Hamas terrorists sought to capture the Israeli military’s Gaza Division headquarters during the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, but were pushed back by soldiers in a lengthy fight, according to an Israel Defense Forces probe published on Friday.

Four IDF soldiers were killed and seven were wounded while battling the terrorists in Re’im Base, which houses the Gaza Division, the regional unit responsible for the Strip and for protecting southern Israel. Another soldier who served at the base and his father were murdered at a junction just outside the military facility.

The investigation stated that the IDF “failed in its mission to defend the Re’im base” because the facility’s personnel were not trained to handle such an attack scenario, and the base lacked any significant defensive infrastructure.

The lack of preparations and defenses was due to the base being treated as a “rear” facility — meaning not on the frontline — despite being located just 6.5 kilometers from the Gaza border. Families were hosted on the base, and a minimal number of soldiers had weapons. The probe also stated that there were “large breaches of information security” that allowed Hamas to collect significant knowledge on the base ahead of its attack.

Related: Civil defense squad, cops battled 100 terrorists in Kibbutz Re’im; some were headed to Nevatim Airbase

Still, the investigation said that “it is clearly evident that the fighting and heroism of IDF troops at the gate and throughout the base, while engaging with determination, prevented the capture of the base and a greater disaster.”

While Hamas failed to capture the base, the investigation stated that a 30-minute period during which the terrorists were “pinned down” at the entrance gate was not “utilized to carry out effective actions to prepare to thwart the raid and increase the camp’s readiness for a broad attack.”

Some 60 Hamas terrorists reached the area of Re’im Base during the attack, with 30 “isolating” the entrance junction, while the other 30 infiltrated the facility, according to the probe.

“Their goal was to strike the sector’s command and control systems and to maximize killing, destruction, and abductions within the base,” the probe said.

“As a result of the fighting by IDF troops in the base, most of the terrorists retreated,” the probe said, adding that at least 10 terrorists were eliminated by the forces in the area.

However, the fighting in the base was completely uncoordinated between the various forces trying to defend the facility against Hamas, according to the investigation. This was all while the chief of the Gaza Division was locked down in his command center, trying to manage the fighting across the entire border area.

The findings published Friday 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.

The probe, carried out by Col. Itzik Elfasi, covered all aspects of the........

© The Times of Israel