Israeli troops stationed at an army post near the Gaza border community of Kissufim on the morning of October 7, 2023, rushed to defend the kibbutz as Hamas terrorists began their terror onslaught.

The forces, along with the kibbutz’s civil defense squad, managed to fight back against many of the terrorists, preventing them from rampaging throughout the entire community, according to an Israel Defense Forces probe published Thursday.

Still, efforts to clear the kibbutz of terrorists took significantly longer than in other communities attacked on October 7, with the final terrorist killed only on October 12.

In all, nine Israeli civilians and six foreign workers were murdered by terrorists in the kibbutz, and another Israeli was abducted to Gaza, murdered, and returned to Israel in a deal with Hamas. One more Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed by Israeli forces during the fighting in Kissufim.

Twenty-seven IDF soldiers and one member of the Kissufim’s local security team were killed in the fighting in the kibbutz and at a nearby army post.

The IDF probe into the attack on Kissufim found that the “fierce and determined” fighting by troops and civilians caused the Hamas terrorists to withdraw from certain areas, “disrupting their plans” and preventing further harm.

Still, the investigation determined that Israeli forces did not “operate in accordance with organized and uniform techniques,” due to which it took longer than it should have to clear the kibbutz of terrorists.

The findings published Thursday are the latest in a series of detailed investigations into some 40 battles and massacres that took place during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, when about 5,600 terrorists stormed across the border, killed some 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages into Gaza, where dozens remain captive.

Similar to other investigations, the probe concluded that the IDF “failed in its mission to protect� the residents of Kissufim, mainly because the military never prepared for such an event: an Israeli community being attacked by terrorists, as well as a widespread attack on numerous towns and army bases simultaneously by thousands of terrorists. The military also lacked an intelligence warning, and therefore, troops were unprepared for Hamas’s attack.

The probe into what happened at Kissufim, carried out by Col. Tal Alkobi, commander of the 14th Reserve Armored Brigade, covered all aspects of the fighting in the kibbutz, the IDF’s nearby base, and the surrounding area.

The IDF said the investigators made visits to the scene and reviewed every possible source of information, including footage taken by terrorists, residents’ text messages, surveillance videos, the army’s radio communications, and interviews with survivors.

The Kissufim probe was aimed at drawing specific operational conclusions for the military. It did not examine the wider picture of the military’s perception of Gaza and Hamas in recent years, which has been covered in separate, larger investigations into the IDF’s intelligence and defenses.

The investigatory team stated that the IDF’s reference scenario was “fundamentally flawed, leading to inadequate preparation for the actual threat.” Troops were not trained to fight inside an Israeli community overrun by terrorists, which led to the fighting taking much longer than it should have, and at least one case of deadly friendly fire.

The army’s command and control was found to have been ineffective during the fighting inside Kissufim, and the allocation of tasks was disorganized. As a result, the presence and use of troops was not optimal, the probe said.

The Israeli Air Force assisted during the battle, but the investigation said that it did not play a significant role in halting the attack.

Alkobi’s team also found that the community’s civil defense squad was not adequately trained by the IDF. “It was small, insufficiently trained, and lacked a reference scenario,” the investigation said, but noted that the squad did have a significant impact on the battle, preventing terrorists from rampaging through the entire community.

Additionally, the probe praised decisions by commanders at the IDF’s adjacent post to send forces to fight in the kibbutz and defend the residents over defending the base.

The probe found that some 150 members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force reached the Kissufim area during the onslaught on October 7. Around 40 attacked the IDF’s Kissufim post, and some 60 carried out “murders, kidnapping, looting, and other cruel crimes” at the kibbutz.

According to the investigation, some 25 terrorists were killed at the army post, 30 were killed in the kibbutz, and around 50 others were killed in the surrounding area. Another 50 withdrew to Gaza, some of them wounded in the fighting with Israeli forces.

The Hamas terrorists infiltrated the Kissufim area as the terror group launched an initial barrage of over 1,000 rockets at 6:29 a.m. IDF troops stationed in the area engaged the terrorists, while sustaining casualties and damage to their armored vehicles.

After an hour of fighting, most of the troops withdrew to the kibbutz, leaving behind a standby force, whose members continued to fight alone for most of the day.

The standby team eliminated numerous terrorists between Kissufim and the border, and eventually returned to the army post after running out of ammunition. As they reached the base, a mortar struck the team, killing Cpt. Ori Shani, and Sgt. Reem Batito.

Meanwhile, the deputy commander of the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion engaged terrorists near the kibbutz, then returned to help defend the base. Members of the battalion’s sniper team joined him, and during the fighting, Staff Sgt. Michael Ben Hamo and Staff Sgt. Adi Tzur were killed.

The battalion’s support company arrived in the same area and was ambushed by the terrorists. Staff Sgt. Bar Rozenshtein was killed in the incident.

As the Kissufim post came under attack, Sgt. Tomer Nagar, armed with a Negev machine gun, battled Hamas terrorists from a bunker he was guarding. After some 25 minutes of fighting, Nagar ran out of ammunition and was killed. The probe found that his action delayed the terrorist advance on the base.

At the main gate to the base, Sgt. David Mittelman and Sgt. Noam Ben Mucha were killed after a lengthy battle with Hamas terrorists. The terrorists then managed to infiltrate the base, reaching the northern section, which is adjacent to the kibbutz.

Inside the base, Maj. Raz Peretz, the commander of the combat support company, exchanged fire with terrorists while defending a bomb shelter. Peretz at one point exited the shelter, killing three terrorists, before he was shot dead.

The terrorists continued to attack the shelter with grenades, but the soldiers inside fought back while sustaining severe injuries.

In addition to Peretz, six other soldiers were killed during the fighting at the bomb shelter: Staff Sgt. Yogev Aharon, Staff Sgt. Or Asto, Staff Sgt. Brando Flores Garcia, Staff Sgt. Eviatar Ochayon Abukasis, Staff Sgt. Teshager Taka and Sgt. Uriel Segal. Twelve soldiers survived.

At 1:45 p.m., the first backup troops arrived at the Kissufim base, from the Egoz commando unit. The soldiers joined up with the commander of the 51st Battalion, and they split up, with one group operating in the south of the base, where the command center and dining hall are located, and the other in the north, next to the shelter and female barracks.

The Egoz soldiers encountered terrorists near the shelter and exchanged fire with them. The battalion commander’s team, meanwhile, was pinned down by fire near the female quarters. The commandos then helped regain control of the area near the female quarters, where they rescued two surveillance soldiers.

The Egoz commandos then headed out to join up with Golani troops in a Namer armored personnel carrier. As the troops stood outside the APC, terrorists opened fire on them, killing Sgt. First Class Amit Peled, Sgt. First Class Yonnatan Savitsky and Sgt. First Class Elad Sasson. Their team commander was seriously wounded but managed to return fire and kill a terrorist who had opened fire on them.

A backup squad, led by the battalion’s operations officer, heard the shooting as he returned to the area after evacuating the surveillance soldiers. The team engaged and killed the remaining terrorists, fully clearing the base.

Following reports of a terrorist infiltration into Kissufim, a team of Golani troops was ordered by their commander to reach the kibbutz.

The first terrorists entered Kissufim at around 6:55 a.m., from the north and south of the community. At the same time, an IDF force entered the center of the kibbutz and exchanged fire with the terrorists.

During the fighting, an off-duty soldier who lived in Kissufim was mistakenly identified as a terrorist and was shot and wounded by the troops.

The kibbutz security coordinator, meanwhile, was attacked in his home and injured by an explosive hurled by the terrorists, but managed to hide with his family in their safe room. Several terrorists remained in his home throughout most of the day.

At around 7:30 a.m., terrorists abducted Shlomo Mantzur from the community’s northern neighborhood and murdered six Thai workers at the nearby foreign workers’ residences. Mantzur was murdered either during his abduction or inside Gaza on October 7, and his body was returned to Israel by Hamas as part of a ceasefire deal in February 2025.

The Golani troops engaged the terrorists in the north of the kibbutz at around 8 a.m., and joined up with other forces to conduct a counterattack on the area, where numerous terrorists were holed up.

In the south of the community, two members of the civil defense squad and an off-duty IDF officer who lives in Kissufim engaged terrorists, hitting several of them.

The investigation found that the actions of the local security officers and the off-duty soldier stopped the terrorists from moving between the northern and southern neighborhoods, effectively preventing them from consolidating their efforts.

At around 9 a.m., the Golani troops launched an assault on Hamas terrorists at an intersection located between the gate of the IDF base and the kibbutz. During the attack, Sgt. Guy Bazak was killed by the terrorists’ fire. The troops then flanked the area, killing one of the terrorists and seizing his radio.

Meanwhile, the Namer APC patrolled inside the kibbutz, preventing the terrorists from moving around and carrying out additional murders and abductions. Outside the community, two tanks from the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion blocked additional terrorists from reaching Kissufim.

At 1:06 p.m., the first backup troops arrived at the kibbutz, from the Bislamach Brigade’s 450th Armored Battalion, and joined up with the Golani troops and local security team.

During scans in the central neighborhood, the forces found the bodies of murdered civilians Jina Semiatiz and Ofer Ron.

A force led by the commander of the 450th Battalion, along with Saar Margolis, a member of the local security team, headed toward the northern neighborhood, close to the intersection with the Kissufim base. As they reached the area, they were ambushed by terrorists, and five soldiers were killed: Staff Sgt. Omri Peretz, Staff Sgt. Regev Amar, Sgt. Bar Yankilov, Sgt. Lavi Buchnik and Sgt. Matan Malka. Five other troops were wounded, including the battalion commander.

Egoz commandos, along with members of the Israeli Air Force’s search and rescue Unit 669, reached the area to evacuate the wounded and dead.

Another force from the 450th Battalion, meanwhile, was searching the southern neighborhood and located the bodies of murdered civilians Iván Illarramendi and Dafna Pamela Garcovich, who had perished in a fire set in their home. Initially, the couple was declared missing, and their remains were only identified a month later.

A short while later, the 450th Battalion forces, joined by Margolis, the local security officer, reached the home of the civil defense squad coordinator, where terrorists had been holed up. The terrorists opened fire on the forces from inside the home and hurled grenades, killing Margolis and Staff Sgt. Adam Agmon.

At 3:30 p.m., cadets of the Bahad 1 officers’ school’s Dekel Battalion arrived in the kibbutz but withdrew after coming under fire. Egoz commandos then attempted to flank around the northern neighborhood, but also came under fire. One of the soldiers, Sgt. 1st Class Vitaly Skipakevich, was fatally wounded, and the unit’s commander was hurt.

After that exchange, at least 10 terrorists remained in the kibbutz. Some withdrew to Gaza, and others were later killed by the forces.

At 5 p.m., the IDF began to evacuate civilians from the kibbutz. The troops searched homes and rescued families who were in hiding. Most residents were evacuated overnight and during the morning hours of October 8.

During Saturday afternoon, terrorists murdered the Zak family — parents Itay and Etti, and their 15-year-old son Sagi — by setting their house on fire. Menuha Chulati, who lived next door, was also burned alive. Civilians and the Dekel Battalion cadets managed to rescue two women from the burning home.

At 1:30 a.m. on October 8, troops of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 9th Battalion engaged terrorists inside the Godo family home. The soldiers managed to leave the building, and at 3:30 a.m., fired a tank shell at it in an attempt to flush the terrorists out.

In the morning hours, soldiers of the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion entered the home and heard noises coming from the bomb safe room. Assuming there were terrorists inside the safe room, the soldiers opened fire on the door, killing Tom Godo. Godo’s wife and daughters fled out of the bomb safe room’s window, thinking that terrorists were in the home, and reached the troops outside.

Later, the terrorists who had been in Godo’s home were located in a nearby house. The soldiers again tried to flush out the terrorists, and three troops were wounded while exchanging fire with them.

As the forces closed in on the home, a resident still trapped inside managed to speak with the troops from a window. Moments later, one of the IDF tanks fired two shells at the home, and the resident managed to escape through the window. The shelling set the house on fire, and the terrorists inside were killed by troops as they tried to escape.

On October 9, Reuven Heinik, the manager of the kibbutz’s dairy, set out for Kissufim, two days after the start of the Hamas onslaught, to tend to the cows. He was murdered there by terrorists hiding in the cowshed. IDF troops, with a tank and an Air Force helicopter, eliminated the terrorists.

Later on October 9, troops of the Egoz commando unit exchanged fire with two terrorists in the center of the kibbutz. During the battle, Sgt. First Class Aviel Melkamu was killed, and other troops were wounded. The two terrorists were killed.

On October 10, a reserve battalion of the 5th Brigade took command of the kibbutz and continued to search for remaining threats.

On October 12, the soldiers spotted a terrorist running from the kibbutz’s perimeter fence to a home. The troops closed in on the home and exchanged fire with the terrorist.

Several soldiers were wounded during the exchange, and the terrorist, the last remaining one in Kissufim, was killed, ending the fighting.