Civilians, police stopped 1st wave of terrorists at Nahal Oz; IDF arrived 7 hours later

On the morning of October 7, 2023, over 180 terrorists swarmed into the unsuspecting Gaza border community of Kibbutz Nahal Oz in three waves, murdering and abducting residents.

The community’s local security team and police officers managed to fight back and stop the first wave of terrorists before being overwhelmed.

The army — plunged into complete disarray by the shock attack on dozens of towns and military posts simultaneously — failed to come to the rescue for around seven hours as terrorists moved from home to home, brutalizing, massacring and kidnapping civilians.

On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces presented its probe into the battle at the kibbutz — among its detailed investigations of some 40 battles that took place during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, when some 5,600 terrorists stormed across the border, massacred some 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages to Gaza.

It highlighted the heroism of Nahal Oz’s local security team and other Israeli forces that participated in the fighting, as well as the army’s colossal failures that allowed throngs of terrorists to overrun the kibbutz.

The probe concluded that the IDF “failed in its mission to protect” the residents of Nahal Oz, largely because the military had never prepared for such an event — an Israeli community being captured by terrorists, as well as a widescale attack on numerous towns and army bases simultaneously by thousands of terrorists.

In all, 13 residents — including two members of the local security team and two foreign nationals — and four security personnel were killed in Nahal Oz on October 7, and a further eight civilians were taken hostage by the Hamas terrorists. Many homes were damaged or destroyed amid the fighting, as were the kibbutz’s agriculture fields.

Six of the eight hostages were returned to Israel in a ceasefire deal with Hamas, including one, Tsahi Idan, who was murdered in captivity. Another two remain held by the terror group: Omri Miran and Tanzanian national Joshua Mollel, the latter of whom was killed during the attack.

The probe into what happened at Nahal Oz, carried out by Col. (res.) Yaron Sitbon, covers all aspects of the fighting in the kibbutz that began October 7.

Sitbon and his team spent hundreds of hours investigating the onslaught and battle at Nahal Oz. The IDF said they reviewed every possible source of information — footage taken by terrorists with body-mounted cameras, residents’ WhatsApp messages, surveillance videos, and interviews with survivors, former hostages, and those who fought to defend the kibbutz — and made visits to the scene.

The Nahal Oz probe was aimed at drawing specific operational conclusions for the military. It did not examine the wider picture of the military’s perception of Gaza and Hamas in recent years, which was covered in separate, larger, investigations into the IDF’s intelligence and defenses.

The army is also not looking at policies set by the political leadership. That way, it avoids conflict with government leaders who have insisted such investigations must wait until after the war against Hamas ends.

The investigation team stated that “the IDF failed in its mission to defend Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The composure displayed by the civilians and the steadfastness of the local security team and security forces against the enemy led to the tipping of the scale and returning control [of the community] to our forces.”

Sitbon’s team also stated that “the uniqueness of the battle at Kibbutz Nahal Oz is expressed by the fact that despite its proximity to the Gaza border, the local security team and security forces managed to block the first wave of the assault.”

It added that “even in a state of complete surprise, a skilled and equipped force, even if limited in numbers, that responds quickly and effectively is capable of winning a battle and preventing grave results.”

Still, most of the local security team could not be called to action by the chief of the team to respond to the attack as their assault rifles were locked up in the armory, which could not be opened due to a power outage. The only person who could manually open the armory was the chief of the security team, who was killed fighting early on during the assault.

The probe also found that there were at least three cases of so-called friendly fire amid the onslaught.

Of the 180 terrorists who invaded Nahal Oz, some 80 were ultimately killed by Israeli forces in the kibbutz and adjacent areas.

The timeline of the attack

Before the onslaught, the Golani Infantry Brigade’s 13th Battalion was deployed to the Nahal Oz area, including at the Nahal Oz base and several nearby posts. Additionally, 11 members of the Border Police’s Yamas covert tactical unit were stationed in the kibbutz, as part of preparations for weekly violent protests that had been taking place on the Gaza border.

At 5:30 a.m. on October 7, Israeli troops stationed in the area between Be’eri and Mefalsim — Nahal Oz is located between the two — took their stations along the Gaza border in a shift change. The Hamas onslaught began an hour later.

Amid an initial barrage of around 1,000 rockets — which began at 6:29 a.m. — largely aimed at Israeli military posts, Hamas terrorists broke through 114 locations along Israel’s border barrier. Four of the breaches were in the Nahal Oz area, through which hundreds of terrorists — in pickup trucks, on motorbikes, and on foot — streamed into Israel.

At 6:43 a.m., Golani troops stationed at a post updated Nahal Oz’s security coordinator that Hamas terrorists had invaded Israel and some were heading toward the kibbutz. The troops were instructed to go and defend it.

The Golani soldiers drove to Nahal Oz but were unable to enter the kibbutz because Hamas’s rocket fire had knocked out the power to the community’s entrance gate.

The force then drove to a hill on the northwestern edge of the kibbutz, where they encountered a large number of terrorists. The troops opened fire on the terrorists, hitting several of them.

At 7:05 a.m., the first Hamas terrorists managed to infiltrate Nahal Oz from an area south of the community’s back entrance, reaching its cowshed.

The chief of Nahal Oz’s local security team, Ilan Fiorentino, identified the terrorists at the back entrance heading for the “new fields” neighborhood, and sent the location to the Yamas officers.

However, he did not call for the rest of the local security team, as their assault rifles were locked up in the kibbutz armory, and it could not be opened due to the power outage. Only the deputy chief of the security team had an assault rifle ready at his home.

The Yamas officers headed for the security chief, but en route encountered a group of terrorists who were outside the kibbutz’s fence. The officers decided to split up, with six battling those terrorists and the other five heading to join Fiorentino.

At 7:15 a.m., the terrorists managed to enter the neighborhood, but the Yamas officers fought back, killing many of them. Amid the fighting, Fiorentino and the Yamas team commander, First Sgt. Shlomo Yaakov Krasniansky, were killed, and the other members of the police force were wounded.

Nearby, a resident of the kibbutz was murdered by the terrorists in the reinforced safe room in her home.

Over the following three hours, the remaining Yamas members and the deputy chief of the local security team continued to battle terrorists in different areas of Nahal Oz.

At this point in the battle, the local security team and Yamas officers had managed to block the vast majority of the first wave of terrorists, according to the investigation.

At 10 a.m., the second wave of Hamas terrorists breached Nahal Oz, and over the following hours carried out most of the murders and abductions that took place in the kibbutz that day.

At 10:15 a.m. Hamas terrorists murdered two elderly residents in their home, murdered a foreign national at the laborers’ residence area, and murdered and abducted another foreign national, Mollel, near the cowshed.

At 10:37 a.m., the terrorists reached the “Keshet” neighborhood and breached into the home of the Zohar family, before leaving.

The terrorists later returned to the home and brutally murdered several members of the family — the father Yaniv, mother Yasmin, and daughters Keshet and Tehelet — who were sheltering in a reinforced room. Their son, Ariel, was sheltering at a different home.

Between 10:37 and around 1:30 p.m., terrorists were going between other houses in the neighborhood, massacring and abducting civilians, while live-streaming their actions on social media using phones stolen from residents. The terrorists forced 17-year-old Tomer Arava Eliaz to go around the neighborhood and call on others to come out of their homes. The terrorists also gathered several civilians together in one home during these hours.

During this spree, six residents were murdered and seven were abducted to the Gaza Strip by the terrorists. Tomer and his mother Dikla Arava were likely mistakenly killed by Israeli forces amid the chaos, according to the investigation.

At 12:05 p.m., a team of troops from the Maglan commando unit encountered a group of some 10 terrorists on the road leading to Nahal Oz. Amid the battle, Maj. Chen Bochris, the deputy commander of Maglan, and two other soldiers were killed.

At 1:15 p.m., additional Maglan forces arrived outside Nahal Oz, along with members of the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, and they divided up the community to better coordinate the fighting.

At 1:45 p.m., the troops began to search the kibbutz, during which they encountered several terrorists. Givati troops chased after several Hamas squads who ran out of the kibbutz and eventually killed them.

In one incident at 3:30 p.m., one of the forces entered an area outside of their jurisdiction, identified a gunman in a home, and opened fire. The armed person later was revealed to be a member of Nahal Oz’s local security team.

By 5:30 p.m., the kibbutz had been cleared of terrorists, and the then-commander of the 98th Division, Maj. Gen. Dan Goldfus, who arrived at Nahal Oz, instructed troops to begin to evacuate the civilians, which began an hour later.

Most of the civilians were taken to a nearby army base. By 8 a.m. on October 8, all civilians had been evacuated.