Nahal Oz attack

Nahal Oz is a kibbutz situated in southern Israel, in the northwestern part of the Negev desert near the Gaza border. As of 2021, it had a population of 471 residents. Founded in 1951, it was the first Nahal settlement in the country. By 1953, it transitioned into a civilian community. A significant event in its history occurred in 1956 when the kibbutz's security officer, Ro'i Rothberg, was killed by infiltrators from Gaza. His funeral witnessed a powerful eulogy by Moshe Dayan, then Chief of Staff, which emphasized the challenges faced by Israel and the constant threat from its neighbors. Following the 2006 Lebanon War, a eulogy by novelist David Grossman for his son drew comparisons to Dayan's earlier eulogy. In 2014, a young resident, Daniel Tregerman, was killed by mortar fire from Gaza. Close to the kibbutz was the Nahal Oz military outpost of the Israel Defense Forces, which was located 850 meters from the Gaza border. At the time, it housed troops from the 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigade, two tank teams from the 7th Armored Brigade, an intelligence collection platoon from Unit 414 of the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps, and additional support personnel. In spite of its location close to the Gaza border, it was not designed to defend against a ground attack. The perimeter wall had gaps and holes, and the shelters as well as the command center were designed to withstand rocket fire only. In 2025, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi later remarked that he had known for years that the base was positioned in a problematic area, but that it was not moved for budgetary reasons. The attack on the base was preceded by meticulous intelligence gathering by Hamas, which in large part relied on social media posts by soldiers which included pictures of various areas in the base. The IDF investigation concluded that social media posts provided such a level of intelligence that Hamas would not have needed a single spy to effect its plan. Hamas also used drones and IDF media publications. In 2023, IDF troops in Gaza captured a Hamas document detailing the plans for the attack, revealing that Hamas had managed to map out an exact layout of the base and knew how many soldiers were normally stationed there, as well as the fact that on weekends the number would be reduced by half. Hamas reportedly also built a mock-up of the base in Gaza to train its militants in capturing it. Hamas' plan for the conquest of the kibbutz, which it codenamed "Operation 402", was also meticulously planned. Hamas possessed three aerial photographs of the area which identified routes of movement, IDF communication antennas, cameras, motion radars, guard posts, barbed wire fences, and dirt mounds. Hamas planned for its militants to conquer the kibbutz and fortify themselves there after taking hostages. The plan called for breaching holes in the fence with explosive charges, after which the raiding force would split into two groups. One group would raid the eastern part of the kibbutz, during which it would take over the clubhouse, dining hall, and kibbutz secretariat. Another would focus on the western part, where they would take over the visitors' center and kindergartens and blow up the kibbutz's communication antennas. Hostages taken by the first group were to be gathered in the kindergartens or dining hall, and the kibbutz grocery store was identified as a potential source of supplies. The attack on the kibbutz was illegal under international law, as is any attack on civilian homes by any party to a conflict. == Military base ==

Attack At the Nahal Oz base Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades were joined by Palestinian Islamic Jihad's Saraya Al-Quds, On 7 October 2023, at 6:31a.m., Israeli field surveillance soldiers from Nahal Oz spotted two Hamas squads planting explosives at the Gaza–Israel barrier while on patrol. The bombs were detonated at two areas on a newly constructed barbed wire fence. Two soldiers from the Golani Brigade's 13th Battalion rushed to provide backup for the lone soldier guarding the base. At 6:38 and 6:41, two breaches were created in the Gaza–Israel barrier near the base, and dozens of militants on motorbikes, pickup trucks, and on foot stormed into Israel. Militants reached the base's perimeter wall at 6:45, while the Golani soldiers, who were under-equipped, began deploying to guard posts on the western side of the base. An officer in the base's command center activated a remotely-operated gun system to shoot at the militants as they headed towards the base, but as militants shot the surveillance cameras the monitoring screens in the command center began to go dark. A tank stationed in the base attempted to position itself to overlook the border, but by then a wave of 65 militants had arrived. While battling soldiers inside the base, militants fired into holes in the base's walls, critically injuring the 13th Battalion's deputy commander. Between 6:48 and 6:56, the militants exchanged fire with soldiers in the base. RPGs were launched at the perimeter wall and the guard posts came under massive fire. At 7:05, the first militants entered the base. At 7:09, the surveillance soldiers left their stations and went to hide in the command center. At 7:30, militants who were on the eastern side flanked around it and reached the entrance, where they engaged in a lengthy exchange of fire with the three soldiers guarding it, killing them after losing several of their own. They then went inside, and soon destroyed a large part of the post and equipment within it. The soldiers at the post were surprised, and most of them were killed. Meanwhile, Israeli Air Force drones and attack helicopters began arriving at the base at 7:30 and circled over it as the pilots and drone operators struggled to differentiate between IDF soldiers and Hamas militants, with the first drone strike carried out at 7:50. Throughout the rest of the battle numerous air and artillery strikes would subsequently be carried out inside or near the Nahal Oz outpost. The base was the site of the largest number of airstrikes in the battles of October 7 due to the presence of numerous soldiers directing them. Ultimately, 14 drone strikes and 6 helicopter strikes were carried out inside the base, and 150 helicopter cannon rounds were fired into the base. Another 77 drone strikes, 36 helicopter strikes, and 10 airstrikes by fighter jets were carried out near the base, with 1,600 artillery shells also fired at the vicinity of the base. The militants threw a smoke grenade and two fragmentation grenades into the shelter. Fourteen of the soldiers, all of whom were injured to various degrees and four of whom were armed, fled the shelter. One was killed while running away and two took shelter in the base's clinic, where they were later killed when militants threw grenades into it. The remaining eleven barricaded themselves inside a room which militants then tried to enter before being dispersed by a drone strike. The drone operator was not sure of the identities of the militants and carried out the strike near them, causing them to flee. Militants also continued to try to break into the shelter with the rest of the soldiers remaining inside. One of the armed soldiers remaining in the shelter, Captain Eden Nimri, positioned herself at one of the two entrances to the shelter. She opened fire on the first militant to enter but more followed and Nimri was killed after running out of ammunition. Another of the armed soldiers, Sergeant Shai Biton, also managed to kill a militant before she was also killed. As of 13 December 2023, the IDF investigation could not yet pinpoint the exact type of chemicals used. and seven female observers. Soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade's 890th Battalion, who had been fighting at Be'eri and Kfar Aza, headed towards the base after being called in as reinforcements. They were joined by other paratroopers, a number of Golani Brigade officers, and members of the Israel Police's Yamam counter-terrorism unit. The reinforcements arrived at the base at 1:36p.m. and began clearing it of militants. By 5:00, the base was completely cleared. Of the latter, one was killed in captivity, one was rescued by an IDF raid a few weeks later, and five were released during the January 2025 Gaza war ceasefire after spending more than 470 days in captivity. In addition to the seven Unit 414 female observers, three tank crew, two of them dead, were also taken to Gaza; they were returned in October 2025 as part of the Gaza peace plan. Parents of the 18 and 19-year-old girls from the unarmed surveillance unit felt that their daughters had been abandoned by the armed officers. The surveillance buildings at Nahal Oz and their computer equipment were destroyed within the first hour of the invasion. == Inside the kibbutz ==

In parallel to the events at the Nahal Oz military base, about 180 militants attacked kibbutz Nahal Oz, which was defended by its local security team as well as a team of 11 fighters from the Yamas tactical unit of the Israel Border Police who had been stationed in the kibbutz at the time to deal with potential demonstrations along the Gaza border. At 6:43 a.m., a unit of Golani Brigade and Armored Corps soldiers led by Lieutenant Daniel Perez, who would later be killed while defending the Nahal Oz military base, updated the kibbutz security coordinator that Hamas militants had invaded Israel and were heading for the kibbutz, and set out to defend it. After finding that they were unable to enter the kibbutz due to rocket fire having knocked out power to the community's entrance gate, they drove to a hill at the northwestern edge of the kibbutz where they encountered a large number of militants. They opened fire and hit several of them, preventing the militants from entering the kibbutz. At 7:05, the first militants entered the kibbutz through an area south of its back entrance, reaching the cowshed. The security coordinator, Ilan Fiorentino, spotted them as they headed towards a residential neighborhood, and called in the Yamas officers. He did not call the rest of the security team, as their assault rifles were stored in the kibbutz armory, which was inaccessible due to the power outage. Of the 16 members of the security team, four had access to weapons. Only the deputy security coordinator, Nissan de Kalo, had an assault rifle in his home. The Yamas officers headed to Fiorentino's location, but while en route they encountered another group of militants outside the fence. They decided to split up, with six staying to battle the militants they had seen and the remaining five moving on to join Fiorentino. At 7:15, the militants entered the neighborhood and were engaged by the Yamas officers, as well as Fiorentino and de Kalo, killing many of them. The Yamas team commander, First Sergeant Shlomo Yaakov Krasniansky, and Fiorentino were killed and the other Yamas officers were wounded. In addition, the militants killed a resident who had been hiding in the reinforced safe room of her home nearby. Over the following hours, the Yamas officers battled invading militants throughout the kibbutz, joined by de Kalo and another member of the security team, Barry Meyerowitz. They used the security team's Land Rover Defender and a Border Police Wolf Armoured Vehicle to drive around the kibbutz and engage militants in various locations, with Meyerowitz monitoring the kibbutz's WhatsApp group to learn the locations of militants from residents. At various times the defenders dismounted to fight while in other times the fighting was conducted from within the vehicles. The vehicles constantly took fire, and after the Defender was disabled by close-range fire, de Kalo and Meyerowitz abandoned it and entered the Wolf Armoured Vehicle. During the initial three hours of fighting, the first wave of militants was largely held back. Although a widespread massacre had at that point been prevented, the remaining militants managed to target the homes of elderly residents, killing two men. One of them, Shlomo Ron, who was among the founders of the kibbutz, sacrificed himself to save his wife, daughters, and grandson who were at his home by sitting in his living room and awaiting the militants while his family sheltered in the home's safe room, giving the appearance that he was alone. The militants shot him dead but did not proceed to search the house, ensuring that his family remained hidden. At 10: a.m., a second wave of Hamas militants breached the kibbutz and over the following hours carried out numerous murders and abductions. At this stage, the Maglan soldiers were joined by troops of the Givati Brigade's reconnaissance unit who had originally headed for Sderot before they diverted to Nahal Oz. Although the Givati reconnaissance unit's officers claimed to have arrived at 11:00 a.m., this claim did not align with testimonies of kibbutz security team members. The IDF probe also found that the Givati troops arrived at about 1:15 p.m. along with the Maglan forces. Later reports claimed that fifteen civilians from Nahal Oz were killed, including a student from Tanzania, whose body was taken hostage. In total eight hostages were taken from Nahal Oz to the Gaza Strip. The IDF investigation, released in March 2025, confirmed that a total of 13 residents including two members of the security team and two foreign nationals were killed in the attack. Three of the dead, a mother and son and a member of the security team, were found to have been killed by friendly fire. Among the victims were Israel Hayom photographer Yaniv Zohar and most of his family. == See also ==