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On 7 October 2023, as part of the surprise attack on Israel, Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, led by Hamas, invaded the Nir Ozkibbutz in southern Israel. They killed scores of kibbutz residents, burned homes, and abducted civilians.[5] According to the Israeli military, up to 150 militants participated in the massacre.[6]
Per The New York Times, it was thought that 180 of the roughly 400 residents were killed or abducted as hostages during the attack.[7]The Jerusalem Post also estimated 80 abductions in Nir Oz.[8] An account by veteran war correspondent Itai Anghel reported that "around a quarter of the people of Nir Oz were assassinated, kidnapped, or injured in a very severe way. Those who survived have no place to come back to."[9]
The Nir Oz (Hebrew: נִיר עֹז, ניר עוז), is a kibbutz in southern Israel between Magen and Nirim and was founded on 1 October 1955 as the Nahal settlement.[10] Due to its proximity to the Gaza Strip, the kibbutz has seen constant attacks from the Gaza Strip, and in a 2023 book it was reported that the kibbutz had a number of "self-contained bomb shelters, each weighing 67 tons".[11] Nir Oz is a kibbutz located in the Gaza envelope, less than 7 kilometers from the border with the Gaza Strip. On October 6, before the attack, Nir Oz had 427 residents.[8]
Attack
Exterior of burned home and landscaping in kibbutz after the attack
The attack on Israel started at around 6:30 a.m. Israel Summer Time (UTC+3), and by 7:00 a.m., the first Hamas militants had reached the kibbutz. Hamas was firing rockets at Israel at the time of the attack, meaning many kibbutz residents were in their safe rooms as the attack began.[7] The kibbutz security team attempted to fight off the attack, yet were outnumbered by the amount of Hamas and other militants that had entered the kibbutz. The majority of the kibbutz's security team were killed or taken hostage while attempting to defend the kibbutz.[12][13] One armed resident, Yaron Maor, a veteran of the IDF's Givati Brigade, managed to single-handedly hold off attacks on his home, shooting two militants who entered the house and additional ones nearby.[14][15]
Interior of burned home in the kibbutz after the attack on 7 October
Members of the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, then spent several hours in the kibbutz, killing civilians, abducting hostages, and setting fires to homes inside the kibbutz.[6] A sister received an WhatsApp message from her brother; Yonatan Siman Tov, in the kibbutz that "They're here, they're burning us, we're suffocating." Siman Tov and his mother, wife and three children were all killed in their safe room.[16]
An amateur Palestinian journalist also entered Nir Oz and recorded a live stream of the unfolding events.[6] A surviving member of the kibbutz told reporters that allegedly Palestinian civilians from Gaza also arrived in Nir Oz to loot residents' homes. While in their safe rooms they had reportedly heard people speaking Arabic moving around their homes, after the Hamas militants had left.[17]
A subsequent military investigation found that the IDF failed to properly assess and respond to the situation at Nir Oz, sending troops to nearby communities under attack. At 10:30 AM, a tank arrived at Nir Oz and fired two shells at looters in the kibbutz, but the crew did not understand the magnitude of the situation and moved on towards Nirim. A force of Sayeret Matkal special forces soldiers was subsequently dispatched to Nir Oz but they encountered a group of 15 militants at a road junction and in the subsequent clash an officer was killed at about 11:00 AM. After the firefight, the force was redirected towards Re'im. At 11:30 AM, an Israeli Air Force attack helicopter was dispatched to the area and fired at a tractor being used to transport eight hostages from Nir Oz in the area between Nir Oz and Nirim, killing the militants on board as well as hostage Efrat Katz. More militants subsequently arrived with another tractor to collect the surviving hostages. One hostage, Naamit Dekel-Chen, avoided abduction by pretending to be dead. The remaining hostages were recaptured and taken to Gaza. Meanwhile, the helicopter moved on to other tasks. Also at around 11:30 AM, two commando companies from the Egoz Unit were dispatched towards Nir Oz and Kissufim but they encountered militants along the way and battled them before being diverted to other tasks without the IDF Southern Command having been notified.[18][19]
At about 1:30 PM, Israel Border Police reinforcements arrived in Nir Oz, and at about the same time it was realized that the Egoz troops dispatched to Nir Oz had not arrived. Shayetet 13 commandos were then sent to the kibbutz by helicopter, arriving at 2:20 PM. The militants and looters had left by then.[18] The surviving kibbutz members were evacuated to Eilat.[20]
Casualties and hostages
According to The Forward, 46 people were killed in the kibbutz during the attack.[2] Hamas militants killed the Israeli-American Kedem-Siman Tov family in their secure room at the kibbutz, including three adults and three children under the age of seven.[21][22]BBC Verify reported that some social media users denied that the Kedem-Siman Tov family had been killed.[23] The killing of Bracha Levinson, an elderly woman from Nir Oz, was reportedly filmed and posted on her Facebook wall by Hamas.[24][25]
It was initially assumed that a 12-year-old girl with autism named Noya Dan and her 80-year-old grandmother Carmela Dan were among the Hamas hostages. Noya Dan was reportedly a fan of Harry Potter, and author JK Rowling advocated for her release.[26] On 19 October 2023, the bodies of both Noya and Carmela Dan were discovered by the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza, near the Israeli border.[27][28][29]
Hostages
The burnt exterior of the home of Tal Shalu, who was considered missing before being declared dead on 8 November. His missing poster was hung from the home
Many kibbutz residents were taken hostage during the attack. According to The Forward, 71 hostages were taken from the kibbutz, with 40 being released during the weeklong ceasefire in late November.[2] 12 of the 13 Israeli hostages and all 11 Israeli hostages released on November 24 and November 27 respectively were taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz.[30][31] Prominent abductees from Nir Oz include Polish-Israeli historian Alex Dancyg and Israeli journalist Oded Lifshitz. Both men are elderly.[32][33][34] The Argentine-Israeli Bibas family was also kidnapped from Nir Oz and became prominent due to the circumstances of their abduction, with 9-month old baby Kfir Bibas being the youngest abductee.[35]
Some of the hostages died in captivity. On December 1, 2023, it was announced by the Israel Defense Forces that four kibbutz Nir Oz residents had died in captivity.[36] Israeli-American-Canadian couple Judi and Gadi Haggai were believed to have been captured by Hamas and being held in Gaza. It was reported on December 28, 2023, that Judi had been fatally wounded during the attack and her husband had been announced as deceased about a week prior. As of December 29, 2023, their bodies are still being held in Gaza.[37]
An Israeli inquiry into the events analyzed video footage and witness testimonies. The findings indicated that an Israeli helicopter gunship targeted a vehicle containing hostages, manned by militants, resulting in the likely death of an Israeli hostage named Efrat Katz by friendly fire.[38]
Aftermath
Survivors of the attack were evacuated by the Israeli government into hotels in Eilat shortly after the 7 October attack, however some have returned to the kibbutz.[39] A deceased families grandmother approached Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, during a chance meeting at the kibbutz after the attack, told Gallant that the corrupt government had failed the residents of the kibbutz due to a lack of warning for civilians.[40]
In February 2024 Argentine President Javier Milei and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, toured the kibbutz during Milei's bilateral visit to Israel. At the kibbutz Milei reflected on the Argentine-Israeli Bibas family still held hostage and the met with the parents of Argentine-Israeli hostages still held.[41]
Those who still reside in or visited the kibbutz have tied yellow ribbons on trees and marked the mailboxes inside the dining hall with colored stickers to show a residents status; red for deceased, black for hostages, and blue for released individuals. Posters from the Kidnapped from Israel campaign are posted on the homes of hostages.[39]
Weeks after the attack, filmmaker Dani Rosenberg filmed a docudrama, Of Dogs And Men, at the kibbutz. Several kibbutz members participated in the film, recounting their experiences and horrors to the camera.[42]
^Fergusson, James (2023). In Search of the River Jordan: A Story of Palestine, Israel and the Struggle for Water. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. pp. 251 (eucalyptus, desalination, irrigation, bomb shelters), 253 (Thai agricultural workers). ISBN978-0-300-26270-4. LCCN2023930267.
