A small group of police officers from an elite counter-terrorism unit battled against Gaza terrorists at a key location during the October 7 attack of last year, preventing them from penetrating deep into central Israel, the commander and members of the unit said in a Sunday report.

Two members of Unit 33, known as Gideonim, were seriously injured in battle at the Black Arrow war memorial near the Gaza border.

In an interview conducted at the location, three members of the unit, including its commander, told Channel 12 how the events unfolded on that day, when Hamas led thousands of terrorists in a cross-border attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Due to security protocols, the officers could not be identified in the report or reveal their faces.

The terror assault began with a 6:32 a.m. massive rocket barrage at the country, after which terrorists blasted gaps in the security boundary with the Gaza Strip. Driving through the breaches in vehicles, the gunmen roamed through southern Israel, overrunning military posts and communities where they massacred or kidnapped those that they found.

The Unit 33 commander, who was identified in the report only by the Hebrew initial “Ayin,” said he was at home when his wife woke him to tell him there had been a rocket barrage from Gaza and something unusual was going on.

Watching television updates, he said he saw a video of terrorists riding pickup trucks in the border town of Sderot, where they killed at least 38 people, 18 of them police officers from the local station.

For Ayin, that was already what he termed “Stage C” of the four levels of penetration security forces had prepared for, in which “A” is a border fence breach, “B” is terrorists reaching nearby border communities, and “C” when they go beyond that into cities. “Stage D,” he explained, would mean terrorists reaching major Israeli cities, such as Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.

“To me, it looked like somewhere between ‘C’ and ‘D’,” Ayin said.

He immediately ordered all unit members to gather in the center of the country, prepare their gear, and then mount their armored vehicles.

In a moment of grim prescience, Ayin described how he took a photo of the gathered members of the unit, having already sensed “that I won’t see them together.”

Most of the unit then headed south, toward the chaotic areas where hundreds of terrorists were laying in ambush along the roads.

Already an hour after they were scrambled, members of the unit made contact with terrorists on Route 232 and found themselves in a firefight, while also managing to help injured civilians to safety.

A group of four unit members, Ayin among them, arrived at the Black Arrow memorial, about 900 meters from the Gaza border. Unbeknown to them, the gathering of terrorists that they happened upon had been planned for the purpose of pushing further into the country.

Ayin described a convoy of some 30 pickup trucks and other vehicles carrying heavily armed terrorists arriving at the site.

He quickly instructed the officers with him to stay hidden until backup could be brought in.

However, the officers were already surrounded by terrorists, who opened fire on them, injuring two. The officers shot back, killing terrorists and pinning down others even as ever more gunmen arrived.

As the officers tried to hold their position, taking fire from two sides, reinforcements from the army arrived and the Unit 33 members found themselves caught in the crossfire.

Moving to safer cover, they were able to direct the army reinforcements to fire at the terrorists until eventually they were overcome by the Israeli forces.

The action apparently prevented scores of terrorists from reaching far into the country, the Channel 12 report said.