In total, around 5,400-5,600 Hamas invaders penetrated Israel on October 7, 2023, in 114 spots along the Gaza border fence. This included 37 easier areas to open and 77 actual new breaks in the fence, leading to attacks and battles in 41 different areas.
They faced only 767 IDF soldiers and 13 spread out and isolatable tanks. Hamas fired 3,889 rockets that day and, over the course of its heaviest period of firing in the early days, fired off around 4,694 rockets.
The events of the day are believed to have followed the following timeline:
Invasion and rocket attacks:
6:29 -7:00 a.m. – The first wave of attacks begins: 1,175 Hamas invaders (split into 20 battalions) penetrate Israel, while 1,406 rockets are fired on Israel from Gaza. The overwhelming majority of the rockets are fired on the Gaza border villages, Ashkelon, and Sderot, but some are also fired to Beersheba and farther. This wave of invaders targeted IDF positions, bases, the Gaza Division Forward Headquarters at Reim, a Unit 8200 base, and the police station at Sderot.
7:00 a.m. -9:00 a.m. – The second wave of attacks begins: 660 Hamas invaders (split into 14 battalions) penetrate Israel while 937 rockets are fired on Israel
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. The third wave: 435 Hamas invaders (split into four battalions) penetrate Israel, while 1084 rockets are fired on Israel.
The above numbers do not include the large numbers of non-Hamas invaders who streamed into Israel in a much less organized fashion.
Israel’s response in a wider frame:
6:37 a.m. – IDF Gaza Division Chief Brig. gen. Avi Rosenfeld announces a significant penetration of Hamas forces.
6:45 a.m. – IDF announces that Israel is at war, but still with no concept of the immensity of the invasion and how many different pieces it is split up into.
7:30 a.m. – Rosenfeld’s forces are overwhelmed and he loses control of the Forward Headquarters.
7:58 a.m. – Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif releases a video calling on Gazans, Israeli-Arabs, West bank Palestinians, Hezbollah, Iran, and others to all rise up against Israel with Hamas’s invasion
8:00 a.m. – Hamas is already moving hostages to Gaza in waves.
9:00 a.m. Hamas is continuing to move additional hostages to Gaza in waves.
8:45-9:45 a.m. – First outside area reinforcement, mostly special forces, start arriving in some areas of northern or central Gaza Corridor, but their numbers are too small to turn the tide against Hamas’s advance, though they slow it.
10:30 a.m. – Air Force starts Hannibal Directive, strafing Israel-Gaza border with fire.
11:00-11:30 a.m. – IDF reinforcements are large enough to block any further Hamas advancement and to hold clear defense lines, as well as already making some progress in pushing Hamas back in some areas.
12:00 p.m., noon – Most Hamas invaders with most hostages are already back in Gaza, with all Hamas forces having already left Nir Oz in the southern Gaza Corridor despite no IDF reinforcements having arrived there yet after one reinforcement unit got ambushed and ended up going to another spot without any commanders realizing that this left Nir Oz unaccounted for.
1:00 p.m. – Most of Hamas has retreated back to Gaza, with 1,000 Gazan invaders still in Israel fighting the IDF in 27 different spots.
1:00 -3:00 p.m. – IDF superior forces numbers start to turn the tide in a number of areas.
3:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. midnight – IDF achieves overwhelming superiority in numbers and beats most of Hamas’s remaining organized forces, which are down to a few hundred.
The days that followed the October 7 massacre
Sunday, October 8 to Tuesday, October 10 – IDF clean-up battles of still some sizable localized Hamas cells in Israeli territory, but there is general IDF operational control within the Gaza Corridor.
Wednesday, October 11 to Thursday, October 12 – Limited additional clean-up of very small numbers of Hamas individuals, especially some who are trying to hide.
The following weeks – Here and there, individual Hamas invaders were caught or killed on certain days, though days went by with no activity.
Out of the around 1,200 Israelis killed and 250 hostages taken, there were some larger spots of tragedy. During the attack on the Nova festival, 364 civilians were killed, and 44 hostages were taken.
In Kibbutz Be’eri, 134 residents were killed, and thirty-three hostages were taken. Hamas massacred 64 residents of Kfar Aza, and 19 were taken hostage. In Nir Oz, thirty-one residents were killed and eighty-six taken hostage.
There were also critical losses and battles at Nahal Oz, the village, the Nahal Oz IDF position, Netiv Haasara, Sderot, Ofakim, and many other places.
Over 1,500 Gazan terrorists were killed, 248 of whom were identified by name, and 149 additional Gazans were arrested.
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