‘Massive failure’: First troops reached Kibbutz Nir Oz 40 minutes after last terrorists left

On the morning of October 7, 2023, over 500 Palestinian terrorists swarmed into the unsuspecting Gaza border community of Kibbutz Nir Oz. The army — plunged into complete disarray by the shock attack on dozens of towns and military posts simultaneously — entirely failed to come to the rescue, as the terrorists moved from home to home, brutalizing, massacring, and kidnapping dozens of civilians.

The first soldiers to arrive at Nir Oz on October 7 did so some 40 minutes after the last terrorist left.

On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces presented its probe into the attack on Nir Oz — among its detailed investigations of some 40 battles and massacres that took place during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, when some 5,600 terrorists stormed across the border, killed some 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages to Gaza.

The probe highlighted the heroism of Nir Oz’s local security team, whose few members fought on their own for about two hours before being killed or wounded, and the bravery of residents who did everything they could to protect themselves and their loved ones. It also highlighted the army’s colossal failures that allowed throngs of terrorists to overrun the kibbutz without seeing a single soldier.

The probe concluded that the IDF “failed in its mission to protect” the residents of Nir 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.

Unlike other Israeli border communities attacked on October 7, the IDF did not fight any terrorists in Nir Oz, a community of around 420 residents, 386 of whom were there during the onslaught.

In all, 47 people, including 41 residents and six partygoers fleeing a nearby rave, were killed in the kibbutz during the onslaught. Another 76 were abducted by the terrorists — 67 alive and nine who were killed that day, either in Nir Oz, en route to Gaza, or in the Strip itself.

Of the 67 living hostages, 13 were killed in the Gaza Strip during the war. Currently, five hostages presumed alive and the bodies of nine captives remain held in Gaza, after 49 were released and the bodies of 13 were returned to Israel.

The total number of dead from Nir Oz, including those killed in captivity, stands at 69.

The hostages and dead included multiple generations of families, some of whom were killed or abducted by different terror organizations.

The terrorists entered all but six homes in the community of around 100 houses, causing heavy damage. The surviving members of the community are now living in the Karmei Gat neighborhood of Kiryat Gat, as Nir Oz undergoes a long reconstruction process.

Presenting the results of the probe to members of the kibbutz on Thursday, former IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said he “heard the harshest statement about October 7 from one of your members.

“I say it in every conversation I have with commanders, so that everyone in the IDF will remember it — that the first soldier arrived at Nir Oz after the last terrorist had left,” Halevi said, in audio of the meeting broadcast on Channel 12 news. “This is a terrible and damning statement, and we repeat it so that it will be etched into the consciousness of the IDF.”

The probe into what happened at Nir Oz, carried out by Maj. Gen. Eran Niv — the former chief of the Computer Service Directorate — covers all aspects of the attack on the kibbutz on October 7.

Niv and his team spent hundreds of hours investigating the onslaught at Nir 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 Nir 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.

Why did so many Palestinian terrorists reach Nir Oz?

The investigation found that an unusually large number of terrorists invaded Nir Oz, compared to other communities attacked on October 7. The probe stated that calls by then-Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif at 8 a.m. on Palestinians to invade Israeli communities led to numerous terrorists joining in the onslaught.

This was exacerbated in the Nir Oz area due to the lack of IDF troops defending the area, giving the terrorists a sense of freedom, and because of footage circulating online of an Israeli tank that was disabled on the border and its crew abducted. The tank became a sort of attraction for Palestinians during the onslaught, with hundreds from the Hamas stronghold of Khuza’a reaching the area, many of whom would continue into Israel and reach Nir Oz.

Of the over 500 terrorists who invaded Nir Oz, the investigation team was only able to find the body of one in the kibbutz. Hamas terrorists likely picked up the bodies of several of their comrades killed by armed civilians during the onslaught.

Outside the kibbutz, on a road leading to Gaza, the bodies of 64 terrorists were found. Those terrorists were killed by Israeli Air Force helicopters and an IDF tank.

Why did the IDF fail to stop the terrorists from invading Nir Oz?

The investigation team stated that “the forces were not prepared, did not prepare or practice scenarios that occurred on October 7,” and that they were not given any alert that morning. “Already at the beginning of the fighting, many of the commanders were injured in the area, and the chain of command collapsed,” the team said.

Niv’s team also stated that the IDF was unable to build an accurate picture of what was happening in the entire area, including in Nir Oz. “The troops fought throughout the area, including along the fence and their posts, and failed to hold an assessment,” the probe said, adding that at no point did troops speak with anyone in Nir Oz during the attack to understand what was happening there.

The probe found that the troops “fought fiercely” in the area, without stopping for a moment even when the chain of command collapsed and many of them were wounded, successfully defending other communities, but they did not reach them all, including Nir Oz.

The investigation stated that “if there had been an alert, even if it was very short notice, there is no doubt that the harm could have been reduced.”

According to the probe, the IDF could have done more to contact officials in Nir Oz and understand what was happening there.

Additionally, the probe noted that soldiers failed to defend a nearby army base next to Nir Oz, whose troops would have been able to defend the kibbutz if their base was not overrun. The investigation also stated that it was an error for tank forces to head to the Gaza border amid the onslaught, and instead, they should have stayed closer to the communities to defend them.

The understaffed local security team “fought bravely” for some two hours until it was defeated, the probe said, adding that within the context of October 7 and “without the assistance of military forces, even a larger local security team had no chance against such a large enemy force.”

Why did IDF troops not reach Nir Oz in time?

According to the investigation, Hamas’s simultaneous and widescale attack on dozens of communities and Israeli army bases on October 7 made it difficult for the IDF, on all levels — from the regional brigade to the chief of staff — to build an accurate picture of what was happening, especially with how serious the situation was in each community.

Backup forces who were arriving at the Gaza border area from the north, including those who arrived at their own initiative, mostly got stuck fighting in the city of Sderot. Others who managed to push further south down Route 232 either got caught up fighting in other communities or were ambushed by terrorists at major junctions. Similarly, troops arriving from the south were also attacked and delayed at the junctions, resulting in the first troops reaching Nir Oz only after 1 p.m.

Few troops were explicitly instructed to head for Nir Oz, and those who were got stuck fighting on the way.

By the time a special forces team managed to push through the Ma’on Junction near the community, at around 11:45 a.m., it was far too late. Their commander was wounded, and they were also instructed to reach another community.

The investigation found that there was real-time information that could have been used by IDF commanders to understand the grave situation in Nir Oz, though nothing was done with it. This included an IDF surveillance camera showing dozens of terrorists walking to and from Nir Oz — which was being viewed live at an IDF command center — and information from Israeli Air Force helicopters flying over the area.

The investigation team stated that this live information indicated that there were terrorists in Nir Oz, carrying out massacres and abductions, but “such information was being received from numerous other places, and it was not possible to understand from this information that Nir Oz was in a more grave situation than other communities.”

“Residents of Nir Oz called for help time and time again, but their reports and calls were lost, within the chaos of thousands of messages and reports,” the probe said.

If the IDF had taken action on the information and prioritized Nir Oz, “it is presumed that troops would have arrived earlier and succeeded in minimizing the harm to the kibbutz and its residents,” the team said.

Conclusions

The investigation team concluded that the IDF “failed to protect Nir Oz” and the failure was “particularly massive, partly because IDF troops were only able to reach the community after the last terrorists had already left. In fact, the terrorists carried out their atrocities in the kibbutz almost uninterrupted.”

The IDF’s failure to defend Nir Oz was not a tactical or moral failure, the probe stated, but rather a “systemic failure.”

“The forces did not fail to navigate to the kibbutz, and did not delay out of fear, nor did they choose not to fight; The failure of this incident was that the [IDF’s] command did not understand that the situation in Nir Oz was particularly grave, and that massacres and abductions were taking place there on a large scale, and therefore, did not prioritize sending forces to Nir Oz over other places,” the investigation team said.

The team said that there were other communities where the situation was very grave, and some where troops did not arrive on time, “but there was no other town with such a deadly combination of such a grave situation on the one hand and the absence of a military force in the community on the other.”

“That’s what happened to Nir Oz,” it added.

Recommendations

The investigation team recommended establishing a new IDF post between Nir Oz and the Gaza Strip, as well as strengthening the local security team.

It also recommended establishing a new mechanism in the IDF for building an intelligence picture when the chain of command has collapsed amid fighting, as well as other tactical changes to the military.

The timeline of the attack

Before the onslaught, the Golani Infantry Brigade’s 51st Battalion was deployed to the Nir Oz area, including at a base near Kissufim, a post near Nirim, and another camp next to an agricultural research and development center south of Nir Oz known as Mopdarom. Additionally, two tanks of the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion and a Namer armored personnel carrier were stationed at another small post near Nir Oz, known as the White House.

In all, there were 182 combat soldiers and 57 combat support troops stationed in the area, protecting the southern Gaza border area, including Nir Oz and several nearby communities.

At 5:33 a.m. on October 7, the troops 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.

Six of the breaches were in the Nir Oz area, through which at 6:36 a.m. 100-130 members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force streamed into Israel — on pickup trucks, motorcycles, and on foot — and headed for the kibbutz. Another 200-400 other terrorists, including members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Mujahideen Brigades, and unaffiliated Palestinians, arrived later.

As the rockets were flying and Hamas terrorists were spotted approaching the border, the two tanks and APC stationed at the White House post advanced toward the Gaza border, under the assumption that they could stop the invasion.

One tank positioned itself south of Nir Oz, and the second north of the kibbutz. The APC was positioned between the two.

The tank in the south was quickly attacked by Hamas terrorists with RPG fire and explosive devices. The crew of four — tank commander Cpt. Omer Maxim Neutra, driver Sgt. Shaked Dahan, gunner Sgt. Nimrod Cohen, and loader Sgt. Oz Daniel — was then abducted to Gaza.

Infamous footage from the attack showed Palestinians in civilian clothing standing on and around their tank while it was wreathed in smoke and flames, and the soldiers being dragged out by Hamas terrorists.

Neutra’s death was confirmed in December 2024, Daniel’s death was announced in February 2024, and Dahan’s death was confirmed in November 2023. All three were killed on October 7, 2023, according to the IDF. Cohen is believed to be still alive in captivity.

At 6:38 a.m., the Hamas terrorists, using sniper rifles, took out Israeli military surveillance cameras on the border near Nir Oz. Only one camera, located further away from the border, next to the kibbutz, remained operating.

Col. Asaf Hamami, the commander of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, at 6:42 a.m. alerted the civilian local security teams in the communities in his area, and announced over the radio: “We are at war.” Minutes later, Hamami and his team exchanged fire with terrorists in the adjacent community of Nirim, where he was killed and his body abducted to Gaza.

At 6:49 a.m., a car with two partygoers who had fled from the Psyduck music festival entered Nir Oz through its main gate. They evaded the first two Hamas terrorists who arrived at Nir Oz 10 seconds later and infiltrated the community.

At 6:52 a.m., a member of Nir Oz’s security team exchanged fire with the first terrorists, as other members tried to assist. Meanwhile, at 6:55 a.m., another vehicle with fleeing partygoers from Psyduck came under terrorist fire at the entrance to Nir Oz. Two were killed.

At 6:57 a.m., Hamas terrorists killed Bracha Levinson, 74, in her home, while live streaming the murder on her own Facebook page, which was seen by her family. This was the first killing to take place inside Nir Oz.

At the same time, Hamas terrorists captured the Mopdarom base, located south of Nir Oz, killing five and wounding 17. The other troops were holed up amid the massive rocket fire.

Also at this point, the IDF’s command and control in the southern Gaza area had entirely fallen apart, with the brigade commander killed, several platoon commanders killed or seriously wounded, and one abducted.

At 7:06 a.m., Cpt. Omer Wolf,  a deputy company commander in the 51st Battalion, called on troops to defend closer to border communities, rather than the border fence, amid the massive invasion. He was killed along with two of his soldiers near the White House post later in the morning, while successfully delaying Hamas’s invasion into Nirim by several hours.

Between 7:11 and 7:18 a.m., another two vehicles fleeing from the Psyduck festival arrived at the entrance to Nir Oz. Hamas terrorists waiting at the entrance murdered the partygoers.

Terrorists at 7:27 a.m. entered the kibbutz through a southern entrance, heading for the foreign workers’ residences. Twelve Thai and Tanzanian workers were murdered, and five foreign nationals were abducted from there.

The terrorists continued their onslaught through the kibbutz, murdering residents in their homes and setting the buildings on fire. The first kidnappings began at around 8:30 a.m.

Some members of the seven-strong local security team and other armed civilians fought back from their homes, while three — Tamir Adar, Aviv Atzili, and Dolev Yehud — and other armed civilians confronted the terrorists together outside.

All three were killed following a two-hour battle, ending at around 9 a.m. According to the investigation, they managed to delay the terrorists during that time, but the IDF never showed up to provide backup.

Once the local security team was defeated, the kidnappings continued and ramped up.

An IAF helicopter arrived at the kibbutz at 9:22 a.m. and began to carry out strikes on a route leading from the Gaza fence to Nir Oz, after identifying some 60 terrorists there. The chopper came under fire from the terrorists and was forced to make an emergency landing at the Hatzerim Airbase.

At 9:55 a.m., the second tank that headed for the Gaza border in the morning arrived at the entrance to Nir Oz. One of the four crew was seriously wounded and evacuated by the APC, while another member was wounded inside the tank.

At 9:57 a.m. the tank fired two shells at terrorists at the entrance to Nir Oz, though it remains unclear if any were hit, as no bodies were found there. Hamas may have taken the bodies back to Gaza, according to the probe.

At 10 a.m., another IAF helicopter arrived near Nir Oz and began to open fire on terrorists along the route heading to the kibbutz from Gaza. A short while later it received orders to head to the Gaza Division base near Re’im, which was also overrun by terrorists.

At 10:06 a.m., the tank that arrived at the entrance to Nir Oz received an order to leave the area and help prevent a suspected kidnapping of troops elsewhere. The tank did not enter Nir Oz but did end up killing numerous terrorists near the border fence.

At 10:22 a.m., the IAF chopper returned from the Re’im base and continued strikes against terrorists on the road leading from Gaza. The IDF tank also reached this area, attempting to run over the crowd of terrorists.

By 10:30 a.m., the Hamas Nukhba terrorists were returning to the Strip after being instructed by their commanders in Gaza. The other terrorists joined them and also began to leave at this time.

As the tank arrived at the route outside the kibbutz, Batsheva Yahalomi, who was abducted from Nir Oz along with her children, managed to escape. Yahalomi, 10-year-old Yael, and almost two-year-old toddler sat on one moped with a terrorist, while 12-year-old Eitan and a foreign worker sat on the other moped with another gunman.

The two mopeds veered away from one another as the terrorists saw the tank, and Yahalomi lost track of Eitan on the other moped. Yahalomi and her two daughters were able to run away, hiding for a short period. Two unarmed terrorists found them and tried to convince them to come into Gaza, but didn’t violently attack them. Eventually, she returned to the kibbutz.

Eitan Yahalomi was released under a hostage-ceasefire deal in late November 2023. His father Ohad Yahalomi was taken hostage separately from the rest of the family and murdered in captivity. His body was returned under another deal in late February 2025.

In another incident at 11:30 a.m., the IAF helicopter opened fire against a car with several terrorists in it on the road leading to Gaza. It was later revealed, based on eyewitnesses, videos from the helicopter, and surveillance camera footage, that the vehicle also had Israeli hostages in it.

The gunfire killed several of the terrorists, along with Efrat Katz, a resident abducted from Nir Oz with her daughter and granddaughters. The others were wounded in the incident.

At 12:20 p.m., the IAF helicopter carried out a strike against six terrorists outside the kibbutz.

The final footage capturing a terrorist in Nir Oz is timestamped at 12:30 p.m.

Members of Border Police’s Yamas covert tactical unit arrived at Nir Oz at 1:10 p.m., and members of the IDF’s Egoz commando unit arrived at 1:47 p.m. Troops of the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit arrived at 2:50 p.m.

The troops began searches in the community, escorting residents out. There was no fighting, as all the terrorists had already left.