Father of IDF soldier killed on Oct. 7 says Hamas wished his daughter ‘Happy Birthday’ weeks before attack

In chilling testimony, Eyal Eshel, whose daughter Sgt. Roni Eshel was killed on the IDF’s Nahal Oz base on October 7, 2023, claims that weeks before the terror group’s onslaught, Hamas operatives had held up a sign wishing his daughter “Mazal Tov” on her birthday.

Eshel says his daughter had reported the incident to her superiors, but nothing was done about it, Ynet news reports.

He says this shows that Hamas knew intimate details about the Nahal Oz base and the surveillance soldiers who were stationed there.

“Hamas terrorists stood on the other side of the fence with a banner,” Eshel tells Ynet. “They knew about her birthday.”

Eyal Eshel, the father of the late Staff Sgt. Roni Eshel, testifying before an independent civilian commission investigating the events leading up to October 7, September 17, 2024. (Civilian Commission of Inquiry)

“It illustrates that Hamas knew everything… They knew [the soldiers’] names in from communication networks, they listened and eavesdropped on them,” he says.

Hamas “came prepared and we lost because we didn’t even understand what they knew.”

According to Ynet, the IDF has yet to comment on Eshel’s claims.

The torched command center of the Nahal Oz IDF base, overrun by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, during a visit by relatives of slain lookout soldiers on December 19, 2023. (Courtesy/Eyal Eshel)

Roni Eshel was killed on October 7, 2023, at age 19, along with 14 other surveillance troops during Hamas’s attack on the Nahal Oz base.

In the same attack, seven surveillance soldiers were abducted and taken as hostages into Gaza: Ori Megidish, who was rescued by the IDF during the early days of the war; Noa Marciano, who was killed in captivity; and Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Liri Albag, Agam Berger and Naama Levy, who were all released by Hamas and returned to Israel during the current ceasefire accord.