Mistakes of the Israeli army in the attack of Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023

The Air Force heard families about what happened at one of the military bases that protect the border with gas.

Hamas fighters were captured in the morning of October 7 on October 7, and they killed, as reported, more than 60 Israeli soldiers and others were hostage.

Israel's armed forces have not yet published their official investigation into what happened on the basis of that day, but they have already informed the relatives of the dead, and some of them shared these details with the Air Force.

Trying to make pieces of this difficult puzzle, we also talked to those who survived, learning the messages of those who died, and listened to voice messages in which people reported the attack. All this helps to make a picture of lightning and cruel invasion.

What was able to find out the Air Force:

The details we have set up to raise questions, for example, why so few military people had a weapon on the base, located so close to the border, why there was practically no reaction to the intelligence and warning why the reinforcements arrived so late and whether the base itself was sufficiently protected.

At our request, they answered that "the events of October 7 were carefully investigated, in particular what happened in the nail-opa and the circumstances that preceded it."

On October 7, at four in the morning, Sharon (the name changed) began its change on the base of the nail-oz approximately a kilometer from the wall on the border with gas.

Sharon served in the female unit of the base, the task of which was to study the records of surveillance cameras installed along the fence.

Women worked shifting in a base room, called Hamal, watching gas through a few monitors around the clock.

Hamal is a window without windows, protected by strong doors and anti -explosive walls - all by strict safety protocols.

Representatives of the Israeli Army told the families of people who were on the basis that many soldiers were unarmed.

However, General Israel Ziv, who in the past managed the operational department of the tachola, said the BBC that there were never unarmed soldiers during his service in the border areas.

"It doesn't make sense ... A soldier is one who has a weapon," he says.

The armed staff in Naharal-OPs that day included a unit of infantrymen from the Golanya Brigade.

The BBC found that not only women near the monitors, but also other soldiers from different units were spotted on the other side of the fence.

But a few days before October 7, everything subsided.

"Nothing happened, and it was scared," says one of the infantrymen on the base. "Everyone felt something strange."

According to General Ziva, the fact that the tanal missed these signals is "great arrogance", with the conviction that "Hamas will not attack, not dare, and that they are not capable of it."

"We went to bed, thinking that there was a cat, and we woke up and saw a tiger."

At 05:30, the military crews of the Netana had to begin patrols on jeeps along the Israeli side of the fence - what they did before dawn every morning. But the management ordered them to detain patrolling and go because of the threat of use of anti -tank missiles, three of them told the BBC.

"There was a warning. It was forbidden to climb the track near the fence," one recalls.

Brigade infantry, 21-year-old Shimon Malka, said that such a warning was unusual, but not that unheard of, so they did not give him attention.

General Ziv says that this is a standard tanal protocol - to detain people during suspected attacks so that they do not go. But, according to the military, "Hamas understood it and used it."

He said that the base had to have positions from which the infantrymen "Golani" could respond safely.

But while they were waiting for the distance from the wall, Sharon noticed movements among Hamas fighters. However, they looked familiar - they also had changes in the guard.

At 06:20, Hamas started launching rockets, but Sharon again said that it did not immediately alarm - the base was already undergoing missile attacks and was well protected from them.

"It is usually five minutes shooting and then a break," she says.

But this time there was no break.

At about 06:30, Sharon saw Hamas fighters began to approach.

Its unit contacted the radio with land forces to prevent them.

"All stations, four people run to the fence, a reception," declared one of the young women of the unit, her voice is slightly trembling. "I see two armed people running to the fence, reception."

Around the same time, Shimon heard code words through the radio station, which meant a rocket attack. His commander ordered them to jump from a jeep from Namer - the type of Israeli armored personnel carrier - and go to the fence.

But he did not see the invasion and suggested that it was just a workout.

The Israeli and Israeli Defense Army always believed that the wall on the border could not be overcome. But the bases along it began to report breakthroughs.

Each of the women was replaced by a nail-OZ saw from two to five breakthroughs in different sections of the border fence, for which they answered, says Sharon. They watched how Hamas's militants were going inside Israel.

General Ziv says that the ease with which the fighters overcame the fence showed that the fence was not as reliable as they believed.

"As you saw, two trucks just punched the wall. It was nothing. Even if there were 50-60 meters of minefield, it would have delayed Hamas for a few hours."

About 06:40 the observation post at the Nahal-OZ struck the rocket.

The military on the basis began to shoot at the fighters who crossed the fence from the sniper system, which they operated remotely from Hamal.

But soon the screens of monitors on the basis began to be switched off - militants fired at the surveillance cameras at the border.

Only 100 meters from the base is the survival balloon of the tanal. One of his operators, Elroy, was awakened by rockets and sirens that morning, his father Rafi Ben Sitrit told BBC.

The Naral-OZ balloon provided a better overview of the Gaza, and it was supposed to work 24 hours a day.

But on October 7, he, who and the other two balloons along the border, failed.

"The balloon did not work, but no one was worried, they were told that they would be repaired on Sunday," Ben Shitrit says.

Returning to her observation point, Sharon continued to pass the information to the soldiers on the ground.

"I cried and passed the message," she says.

She remembers that the commander shouted "quietly" because some young women lost their attention in the midst of this horror.

Meanwhile, Shimon at the fence followed the instructions on the radio. He still couldn't understand why the voice of the girl he heard sounded so worried.

"I felt something happening, but I didn't see anything."

When his unit reached the place where they were directed by radio, they saw Hamas trucks broke the fence.

"They started shooting us. Maybe five trucks."

The soldiers fired and ran into some motorcyclists.

Shortly after 07:00 there was a moment that everyone was afraid and no one could imagine. Hamas fighters were at the Hamal door.

"Get up, terrorists behind the door," Sharon recalls how someone shouted.

The observation department was ordered to leave its post and go to the office inside the base.

According to General Ziva, the upper leadership of the army did not pay enough attention to the protection of the bases themselves, focusing instead on external patrol.

"It was part of this chaos, they were not ready for the enemy to suddenly break through the border and go to the base. It was a failure," he says.

At about 07:20, the bomb shelter outside the command post was attacked.

At 07:38 a message was received by WhatsApp from one of the women who were hiding there. Among them were employees of the surveillance department who did not work that day, and four women who guarded them.

There were no more messages from this woman.

The Israeli Defense Army told families that these women were the only armed people in shelter. They fired from Hamas fighters until the grenade explosion killed their commander and wounded others inside.

At present, about 10 soldiers were able to run off the shelter and close in residential barracks. All others in the bomb shelter were killed or captured by fighters.

Shimon and his commander returned to the base, but they were still not aware of the scale of what was happening.

Later, the Israeli Defense Army informed the family of one of the dead in Naharal-OZ, which was initially attacked by drones, and then stormed 70 fighters from four directions, and later they were joined by dozens.

Thousands of people crossed the wall along the border with the Gaza sector.

Returning to the base, Shimon began to be aware of the extent of the attack.

"When we came to the base, everything was burning," he says.

At the same time, according to Sharon, about 20 soldiers tried to reassure each other inside the command post.

At the same time, they continued to ask for reinforcements.

"It seems that someone said something" reinforcement will not come, no one can come, "and I remember that my officer said," We do not need reinforcement, we need to save. "

Around 08:00, the Israeli drone, known as ZIK, flew, but it was difficult for him to distinguish between Israeli soldiers and Hamas, and therefore he was too slowly attacked the intended goals.

About the same time, the assault of the team point with intense shooting began. The military who had weapons fought at the door of the building, so as not to allow the militants to get inside. The fight lasted about four hours.

Shimon says that militants were far dominated by Israeli soldiers on the base, and there was no signs of reinforcement.

Later, the tsakhal will tell her relatives that there were 150 militants for every 25 soldiers who were part of the Naral-OZ base.

"The tactics of Hamas that morning was outweighed," says General Ziv.

"They made more than 70 invasions ... more than 3000 terrorists ... They knew that they did not have the appropriate quality of the fighters, so they relied on the number."

The video, which is reported by Israeli media reported at about this time, shows young surveillance officers in the Naral OS, which was captured by armed fighters.

"You, the dogs, we will crush you," - heard one of the men for women who stand with their hands tied face to the wall.

Nineteen -year -old Naama Levi, who started working on the base only the day before, says in the video that she has "friends in Palestine", her face is covered with blood.

The footage shows how women are tightened into the car and taken out.

These are horrible footage for the mother. "Wounds, blood, what she said, what terrorists were told are horror," says Levi Alelet.

According to General Ziva, the staff of the observation department at the Naral-OZ “kept amazing-the system, commanders, not they were a mistake.”

More than three hours after the start of the attack, at 09:45, the helicopter of the tachable began fire on Hamas militants, officers reported to relatives of the dead military. He shot in the base 12 times.

Shimon and six other infantrymen, along with their commander, left the base and returned to foot. He says they were fired "from all sides."

The sound of automatic shooting was heard a series of single shots that a sniper Hamas, which they did not see.

"Every time he fired, one of my friends got a bullet in the head," Shimon says.

He was almost killed by a sniper's bullet.

"I heard the ball shone past my head ... I heard the balls hit the concrete around me, felt their warmth."

At this point, he says that his radio no longer worked.

General Ziv describes this day as a "perfect storm".

"The reinforcement was not so long, because no one knew exactly what was going on and where to send it," he says.

Shimon escaped from the scene and later joined the soldiers of another unit who went to defend the kibutz.

Meanwhile, something happened at the team point. At about 11:00, the electricity was switched off, and all the locks on the door that worked on electricity were unlocked.

Hamas militants began to shoot and throw grenades inside the room.

The report for families said that "terrorists threw a flammable substance into Hamal and set it on fire."

"The smoke was very thick. Everyone started coughing and breathing. People started falling and fainting," Sharon recalls.

One of the BBC interlocutors said that the representatives of the tile told her that during the attack, Hamas used a "toxic substance", but the other witnesses did not mention this detail.

At about 12:30, seven people at the team point, along with Sharon, were able to feel the road to the toilet window and get out.

They waited for them to be followed, but no one was. Sharon was the only one of the observation unit who worked in the change who managed to survive. Another young woman from the unit who was on the base that morning but did not work.

By the end of October 7, the military resumed control of the base, but many of the stationed people did not survive this day. Seven surveillance workers were captured by hostages and transported into gas. One was killed, one managed to escape, five still remain in the hands of fighters.

On that day, about 1,200 people were killed in all of Israel, including more than 300 soldiers, another 251 were hostage. Since then, more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, have died as a result of Israel's fighting.

Among the dead in Naharal-OZ was the operator of the balloon Elroy and four of his comrades, who withstood a long battle with Hamas fighters, says his father, referring to the information given to him.

According to him, they managed to kill about 10 fighters, but there were only five against much more attackers. They were found dead in the mobile storage at 14:30.

The command post, designed as a safe place for the database units, was completely destroyed. The photos and videos show that it was completely burning, and the screens that the women's units watched were blackening. There were fragments of bones among the ashes.

Those who survive and the families of the victims still do not answer the question why everything went wrong.