After complaints, parents to hear full tape of surveillance soldiers before attack

The Israel Defense Forces will present the families of female surveillance soldiers killed or abducted during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack with the full recordings of their radio communications from the hours before the onslaught, the military said Wednesday, after the families complained that they had been given only partial recordings.

The army said IDF Personnel Directorate head Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa would meet with the parents on Friday to play them the full tapes, obtained from four separate radio networks on which the soldiers communicated during the morning of the Hamas onslaught.

On Monday, the IDF sent the families recordings that only included the voices of the surveillance soldiers, saying it omitted portions where other troops could be heard, as well as long sections of silence.

The families have complained that the recordings were incomplete and that not all of the soldiers could be heard. In response, the IDF said it would allow the families to listen to the whole tape.

The IDF denied that it was hiding any material from the families, and said if there are any other sections in which the surveillance soldiers can heard, they would be given to them. A military official said it was unlikely that the IDF had missed any sections when they first gave the recordings to the families.

The official also said that recordings between 4:48 a.m. and 6:29 a.m. on October 7, 2023, only included commanders speaking over the radio, and not any of the female surveillance soldiers.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that he ordered the IDF to provide the families with the full recordings, “with the exception of limited sections that are restricted due to clear security reasons, and this is due to the need for full transparency with the families.”

According to a military source, the omitted sections include conversations that also feature combat soldiers. “Due to privacy concerns, the families of the surveillance troops could not be given these sections,” the source said in a statement sent to military reporters on condition of anonymity.

“The IDF… regrets any mental anguish it has caused [the families], and had no intention of adding to their suffering,” the army added.

The radio recordings from Nahal Oz base were sent to the bereaved families on Monday after the High Court of Justice ordered their release following more than a year of proceedings.

During the onslaught, in which a total of some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage, terrorists stormed the base, situated next to Kibbutz Nahal Oz.

Fifteen surveillance soldiers were killed and seven were taken hostage to Gaza. One of the latter was rescued and another was recovered dead after she was murdered in captivity. The other five — Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Naama Levy and Daniella Gilboa — are still hostages.