The general armed with only a knife who set out to regain control of his kibbutz on Oct. 7
IDF investigators reportedly moved to tears by testimony of Brig. Gen. Yisrael Shomer, a resident of Kfar Aza
As Israel Defense Forces investigators in past months delved into its failures surrounding the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, Brig. Gen. Yisrael Shomer, a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza who set out to defend his home armed with just a knife, testified about his experiences that day.
According to a report Monday by the Walla news site, published as the IDF finalizes parts of its investigations, Shomer choked up at times while explaining what had occurred, and the details he recounted caused some of the generals present to well up with tears.
Shomer has spoken publicly in the past about his experiences on October 7, when he found his kibbutz under attack by more than 100 armed Hamas terrorists, who slaughtered 62 people and took another 19 as hostages.
He told the Israel Hayom daily that he had woken up a few minutes before the attack began to go on a morning run, and was drinking water in his kitchen at 6:29 a.m. when the sirens started blaring and the rockets began flying overhead.
After the first few minutes of sirens, he peeked outside to see what was going on, and saw two paragliders flying toward the kibbutz. He understood immediately what was happening.
“I didn’t understand the magnitude, but I understood that this was an invasion of Kfar Aza,” he told Channel 13 news in December 2023, when returning to his home for the first time since the attack.
Without a firearm at home, he left his wife and three children in their reinforced saferoom, told them to lock the door, and set out armed with only a knife, clad in sportswear.
He headed outside, took photos of the two paragliders that had been used to invade the kibbutz, and called a number of IDF generals, including chief of staff Herzi Halevi, Shomer told Israel Hayom.
For about three hours, he fought back against Hamas gunmen with just the knife until he picked up a weapon from a wounded member of the local security squad, he said. For hours, he fired at terrorists he encountered inside the kibbutz, carefully preserving his ammo, estimating that he killed around 20 invaders.
“I was constantly on the move,” he said, “searching, jumping out, firing two bullets and moving on.”
A few hours after the attack began, he said he began to understand that this was not only an attack on Kfar Aza. As soldiers began to arrive in the kibbutz as reinforcements and told him about the attacks on almost every community along the Gaza border, the magnitude of the catastrophe was becoming clear.
When still more troops, including units from the Golani, Paratroopers and Givati Brigades, arrived, “I felt for the first time that day that we were turning the tables,” Shomer said.
At around 6 p.m., his wife contacted him and said that there were terrorists in the house and that she could hear gunshots, but by the time Shomer got there, the terrorists had left.
“I only realized it then, when we got there, how close it was,” he added. “What a miracle.”
Once he knew his family was safe and that the IDF had started to regain control of most of the kibbutz, Shomer decided it was time to meet up with his own IDF unit, which had been charged with deterring Hezbollah at the northern border.
“It wasn’t an easy decision because there were still terrorists on the kibbutz and my family was still there, but I knew there were already a lot of soldiers and commanders, so I thought that I should go and join my division,” he said.
He then got in his car, which was riddled with bullet holes, loaded his rifle, and headed north to join his unit.
His wife’s younger brother Yuval Salomon was murdered that day in Kfar Aza. Shomer told Israel Hayom that Salomon fought back against the terrorists and succeeded in stabbing one of them. He then called Shomer, who recalled: “I spoke to him on the phone, and then they [the terrorists] came back and he didn’t survive. He was 29.”
At the time of the October 7 attack, Shomer was serving as the commander of the 146th Division, the IDF’s largest reserve division. In June 2024 he took up the position as head of the IDF’s Operations Division.
In December 2024, Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the IDF to wrap up its investigations into October 7 by the end of January, though it has yet to complete them.
When IDF chief Herzi Halevi announced last month that he was stepping down from his role on March 6, he promised to complete the IDF’s investigations into the October 7 onslaught by his resignation date.
“Upon completing the IDF’s investigations, we will better understand what happened to us, why it happened and how to fix it,” he said at the time, calling to also appoint an external committee to investigate the army’s failures.
The IDF’s investigations at the General Staff level include four main subjects: the development of the IDF’s perception of Gaza, with an emphasis on the border, starting in 2018; the IDF’s intelligence assessments of Hamas from 2018 until the outbreak of the war; the intelligence and decision-making process on the eve of October 7, as well as the days leading up to it; and the command and control, formations, and orders given during battles between October 7 and 10, when troops restored control over all communities and army bases in southern Israel that had been invaded by Hamas.
The investigations have been carried out by units seen as having had a role in the failure to notice Hamas preparations or adequately prepare for the terror group’s October 7 onslaught. In addition, the IDF is investigating 41 separate battles and major incidents that took place during the October 7 attack.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
