Six IDF commanders and one soldier were killed by around 120 Hamas invaders at Zikim base on October 7, 2023, the military revealed in its probe on Sunday.
Nine total Hamas invaders were killed, two of whom were killed after they entered the base, and seven were killed nearby.
Despite the losses and the heavy criticism of the IDF probe of the poor defenses at the base, the investigation did note that the heroism there of a small number of junior commanders, many of them women, and soldiers did manage to prevent the base from being taken over the way that the Nahal Oz and Reim bases were mostly taken over on October 7.
In addition, the IDF said that over 100 unarmed and not yet rained new recruit soldiers’ lives which were in danger, were barely saved by a mix of the resistance by the small group of armed soldiers and some luck that the two invaders who got into the base just passed by where many of the trainees were hiding.
The commanders who fell were junior commanders at the rank of captain and below, with the more senior base commander having been stuck off base protecting his children alone under fire in Sderot, while his wife had been away for the weekend at another location.
In total, around 141 soldiers were on base during the invasion, about 70% of whom were women, given that the base included mixed coed units.
Corporal Neria Aharon Nagari, 18, was killed while engaging in hand-to-hand combat with one of the only two terrorists, from the full complement of invaders, who managed to penetrate the base.
Nagari, along with another soldier, helped subdue and eventually kill that terrorist, though he was stabbed and killed during the fighting.
Among the many errors that left the base mostly defenseless and which allowed the terrorists to kill so many soldiers and penetrate the base, even if in small numbers, was that no part of the Gaza Division’s northern brigade had taken more formal and practical responsibility for its defense.
Despite being near the front line with Gaza, the IDF had not viewed the base as being potentially in danger and had placed large numbers of trainees there who were unarmed.
Even the commanders who did put up a serious defense lacked any real combat training prior to the invasion, and simply outperformed what might have been expected with so little real combat experience.
In other words, had the base been better armed and had more soldiers with real combat training, fewer soldiers should have been killed, and the base should not have been breached at all.
IDF decisions moving forward
In addition, the probe said that going forward, it would not be enough for the base merely to be more armed in terms of the soldiers all having standard guns, but that they also needed grenades and rocket-propelled grenades, which the invaders had.
In fact, in at least one instance, four IDF soldiers and commanders who had put up a valiant fight against large Hamas invaders were killed by an RPG from Hamas, a quality of weapon which they lacked.
The IDF said that Zikim and other such bases now had the improved weapons.
As part of the same probe, the IDF also showed a video of the failed defense of Zikim beach.
During that defense, two out of seven Hamas ships had penetrated Israeli navy defenses before 7:00 a.m. on October 7.
The other five invading Hamas ships were destroyed or stopped by the navy.
From the two ships, around 16 Hamas invaders got through onto land and maneuvered to different points to surprise Israeli forces on land.
In a video that the IDF showed, seven Golani brigade soldiers can be seen retreating in the face of five incoming Hamas naval commandos without being fired on and without firing a shot in defense.
The Jerusalem Post and other Israeli media were first shown the video as a side point by the navy during its probe of October 7 in February.
At the time, the naval probe declined to comment on what was clearly an embarrassing and improper retreat by the Golani soldiers, saying the probe was focused on the naval forces’ response.
When the probe of Zikim base, near Zikim beach, also showed the video of the retreat, reporters were incensed that even IDF Col. Shlomi Ben Yair had no update regarding any explanation of the soldiers’ retreat and what consequences those soldiers have faced since October 7.
Ben Yair said that the video appeared to show that the soldiers had failed in their mission, but added that he was only authorized to probe the Zikim base fully and not the Zikim beach episode. He did note that he had spoken to some of those soldiers to get a more general picture of the battles near the Zikim base.
This was greeted with criticism of a potential cover-up by the military reporters group, especially after the naval probe had also avoided discussing the Zikim beach retreat episode in any depth.
In response to heavy criticism by the military reporter group, the IDF has notified the group that a briefing on the Zikim beach episode will take place in the near future.
Eventually, the base was cleared of invaders, and by 10:20 a.m., wounded soldiers were evacuated, and by 11:30 a.m., deceased soldiers were evacuated.
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