A squad of Israeli soldiers stationed near the border with the Gaza Strip abandoned civilians sheltering on Zikim Beach as Hamas terrorists invaded the coast during the terror group’s onslaught on October 7, 2023, an Israel Defense Forces probe published on Sunday showed.

The troops of the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion withdrew from the beach while failing to properly engage terrorists who arrived on speedboats, with the attackers going on to murder 17 civilians in the area. The terrorists then advanced on Kibbutz Zikim, whose civil defense squad successfully fought back, preventing an infiltration of the community.

The IDF probe into the attack on Zikim Beach also found that the bodies of seven murdered civilians were left inside a seaside bomb shelter for a week before being recovered by rescue services.

The findings published Sunday are the latest in a series of detailed investigations into some 40 battles and massacres that took place during Hamas’s October 7 attack, 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” civilians at Zikim Beach, mainly because the military had never prepared for such an event — a widespread attack on dozens of towns and army posts — alongside difficulty in putting together an accurate picture of ongoing situation due to the collapse of the Gaza Division’s command and control.

“The failure is expressed in the fact that the terrorists were able to infiltrate our territory in a short time and murder 17 civilians,” the probe stated.

The probe, carried out by Col. Tal Kuritsky — the commander of the 5th Reserve Infantry Brigade — covered all aspects of the attack on beach and the nearby kibbutz.

The IDF said investigators made visits to the scene and reviewed every possible source of information, including footage taken by terrorists with body-mounted cameras, footage taken by civilians, surveillance camera videos, army radio communications, and interviews with survivors.

The Zikim Beach 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 probe stated that Golani soldiers who did not protect civilians acted wrongly both “professionally and ethically.” The troops should have rushed toward the terrorists upon seeing them, instead of trying to reposition themselves, the investigation said, describing their actions as a “massive failure.”

“The soldiers did not risk their lives and did not strive to engage in close combat with the enemy,” the probe said.

Some of those soldiers later fought in the IDF’s ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, though all but one — who now serves in a noncombat role — have since been released from service.

The probe also found that there was no proper communication between the Gaza Division and the Israeli Navy for some 40 hours, from the start of the onslaught till around 10 p.m. on October 8, as many of the communication networks were disrupted by Hamas’s attack.

The investigation was split into three separate events: the battle at sea conducted by the Israeli Navy, the massacre at Zikim Beach, and the defense of Kibbutz Zikim.

Amid an initial barrage of over 1,000 rockets launched by Hamas at Israel at 6:29 a.m., 38 terrorists in seven speedboats set out from the Gaza Strip for Israel. According........

© The Times of Israel