IDF’s first hours fighting Hamas terror on Oct. 7
Kibbutz Be’eri bright yellow gate is still burnt, a little over a week after Hamas’s massacre there, it stood half open, IDF vehicles whizzing by. What was once a thriving community is now empty of civilians and instead is full of soldiers.
The fields are full of gear, backpacks, and other necessities for war, but in the air, there is also a sense of calm. The only other indicator of time still passing is the slightly crisp air and the clouds, indicating winter’s imminence, a change from the otherwise sweltering hot Gaza border area.
This gate was the location where Hamas terrorists burst through into Israeli civilian territory on the early morning of Saturday, October 7. Kibbutz Be’eri, Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and a number of other communities in the area became ground zero for the massacre.
Later in the morning, the IDF fought at numerous sites along the border, trying to stem the tide of the attack. Golani soldiers from the 51st and 13th battalions fought along 30 km. of the border, taking heavy casualties those first two days.
These units lost dozens of soldiers, 70 from Golani, fighting to halt the advance. Yet bases and outposts were overrun, and more than 1,000 civilians were massacred.
To get to this site of horror, we drove down from Urim, a small community near Ofakim. Checkpoints have been set up near Ofakim, and many towns now have police at their entrances, a sign that the terror threat remains.
The 10th day of war means that you could feel the overwhelming might of the IDF in the area. But on day one, this was a site of chaos and slaughter. The road that leads down to Kibbutz Reim, and then runs along the Gaza border, inland several kilometers from the border itself, was one of death and massacre on October 7.
It was here that Hamas sent men on motorcycles and trucks to surround concertgoers at the Supernova music festival. Shelters near the bus stops, decorated and donated with support from abroad, became centers of death as terrorists tossed grenades into them and shot those sheltering inside.
The commanders of this frontline faced a long sector to defend. It was divided into two, the northern and southern sectors under the Gaza division, anchored at fortified spots like Kissufim and Nahal Oz. A battalion of men, several hundred fighters, held each sector, which spread the soldiers thin.
It was Simchat Torah and Shabbat, a weekend that was supposed to be quiet. The 51st battalion of the Golani had a General Staff Reconnaissance Unit at Kerem Shalom as well, near the Egyptian border, and another unit at the Yiftach base near Zikim, which also hosts a base for the Home Front.
It was an attack that soldiers had no prior indication of, until it broke out. With even just an hour to prepare, they could have brought forces to bear where necessary against the impending threat and neutralized some of it, and called in Air Force assets to decimate the 2,900 terrorists gathering near the border at 5 a.m.
Those 2,900 would come in three waves. The first was well armed and struck 29 points along the border, neutralizing observation towers via drones and motorbikes to penetrate into Israel, crossing a billion-dollar fence supposed to contain them.
The Golani soldiers witnessed the rocket fire that awakened the border at 6:30 a.m. The battalions were all dispersed. One unit, for instance, had to hold an area behind which were five kibbutzim: Kissufim, Ein HaShlosha, Magen, Nirim, and Nir Oz. The soldiers had several tanks in each area along the border and brought the tanks up to their berms to be able to confront attackers, as the company commanders summoned their fighters to try to sustain the damage.
But there were black holes of information; units were overrun, Nir Oz lost touch with the commanders, and the Gaza division camp at Re’im was attacked.
It took time for each sector commander to comprehend the full extent of the attack. Israel has trained and prepared for infiltrations, but the reigning belief was that each infiltration point was the major point of contact, not that the enemy would hit 29 spots at the same time, making it impossible to respond effectively.
Each unit, and many of the security volunteers of the local kibbutzim, fought lonely battles. When the IDF and local forces were successful, they beat back the attack and the terrorists did not penetrate those
communities. Be’eri and Kfar Azza were a few of the tragic exceptions.
Commanders and members
of the unit who were on leave came back to their units at the call. It took several hours to organize a real defense at the border, which at this point had only just begun to contain and destroy the terrorists.
IT WOULD take another 50 hours of tough battles to reestablish secure borders, reducing the enemy from 29 points of infiltration to nine, and finally to zero. The IAF faced difficulties carrying out strikes because the terrorists were mixed in with civilians and soldiers; this chaotic situation effectively nullified Israel’s technological advantages. The terrorists also had a large supply of weapons, such as RPGs and also kornet anti-tank missiles.
Once in, they penetrated beyond the first line of contact into a second line of border communities, presenting a difficulty. There, they were confronted by police in Sderot, Ofakim, and at the Supernova festival, killing 54 officers. After an hour or so, Israel’s elite units responded, including the Lotar counter-terror unit, which went into Sderot, as well as Shayetet 13, Shaldag, Seyeret Ramatkal, Duvdevan, Yasam police units, and other units of paratroops and commandos.
The terrorists trained for this attack. They not only had maps of the communities they were invading and destroying, but they also brought trucks and vehicles with weapons, gear, and other capabilities. In Be’eri, there was a pickup truck with a “technical” machine gun setup on the back. The gun has been removed; the terrorists even removed spare tires so as to light them on fire to burn buildings in the communities.
Their goal was to seize buildings, take hostages, and entrench themselves as much as they could. Others took hostages back to Gaza, others massacred. In Be’eri, in particular, it took time to kill them all.
As of Monday, numerous buildings were destroyed, partially burned and ripped apart, as though a tornado had come through the town. But this was not natural, it was human.
Israel believes this will be a long war, and one question is what will the Jewish state’s prolonged response at the border be? The battalions that were stationed here paid the heaviest of prices – their heroes. But they needed more support, and lessons must be learned for the future about this response.