. They are as much responsible as the others for what happened.”

Despite his age, Yaakob Godo regularly travels to the West Bank to escort Palestinian shepherds who have been facing increasing violence and harassment from Israeli settlers, whose activities have expanded dramatically under Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Godo, who in his eulogy for Tom warned others against acting out of revenge, fears that Mr Netanyahu’s government will use the victims to justify an even harsher attack on Palestinians. He is determined to keep on protesting.

‘Tear down the government’

“What keeps me strong right now is that I want to tear down the government that brought us this catastrophe,” he said.

Recent opinion polls have suggested that an overwhelming majority supports a ground invasion.

But, three weeks on from the Hamas attacks, Israel has instead launched what appears to be a more limited, gradual ground offensive in the Strip, accompanied by a heavy aerial bombardment.

Noy Katsman, 27, became a prominent voice in the Israeli media after pleading with the public not to justify the constant bombing of the sealed-off Gaza Strip, as being revenge for the death of his 32-year-old brother Hayim.

He said he could not see how a ground invasion of Gaza and an aerial bombing campaign that already claimed thousands of lives would help Israelis regain the sense of security that was shattered by the surprise attack three weeks ago.

“We’ve been saying for so long: ‘This time we’re going to crush Hamas. This strategy was a huge failure. What about taking responsibility for my brother and other people who were killed because of your stupid strategy?” Mr Katsman, an exchange student in Germany, told the Telegraph.

“Don’t talk to me about bombing Gaza. I want you all to sit down, use whatever means you have and try to fix this.”