‘My daughter was burned here’: Bereaved families of lookout troops visit torched base
Touring remains of command center in IDF’s Nahal Oz base, overrun by Hamas on Oct. 7, father says army ‘abandoned’ soldiers by lacking security protocols, safety measures
A group of relatives of IDF observation soldiers and other troops killed on October 7 when Hamas terrorists overran the Nahal Oz base visited the base and its torched command center on Tuesday, with one lamenting that minimal security and safety protocols could have allowed many to survive.
The tour of the now abandoned base near the Gaza border was organized by the military, with the first images emerging of the destroyed, sooty command center where more than a dozen young soldiers were killed.
“The army probably wanted to have a bit of closure with the families,” said Eyal Eshel, the father of surveillance soldier Roni Eshel, who had been considered missing for a month after the attack before she was declared dead.
Speaking with the Kan public broadcaster, Eshel said he had previously visited the base five days after the attack, “when there were still military vehicles on the road that were riddled with bullets, and bodies were being removed,” and explosives left there by the terrorists as traps had just been removed.
“It looked like a concentration camp,” he added.
The attack on the Nahal Oz base, located less than a kilometer from the Gaza border, came at the start of the murderous assault carried out by Hamas, in which roughly 3,000 terrorists burst into Israel by land, air and sea under the cover of thousands of rockets. They infiltrated more than 20 communities across the south of the country, killing more than 1,200 people and seizing some 240 hostages. Families were slaughtered in their homes in front of their loved ones and some 360 people were mowed down at an outdoor music festival.
During the attack on the base, 15 IDF surveillance soldiers were killed and six more were taken hostage. In total, 66 soldiers were killed in the assault on the base.
Visiting the charred remains of the command center on Tuesday along with other bereaved relatives, Eshel told the Ynet news site: “This is a difficult sight for all of us. The girls were there from 6:30 a.m., and for six hours nobody came to rescue them, to help them. It’s incomprehensible.
“The parents cried. We saw the girls’ workstations. What was once a state-of-the-art command center, how it was all burned down. We lit candles in their memory,” said Eshel.
Lior Glass, the father of slain lookout soldier Yam Glass, told Ynet: “I felt my stomach churning. My daughter was burned there. Only today did we see with our own eyes everything we have heard. It is moving and sad.”
But Eshel was also angry.
“We understand the communications room was locked. Had it been open, our dear girls could have gone in and locked themselves there, and maybe be alive today,” he said.
“There were no protocols on the base [for the scenario of it being breached], there were no security measures or tools to prevent fires, not even a water sprinkler. What chance did they have to survive? Our lookout soldiers were abandoned,” he said.
An IDF investigation into the nature of the deaths of the female surveillance soldiers has revealed that many were killed by a toxic gas that caused suffocation and loss of consciousness within a few minutes of exposure, Channel 12 reported last week.
The main findings of the investigation reportedly indicated that an unspecified but toxic flammable substance was apparently thrown through the entrance of the building that housed the surveillance soldiers’ command center, where 22 people, including many of the surveillance soldiers, were hiding and scrambling for a way out.
When they reached the emergency exit, however, the soldiers realized that the door was on fire, and there was no way of opening it or even getting close to it. Those who were still able continued to search for an exit and eventually reached the bathrooms, where a small window led to the outside.
One of the officers climbed up to the window and smashed it, allowing himself, five other officers and one surveillance soldier to escape the toxic inferno.
Speaking to Channel 12 news, Eshel charged that more of the soldiers’ lives could have been saved by having an escape ladder in the bathroom.
IDF surveillance soldiers belong to the Combat Intelligence Corps and operate along the country’s borders, as well as throughout the West Bank.
The surveillance soldiers are referred to by many as “the eyes of the army” as they provide real-time intelligence information to soldiers in the field, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
At least three months before the attack, Nahal Oz lookout soldiers reported signs that something unusual was underway at the already-tumultuous Gaza border according to survivors of the attack who spoke to the media in October.
The activity reported by the soldiers included information on Hamas operatives conducting training sessions multiple times a day, digging holes and placing explosives along the border. According to the accounts of the soldiers, no action was taken by the more senior officers who received the reports, and the information was disregarded as unimportant by intelligence officials.
Soldiers told the Haaretz daily (Hebrew) last month that they believe sexism played a part in the fact that their warnings were not heeded.
