The Israeli Military lookouts have been tracking Hamas in Gaza throughout a safety fence from a base in southern Israel. Because it became out, Hamas used to be additionally observing them.
The 4 girls launched through Hamas on Saturday after greater than 15 months in captivity in Gaza are “spotters” for the military who have been stationed in a small army base a few half-mile from the border.
Within the first mins of the Hamas-led first light attack on Oct. 7, 2023, gunmen burst throughout the fence and overran the bottom, Nahal Ounces. Dozens of infantrymen have been killed, together with 15 spotters. The gunmen additionally dragged seven lookouts — unarmed feminine conscripts of their overdue teenagers — onto vehicles and drove them into Gaza. Some have been nonetheless of their pajamas, some bloodied from wounds.
One in all them, Pvt. Ori Megidish, 19, used to be rescued 3 weeks later through Israeli forces. Any other, Cpl. Noa Marciano, 19, used to be injured in an Israeli airstrike after which killed through militants within Gaza’s Shifa health facility, in step with the army. Hamas mentioned she died within the bombing.
4 of the rest 5, Naama Levy, Karina Ariev and Daniella Gilboa, who at the moment are all 20, and Liri Albag, 19, have been launched on Saturday as a part of a cease-fire deal offering for the discharge of ratings of Palestinian prisoners, lots of them convicted of killing Israelis. A 5th spotter, Agam Berger, is slated to be launched within the coming days or perhaps weeks below that deal, which got here into impact on Jan. 19.
Ms. Levy, Ms. Berger and Ms. Albag have been fresh recruits who had arrived on the base lower than two days earlier than the assault. The Israeli army has no longer disclosed the rank of the captured infantrymen.
The seize of the lookouts underscored what many Israelis view because the worst military, intelligence and governmental debacle of their nation’s historical past. Their households are nonetheless looking ahead to a proper investigation into the autumn of Nahal Ounces.
Relations and previous lookouts mentioned the ladies have been on consistent alert for the opportunity of a cross-border raid, even though they didn’t envisage the rest at the scale of the person who came about.
“Always, they informed us there’d be a raid,” mentioned Amit Yerushalmi, 22, a former lookout who served on the Nahal Ozbase from December 2021 till a few week earlier than the attack. However she mentioned that they had anticipated a localized tournament alongside the fence, like an try to abduct a few infantrymen.
“We might funny story about whose shift the raid would fall on,” Ms. Yerushalmi mentioned.
Within the months main as much as the attack, Ms. Yerushalmi mentioned, there have been rising indicators of one thing afoot. She mentioned the spotters noticed convoys of 20 to 30 white pickup vehicles full of Hamas warring parties using alongside the border with expanding frequency, preventing sometimes and peering into Israel thru binoculars. They might additionally publish drones a couple of instances an afternoon, Ms. Yerushalmi mentioned.
The spotters reported the process, she and a number of other kin of the opposite lookouts mentioned, however have been informed through their superiors that their activity used to be to be the eyes, no longer the brains, of the Israeli army. Their reviews, they mentioned, seemed to had been brushed aside.
The Israeli army declined to remark at the particular claims, however mentioned in a remark that it used to be “reviewing the occasions of October 7 and what preceded them” with the purpose of deriving courses for the continuation of the military’s operations.
When the assault got here, hundreds of Hamas-led gunmen and marauders burst throughout the fence and overran army bases, border villages and cities, in addition to a song pageant. About 1,200 other folks have been killed in Israel that day, and some other 250 have been taken as hostages into Gaza, in step with the Israeli government. The attack activate a 15-month struggle that has killed greater than 46,000 Palestinians, Gaza well being government say, and has left a lot of the coastal enclave in ruins.
It took hours for any backup forces to reach at Nahal Ounces. The lookouts’ commanders have been at a special base, further from the border.
“I nonetheless don’t know what truly came about there,” mentioned Eyal Eshel, the daddy of Sgt. Roni Eshel, one of the crucial 15 lookout infantrymen killed at Nahal Ounces. Mr. Eshel performed his personal analysis into the occasions and is urgent for a proper inquiry into the screw ups on that day.
“I understood something,” Mr. Eshel mentioned of the analysis he had finished at the destiny of the spotters. “Their abandonment and the disdain for them used to be so nice.”
The night earlier than the raid, the lookouts have been in a festive temper, sharing a sabbath meal in combination, making a song and announcing good-bye to a workforce member, Personnel Sgt. Shahaf Nissani, 20, who used to be finishing her necessary provider. Her mom had delivered meals to the bottom.
The lookouts labored four-hour shifts, with 8 hours’ leisure in between. They have been skilled to by no means take their eyes off the displays within the operations room.
Karina Ariev’s circle of relatives used to be no longer overly frightened when she used to be assigned to Nahal Ounces, mentioned her cousin Anna Astmaker. “This used to be throughout the borders of the rustic,” she mentioned. However Ms. Ariev informed them she didn’t really feel secure there, her cousin mentioned.
Ms. Ariev, the daughter of immigrants from Ukraine, used to be on responsibility from nighttime till 4 a.m. early on Oct. 7. Sergeant Eshel used to be a part of some other workforce that took over at 4 a.m.
At 6:29 a.m., militants fired a barrage of rockets out of Gaza, offering a smoke display as exploding drones knocked out key communications and surveillance towers.
As sirens warned of incoming rocket fireplace, the off-duty lookouts ran from their slumbering quarters to an aboveground safe haven.
Inside mins, waves of Hamas commandos had burst through Israel’s vaunted defenses, some in white pickup vehicles, and the bottom used to be briefly overrun.
Within the operations room, Sergeant Eshel used to be using codewords to report the raid because it spread out in a voice emerging with urgency, in step with an audio recording launched through the army. Then the cameras have been destroyed, and the tracking displays went clean.
Dozens of armed infantrymen who have been stationed on the base on a rotation fought to their final bullets. The assailants shot and threw grenades into the safe haven the place the lookouts have been hiding, killing and injuring lots of them.
Ms. Ariev known as her oldsters from the safe haven to mention good-bye, in step with Ms. Astmaker. She informed them to proceed to are living if she didn’t live to tell the tale, and persisted texting with them till 7:20 a.m., when all touch used to be misplaced.
Pictures quickly emerged on social media of Ms. Ariev and different lookouts being taken to Gaza.
There was scant details about them since. Ms. Ariev seemed in a hostage video a yr in the past with Ms. Gilboa and Doron Steinbrecher, one of three women released on Jan. 19.
Ms. Albag seemed this month in the most recent hostage video launched through Hamas, which analysts mentioned used to be most definitely meant to position drive on Israel for a cease-fire deal.
The surveillance infantrymen who have been within the operations room on the time of the attack have been alive for just about six hours till noon, ready to be rescued, in step with data accumulated through Mr. Eshel and testimony given final yr to an informal inquiry that he initiated with different bereaved households and survivors of the attack.
In a struggle across the operations room, 4 struggle infantrymen fought to their deaths, the inquiry discovered. The assailants then set the operations room ablaze. Seven extra struggle infantrymen and best one of the crucial lookouts controlled to seek out their method throughout the thick smoke and break out thru a small rest room window. Sergeant Eshel and the others on responsibility died within the inferno.
Just one different lookout escaped alive from the safe haven. In all, greater than 50 infantrymen have been killed within the Nahal Ozbase, 15 of them lookouts.
Sergeant Eshel used to be categorised as lacking for 34 days till the army showed her demise, in response to DNA. However, Mr. Eshel mentioned, “There are a large number of open questions.”
Israel’s army leader, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, announced his resignation this previous week and mentioned that earlier than he departs, in March, the army would finalize the sequence of long-awaited interior inquiries into its failure on Oct. 7. The result of the interior inquiries will probably be made to be had to the general public, the army says.
Mr. Eshel believes his daughter knew she would no longer make it out alive. The oldest of 3 siblings, she at all times signed off her messages with 5 crimson middle emojis, one for each and every member of the circle of relatives, he mentioned. In her final message to her mom from the operations room, at 9:27 a.m., she mentioned to not fear and signed off with best 4 hearts.
