The IDF on Wednesday issued its October 7 probe of the battles of both the Kissufim army base and the nearby Kissufim kibbutz, in which 45 mostly Israelis, and some Thai workers, were killed.
Although nearly all of the Israelis were killed by around 150 Hamas Nukhba invaders from two different battalions, one Israeli, Tom Godu, was mistakenly killed by IDF forces who thought he was a Hamas fighter.
Of the Israelis who the Hamas invaders murdered, 27 were soldiers, 10 were kibbutz civilians, six were Thai workers, and one was part of the local volunteer security forces.
Some civilians were reportedly fooled and then killed by invaders calling out that they were from the IDF.
Kissufim had around 300 residents before the invasion.
IDF soldiers held their own at Kissufim base
Unlike many battles on October 7, the IDF soldiers from 51st Battalion at the Kissufim base managed to hold their ground initially for an extended period that morning.
Breaking down the area, there were really around four different battles between Israeli forces and Gazan invaders.
Eventually, nearly all of them retreated to the Kissufim kibbutz, but not before slowing the Hamas invasion and taking a toll on the invaders.
However, regardless of that initial defense, large numbers of invaders, around 40, penetrated near or into the Kissufim base, and around 60, penetrated near or into the Kissufim kibbutz and killed many of the Israeli civilians living there.
In addition, besides those killed, 70 Israelis were wounded during the Kissufim base and kibbutz battles, and one, Shlomo Mantzur, was kidnapped and killed in Gaza.
Mantzur’s body was returned to Israel this past February during the most recent ceasefire with Hamas.
Around 25 Hamas invaders were killed in the army base battle and around 30 were killed in the kibbutz battle, with another 50 killed in the nearby area, and around 50 of the invaders eventually returning to Gaza.
During the battle for the Kissufim base, reinforcements led by Egoz mostly started to arrive around 1:45 p.m.
One thing that was different from many other battles where Hamas forces were entirely gone by then or by early afternoon was that a significant number of invaders hid in various parts of Kissufim on a more extended basis.
This meant that IDF forces wer ambushed around 3:45 p.m. and again around 5:45 p.m. in the base and environs.
Battle at Kibbutz Kissufim lasted beyond October 7
Likewise, at the Kissufim Kibbutz, the 450th Battalion arrived as reinforcements around 1:06 p.m., but encountered repeated ambushes from hidden Hamas forces even after 4:00 p.m.
In fact, there were additional ambushes by hidden Hamas terrorists on October 8, 9 , 10 and even 12.
Multiple incidents led to the deaths or wounding of both Israeli soldiers and civilians, showing that the military did not sufficiently clear the area on October 7.
There were also multiple incidents where IDF forces mistakenly fired on Israelis.
In one incident, the IDF forces killed Tom Godu, though the rest of his family was able to escape.
The IDF said that the nearby soldiers heard Arabic and opened fire, though in the end the Arabic was coming from a next door residence.
One of the main failures noted in the report was that IDF forces were not trained for how to handle combat in the vicinity of civilians in an Israeli village, but only with how to fight on a somewhat simpler combat battlespace in Gaza.
At least one IDF soldier kept asking when was the police YAMAM unit going to show up to handle the situation since they were better trained for such complexities.
In what has become a stunning regular pattern for these IDF probes, no actions were taken against those who killed the Israeli civilian.
While IDF officers always say that the situation was complex, at the end of the day, shooting into the completely wrong house without looking or calling out a warning and when it was clear that Israeli civilians could still be in the area, could easily have led to court martials, even if not to murder or manslaughter charges.
In another incident, IDF forces fired on civilians hiding in a house who had not received any signal that it was safe to leave.
These civilians just barely escaped with their lives when they were able to run out and luckily avoid being shot as the IDF was in the midst of firing on the house.
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