Outgunned, outnumbered Ein Hashlosha security team failed to resist Oct. 7 onslaught

Outnumbered and outgunned, most of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha’s security team went into hiding rather than attempting to stop Hamas-led terrorists from rampaging through the community on October 7, 2023, according to an Israel Defense Forces probe published Wednesday, which also found significant failings in the military’s response to the onslaught.

Nonetheless, most of the kibbutz avoided the worst of the day’s massacres, as troops nearby managed to stop many of the terrorists from reaching the community, the army said Wednesday. Those who did make it inside, including a wave of elite Hamas fighters and later a group of armed looters, left without carrying out mass slaughters or taking hostages, despite facing only limited resistance.

In all, three civilians, Silvia Mirensky, Noa Glazberg, and Marcelle Taljah, were murdered by the terrorists. Rami Negbi, chief of Ein Hashlosha’s local security team, was killed battling the terrorists. No hostages were taken from the kibbutz.

The IDF probe into the attack on Ein Hashlosha found that the army showed up to secure the community far too late, and identified issues with the eventual evacuation of the kibbutz.

The findings published Wednesday are the latest in a series of detailed investigations into some 40 battles and massacres that took place during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, when about 5,600 terrorists stormed across the border, killed some 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages into Gaza, where dozens remain captive.

Similar to other investigations, the probe concluded that the IDF “failed in its mission to protect” the residents of Ein Hashlosha, mainly because the military had never prepared for such an event: an Israeli community being attacked by terrorists, as well as a widespread attack on numerous towns and army bases simultaneously by thousands of terrorists. The military also lacked an intelligence warning, and therefore, troops were unprepared for Hamas’s attack.

The probe into what happened at Ein Hashlosha, carried out by Col. Ziv Nimni — a senior combat engineering officer — covered all aspects of the fighting in the kibbutz and surrounding area.

Nimni and his team spent hundreds of hours investigating the attack on Ein Hashlosha, where 296 civilians were residing on October 7.

The IDF said the investigators made visits to the scene and reviewed every possible source of information, including footage taken by terrorists with body-mounted cameras, residents’ text messages, surveillance videos, army radio communications, and interviews with survivors.

The Ein Hashlosha 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 has been covered in separate, larger investigations into the IDF’s intelligence and defenses.

The probe found that fighting by IDF troops outside of the kibbutz resulted in fewer terrorists reaching the community than Hamas had planned.

Only Hamas’s initial wave of 15 terrorists from the elite Nukhba force, on motorcycles, infiltrated Ein Hashlosha, though they left soon after, for reasons that are not entirely clear. Hamas’s second wave of dozens more terrorists on pickup trucks never made it to the kibbutz.

A third wave of some 25 unaffiliated Palestinian terrorists wreaked havoc in the kibbutz for several hours, looting homes and setting fire to them, resulting in the death of Mirensky.

The probe also noted that the IDF did not correctly evacuate civilians from the community, including Thai workers who were left behind initially. The bodies of the slain residents were only collected the following day, the investigation found.

Ein Hashlosha’s defense squad was “ineffective” in stopping the terrorists with the weapons at their disposal, the probe stated.

Of the 14 members of the local security team, just four had assault rifles. Some other members had handguns, while others had no weapons at all.

Over a year earlier, the IDF had ordered all Gaza border towns to return their assault rifles to the military following a series of break-ins in which weapons were stolen.

The army had conditioned the return of the rifles on squad members having an approved method for safely locking them in their homes, or alternatively, an armory in the community. Ein Hashlosha did not have an active armory.

The team had undergone a small training exercise with the IDF in March 2023, and in June 2023, the police’s elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit held a drill in Ein Hashlosha with the civil defense squad, simulating an infiltration into the kibbutz.

But ultimately, the armed members of the local security team, aside from their chief, Negbi, almost entirely failed to engage the terrorists.

Two members of the team hid inside a synagogue amid the onslaught, while others remained in their homes.

Only one terrorist was killed in the kibbutz during the entire onslaught, inside the home of a local security officer armed with a handgun.

Dozens of Gazans were killed outside Ein Hashlosha by Israeli troops and in airstrikes, according to the investigation.

Timeline of the attack

At 5:27 a.m., troops stationed on the border near Ein Hashlosha took up their standard positions. The soldiers, however, were not updated about an instruction from the Gaza Division that they should not approach the border for morning patrols. The instruction came following unusual signs seen by the military overnight, and fears that Hamas may be planning anti-tank missile fire on the border.

At 6:29 a.m., Hamas launched an initial barrage of over 1,000 rockets at Israel, mostly aimed at Israeli military bases, as terrorists breached the Gaza border barrier. No rockets hit Ein Hashlosha.

At 6:44 a.m., Negbi alerted the community’s defense squad that an unusual incident was taking place.

At 6:46 a.m., a convoy of Hamas terrorists on motorcycles encountered a group of soldiers positioned between Ein Hashlosha and the Gaza fence. The troops opened fire, as did a tank crew which arrived from a nearby post. The tank also managed to run over some of the terrorists, but most of them continued toward the community.

At 6:58 a.m., the first terrorists breached Ein Hashlosha via the its perimeter fence.

At 7:03 a.m., Negbi called on the civil defense squad to meet up at the kibbutz’s administrative headquarters, though only he actually went there.

At 7:04 a.m., terrorists were opening fire at homes in the kibbutz’s northern neighborhood.

At 7:09 a.m., the terrorists spotted Glazberg in her home and opened fire. She tried to flee out of a window before being murdered.

At 7:11 a.m., Negbi exchanged fire with a group of terrorists outside the administrative building. The terrorists launched RPGs at Negbi and opened fire, fatally wounding him. He managed to report that he was wounded before dying.

At the same time, the deputy chief of the security team headed out of his home after hearing the sounds of gunfire. He spotted a group of eight terrorists and decided to flee back to his home, accidentally dropping his cellphone on the way.

At 7:15 a.m., Taljah, who was visiting the community, left the home where she was staying and attempted to reach the home of her daughter and grandchildren. The terrorists spotted her outside and gunned her down.

Between 7:45 and 8 a.m., the first wave of terrorists left the kibbutz, apparently after receiving new orders from their commanders in Gaza. Some returned to the Strip, and others headed for other communities.

IDF troops had still not reached the community, as the major highways in the area had been blocked by the terrorists, and the Gaza Division’s command and control had entirely collapsed.

Between 8 and 8:30 a.m., some 25 unaffiliated terrorists, some of them armed, infiltrated the community from three different locations.

Members of the security squad, include those with rifles, remained in hiding as terrorists breached homes and stole valuables while threatening the residents, though none were hurt at first.

At 9 a.m., terrorists breached the home of Mirensky and set it ablaze. She perished in the blaze at around 9:39 a.m.

At 10:10 a.m., an armed terrorist breached the home of a local security officer, and was killed by him.

At 11 a.m., terrorists invaded the home of Jaqueline Glicksman, 81, who managed to flee through a window as the terrorists set fire to the building. She found the phone of the deputy of the civil defense squad as she ran away, and returned it to him at his home.

At 11:40 a.m., the Israeli Air Force carried out several strikes outside the kibbutz and near its perimeter fence.

At 1:20 p.m., two armed civilians, friends of a resident, arrived in Ein Hashlosha.

At 1:37 p.m., two more armed civilians, Betzalel and Yedidya Taljah, arrived in the kibbutz from the West Bank to rescue relatives. As they made their way through the Ein Hashlosha, the pair discovered the body of their mother, Marcelle.

By 2:05 p.m., the four armed civilians had joined members of the local security team to search for terrorists and rescue victims. They did not encounter any terrorists.

At 2:10 p.m., a group of some 20 Border Police officers and another eight cops entered Ein Hashlosha and joined the searches.

At 2:45 p.m., one of the terrorists was captured alive by Border Police officers.

Only at 3:15 p.m. did the first IDF troops arrive. By then, all terrorists had left the kibbutz.

By 6 p.m. on October 8, all of the kibbutz’s residents were evacuated.