G. Attack on Nahal Oz military outpost

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At least eight Israeli military bases were attacked by members of Palestinian armed groups on 7 October. In the Nahal Oz outpost, members of the military wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad killed 66 Israeli soldiers, including at least 20 female soldiers. Those killed were largely members of the 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigade and surveillance troops from Unit 414 of the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps.¹ Two of the male soldiers who were killed were decapitated after death.² In addition to these killings, members of the military arm of Hamas also abducted and brought to the Gaza Strip seven female surveillance soldiers, of whom one was later rescued by Israeli Security Forces and at least one has died in captivity.³ Those serving in the Intelligence Collection Corps included 25 unarmed female “Tazpitanyot”, a non-combat role observing a portion of the fence and reporting on any security concerns, as well as operating a remote shooting system called “See-Shoot” (“Roeh, Yoreh” in Hebrew).⁴
The attack against the Nahal Oz military base began at 06:29, when Palestinian militants started firing projectiles in the direction of the base. At approximately 06:30, surveillance soldiers in the command centre of the base detected militants who approached the fence of the Gaza-Israel border and blew up segments of the fence using explosives. Once the fence was breached, dozens of militants passed through and moved across the fields towards the Nahal Oz outpost.
According to one survivor, militants were heard inside the base at 07:00. Around the same time, a surveillance soldier who was later captured and brought to Gaza by the militants, sent her family a video she filmed in the shelter, where all off- duty surveillance soldiers were seeking protection. The video shows some 22 unarmed women, dressed in pyjamas, gathered against a wall of the shelter. An armed Israeli soldier in camouflage can be seen at the other side of the shelter seemingly guarding one of its entrances. The women in the video appear to be frightened as sounds of detonations and shooting can be heard outside the shelter. The video ends with a loud explosion and the soldier at the exit is seen looking at his phone. According to the survivor’s testimony, the soldier received a phone call informing him of the infiltration and left the shelter to take action. The Commission assesses that this video was filmed immediately before militants breached the outpost and that the shooting sounds came from fighting around the perimeter walls.
At 07:20, five armed members of the Israeli Army’s Sky Riders unit were tasked to safeguard both entrances of the shelter and the unarmed surveillance soldiers inside it. In a photograph that Captain Eden Nimri, a commander of the Sky Riders unit, sent to her parents, two of Nimri’s subordinates can be seen aiming their weapons at the entrances of the shelter. The shelter was attacked by militants at 07:45, when a Hamas military wing operative, wearing a distinctive green headband and armed with an AK-47, entered. The militant was immediately shot dead by Nimri and her team members. Other militants then threw three grenades into the shelter and engaged in a shootout with Nimri.
Covered by Nimri, the other four members of the Sky Riders and six of the surveillance soldiers escaped through the back entrance of the shelter. Nimri, who remained behind, was killed shortly afterwards in the shelter. The ten women who escaped the shelter managed to reach two rooms in the living quarters, where they locked themselves in. The militants, who were already controlling the living quarters, attempted to break into the two rooms several times but, having failed to do so, eventually left. The 10 women spent six hours in the rooms before they were rescued.
The Commission found that at least three more female soldiers managed to escape from the shelter during the shootout. All three were later killed by the militants while hiding in other locations of the base. The other women, who did not manage to escape from the shelter, possibly 13 in number, were either killed or abducted.
At about 12:00, militants threw several grenades containing a flammable substance at the entrance of the command cenre, setting the building on fire. A Golani Brigades soldier tried to extinguish the fire but was unsuccessful. The fire spread quickly and smoke started to penetrate into the command centre. At around 12:30, the soldiers inside the room started searching for a way out but the door of the emergency exit was on fire and could not be approached. Eventually, the soldiers found a small window in the bathroom which was smashed by the operations officer of Golani Brigades, allowing her, five other Golani officers and one surveillance soldier to escape outside and hide in another building. Fifteen soldiers who were unable to escape from the command centre room died from smoke inhalation and fire. According to an Israeli Security Forces interim investigation into the attack on Nahal Oz military base, the grenades thrown in the command centre released unspecified toxic gas that caused suffocation and loss of consciousness within minutes.

Killing of soldiers who were hors de combat

The Commission analysed digital footage indicating that the majority of the female soldiers seeking refuge at the shelter of the Nahal Oz outpost were unarmed and wearing civilian clothes during the attack. Militants filmed the killing or abduction of several female soldiers, most of whom were young women (around 19 years old) and who were unarmed, wounded, captured and/or showing signs of having surrendered.
In addition, the Commission viewed two videos filmed in what appears to be an office of the Nahal Oz outpost during the attack. The Commission assesses that both videos were recovered from body cameras of Palestinian militants. The first video shows three armed militants, including one identified as a member of Hamas military wing, entering the room. A woman in white pyjamas can be seen hiding under a desk. She appears to have been wounded and there appears to be a blood stain on the front of her trousers in the lower abdominal area. The militants are heard discussing in Arabic the number and the whereabouts of other female soldiers in the room. They count three women. One of the militants then moves a chair that seemingly blocks their access to the table and the gunman beside the cameraman shoots three times at the unarmed woman hiding under the desk. The video then ends.
In the second video, which appears to be a direct continuation of the first video and to have been filmed immediately after the first video, six more rounds can be heard in the room. One of the women then starts screaming and another gunshot can be heard, at which the screaming ends abruptly. The camera then moves down and the woman in white pyjamas from the first video can be seen under the desk, seemingly dead. Another body in military boots and camouflage can be seen lying beside her. One of the militants then says, “There is a fourth one that we did not kill”, and the video ends.

Sources

G. Attack on Nahal Oz military outpost

Killing of soldiers who were hors de combat

Footnotes