Bereaved family members fume over demolition of massacre site at Nahal Oz base
Father of slain surveillance soldier says parents were promised buildings would be preserved as a memorial; IDF says it is pausing construction in favor of further dialogue
Parents of Israel Defense Force surveillance soldiers murdered at the Nahal Oz military base on October 7 have accused the military of destroying evidence pertaining to the Hamas massacre and acting against their wishes after they discovered that it was planning to demolish the affected buildings, contrary to what they were promised.
The parents of the surveillance soldiers weren’t informed in any formal capacity of the plans to demolish the buildings on the base in order to make it fit for use, Hebrew media reported on Tuesday, but found out by chance.
Sixty-six soldiers were killed in the Nahal Oz base, near the Gaza Strip’s northern border with Israel when Hamas stormed into the south of the country on October 7. Of that number, 15 were female surveillance soldiers. A further seven surveillance soldiers were taken hostage, one of whom, Cpl. Ori Megidish, was rescued in the early days of the war and has since returned to active service. Another, Cpl. Noa Marciano, was pronounced dead in November.
Eyal Eshel, the father of Sgt. Roni Eshel, said that the construction work at the outpost directly contradicted promises made to the families.
Sharing images online of the ongoing work, Eshel said the sight of the demolitions “shatter my heart into pieces.”
“Despite the fact that the prime minister personally promised us that the base would become a memorial site, today they began dismantling the base where Roni and her friends were burned to death while they screamed into the radio,” he wrote on X. “We were promised that the place would be preserved… everything is falling apart in front of our eyes.”
התמונות שמגיעות אליי מבסיס נחל עוז, מנפצות את הלב לרסיסים.
למרות שראש הממשלה הבטיח לנו אישית שהבסיס יהפוך לאתר הנצחה,היום החלו בפירוק הבסיס שבו רוני וחברותיה נשרפו למוות תוך זעקות בקשר
הובטח לנו שינציחו וישמרו את מקום החיים של הבנות היקרות ועיניכם הרואות,הכל מתפרק לנו מול העיניים pic.twitter.com/nWa9Fw3nJQ— Eyal Eshel (@ESHEL2003) August 27, 2024
Also taking to social media, Sigal Price, mother of Staff Sgt. Noa Price, said in a post on Facebook that by tearing down the buildings on the base, the IDF was destroying the good times that her daughter experienced throughout her difficult military service.
“My Noa, they took you from us in this place on October 7, 2023, and today they also took the memories of the life you and your friends shared in this place,” she wrote. “They don’t want us to remember the life you created in this place, your legacy that consisted of true friendship, joy, shared meals, celebrations, and above all — love and concern for each other and for the place that you called home.”
Prior to October 7, many of the soldiers stationed at the base had warned their higher-ups of suspicious activity on the other side of the Gaza border, but their concerns went unheeded, and the information they reported was not passed on to senior officials.
In recent months, their parents established “Their Voice — The Surveillance Soldier Families Forum” through which they have pledged to fight for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the failures that led to the largest terror attack in Israel’s history.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, the parents raised concerns that the demolition may not have just been ordered as part of a plan to return the base to operational use, but that it was intentionally being carried out to conceal evidence surrounding the terror onslaught and the failure to prevent it.
“Nothing is a coincidence, evidence is being obscured before the investigations and before the state commission of inquiry,” they said, according to Channel 12. “One can’t help but wonder how it will be possible to investigate in depth what happened at the outpost, when the evidence that remains on the buildings that tell the story disappears.”
“We understand that the army has needs and that the outpost needs to return to use, but it’s possible to do both,” the parents said of the need to preserve their daughters’ memories. “The army agreed with us on the issue of preserving the outpost and the legacy of the soldiers who fell there, but in practice, they have left us only with the memory of death. All the memories of life were taken from us today.”
Speaking to Channel 12, an unnamed military source said that the construction work was being carried out to fix security issues that were identified in the aftermath of the Hamas terror onslaught.
The source added, however, that while some of the sites of the massacre were being demolished, specific buildings were indeed being preserved in order to serve as a memorial to the soldiers as per an agreement made with the bereaved families.
In a statement to Channel 12 following the criticism, the IDF said that it was nevertheless halting the construction work “pending a dialogue with the bereaved families.”
“The works do not pertain to the operations room or the shelter in accordance with the directives from the Chief of Staff,” the statement continued. “The IDF shares in the grief of the bereaved families and the families of the hostages and will continue to accompany them.”
