Tel Aviv [Israel], May 31 (HBTV): Hamas terrorists who infiltrated southern Israel during the October 7, 2023 massacre mistakenly attacked the wrong military installation due to a navigational error, according to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) investigation released on Friday.
The probe revealed that a group of 10 Hamas fighters on five motorcycles was en route to a sensitive military intelligence base located 16 kilometres from the Gaza border. However, they made a wrong turn at Urim Junction and instead attacked a nearby Home Front Command base. The assault resulted in the deaths of eight Israeli soldiers and left several others wounded during a three-hour gun battle.
‘As a result, the terrorists carried out a killing spree inside the base until they were eliminated by IDF troops,’ the investigation stated. The probe concluded that, although soldiers and commanders managed to thwart Hamas’s original objective, ‘the base's defensive array was not properly prepared to handle such a broad infiltration and attack scenario.’
The Urim Base complex comprises three units: the Home Front Command’s Southern District headquarters, the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit, and Unit 8200 of the Military Intelligence Directorate, known as Yarkon Base. Hamas had intended to target the intelligence facility, specifically Unit 8200, Israel's signals intelligence (SIGINT) and cyber intelligence division. However, the navigational error led them to the wrong installation.
The attack began at 7:26 am when the terrorists breached the eastern fence using an explosive device. At the time, only seven soldiers were on guard, although the protocol called for 12, as it was a holiday weekend with reduced staffing.
Two female soldiers conducting a shift change took shelter after hearing rocket alerts and remained hidden until the combat concluded in the afternoon. The terrorists began their assault by fatally shooting Corporals Lior Levy and Ofir Davidian near the command center and Sergeant Itamar Ayash at the armory.
By 8:02 am, the attackers launched a rocket-propelled grenade into the command center, hitting a conference room window. They forced their way through multiple steel doors into the nerve center of the facility, killing Sergeant Major Aharon Farash, Captain Alina Pravosudova, Sergeant Shir Shlomo, and Sergeant Danit Cohen during intense close-quarters fighting.
The attackers reportedly spent about 10 minutes searching the facility for classified material, unaware that they were not in the intelligence base they had intended to strike.
Reinforcements from the nearby 414th Unit arrived at 8:15 am and divided into three teams to confront the attackers. The battle raged for over two hours, with elite Unit 5515 and troops from the Tzeelim Training Base later joining the fight. The final two Hamas operatives were killed at 10:40 am while hiding in a bomb shelter near the district commander’s office.
Colonel Asher Benishti, who led the year-and-a-half-long investigation, stated that the probe reviewed every available source of information, including terrorist-shot footage, soldiers' text messages, surveillance video, and radio transmissions.
Friday’s report is part of a series of detailed army investigations released in recent weeks examining how approximately 5,000 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives managed to breach Israeli border defences and overrun military and civilian positions. The findings indicate that the army misjudged Hamas’s intentions for years and misread intelligence in the lead-up to October 7. Attention had reportedly been diverted toward threats from Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
These IDF inquiries focus solely on operational, intelligence, and command failures and do not address decisions taken by the political leadership.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced growing pressure to launch a formal inquiry but has so far resisted, stating his opposition to a ‘politically biased’ probe. Critics have accused him of stalling and attempting to weaken any investigation’s scope.
At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreign nationals were taken hostage during Hamas's October 7 attacks on communities near the Gaza border. Of the 59 remaining hostages, 36 are believed to be dead.
(ANI/TPS)