On the morning of October 7, 2023, some 60 Hamas terrorists invaded the unsuspecting community of Kibbutz Holit, located in the southern section of the border with the Gaza Strip.

Residents of Holit were left to fend for themselves for hours, with the military — stunned by the shock attack on dozens of towns and in utter disarray — failing to come to their rescue as terrorists moved from home to home, kidnapping, brutalizing and massacring civilians into the afternoon.

During the attack, the terrorists abducted four Israeli civilians and two foreign workers to the Gaza Strip and murdered thirteen others in the kibbutz. In addition, one resident and two infants who were abducted to Gaza were abandoned by the terrorists, allowing them to escape and return to Israel the same day.

Three members of the security forces were killed in the fighting, including the kibbutz’s security coordinator, a member of the civil defense squad, and a reservist of a regional counterterror standby force.

On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces published its probe into the attack on the kibbutz, which found that around 20 of the invading terrorists were killed by armed civilians, the local security team and, later in the day, troops.

The investigation found that residents of the kibbutz carried out “extraordinary” actions while under fire, including the security coordinator and his deputy, who “acted with bravery, engaged the enemy and defended the kibbutz with their bodies.”

Israeli troops stationed on the border that morning battled and killed numerous Hamas terrorists. However, forces that reached the community’s entrance as the onslaught began shortly after moved to fight elsewhere. The investigation determined that these soldiers failed to defend the kibbutz.

Reinforcements arrived in the kibbutz only in the afternoon.

Similar to other investigations, the probe concluded that the IDF “failed to defend Kibbutz Holit,” 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 findings published Monday 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 Palestinian terrorists stormed across the border, killed some 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages into Gaza.

The probe, carried out by Col. Eylon Peretz — commander of the Yoav Regional Brigade — and approved by former IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, covered all aspects of the fighting in Holit and the surrounding area. The IDF said the investigators visited the scene and reviewed every possible source of information.

The probe’s release to the public was delayed by some six months as the investigation team worked to complete the investigation of several details. However, an incomplete version of the probe was presented to the kibbutz last year.

The Holit 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.

Timeline of the attack

Amid Hamas’s initial barrage of rockets on southern Israel at 6:29 a.m., terrorists breached the border fence and advanced toward Holit. IDF troops deployed to the border that morning began fighting to repel the attack.

One tank fought for some three hours on the border, hitting numerous terrorists on pickup trucks and motorcycles, and thus “significantly” reducing the number of terrorists who raided the kibbutz, the probe found.

At 6:45 a.m., the first terrorists were identified just outside Holit by the kibbutz’s security coordinator, Abi Korin, a 56-year-old Argentinian-Israeli father of three, and his deputy.

Ten minutes later, soldiers monitoring surveillance cameras spotted some 15 armed terrorists outside the kibbutz and dispatched troops to the scene. Two patrol vehicles with troops arrived at the entrance to the kibbutz within two minutes, but could not enter the community as the gate would not open. An armored vehicle that was also dispatched got stuck while leaving a nearby base and was caught up battling other terrorists.

At 6:59 a.m., the terrorists blew a hole in the kibbutz’s eastern perimeter fence and entered the community, and began a spree of murder, kidnapping, destruction and looting.

For several hours, armed residents and members of the community’s civil defense squad fought alone, while rescuing people under fire.

According to the probe, Korin, the security chief, was killed battling the terrorists at around 7:10 a.m. The deputy security officer continued fighting, while additional waves of terrorists invaded the kibbutz.

At 7:18 a.m., the two patrol vehicles drove around the kibbutz to the hole in the perimeter fence, where they came under fire. The soldiers rammed several motorcycle-riding terrorists with their vehicles. Two minutes later, the soldiers left the area to fight at another location after receiving reports of their commander being wounded there.

Over the following hours, the terrorists breached dozens of homes, while murdering civilians, abducting others and setting fires. Some civilians managed to resist and kill the attackers, while also rescuing their neighbors.

Additionally, between 7 and 8 a.m., at the kibbutz’s cowshed, the terrorists abducted four Israelis, members of the Ziyadne family — father Youssef Hamis, sons Hamza and Bilal, and daughter Aisha — and two foreign workers, and murdered another. Youssef and Hamza were murdered in captivity.

In one incident at 7:20 a.m., terrorists broke into a home and murdered a couple, while their 7-year-old daughter hid in a closet. Three hours later, a neighbor managed to rescue the young girl while shooting and hitting two terrorists in the process.

In another incident at 7:30 a.m., a terrorist who broke into a home was killed by an armed civilian. An hour later, his daughter was severely wounded, and his wife was lightly hurt, after the terrorists placed an explosive charge on the window of the home’s bomb-safe room.

At 7:50 a.m., a couple was murdered in their home by the terrorists, while their teenage son managed to hide for hours until being rescued by the army in the afternoon.

At 9:25 a.m., a resident rescued her neighbor from a home that the terrorists had set on fire.

Around noon, after hearing gunfire outside, Adi Vital-Kaploun, 33, called her husband, who was not at home, and asked for instructions on how to operate the M-16 assault rifle that was locked in a safe in their home. At 12:30 p.m., Vital-Kaploun shot dead a terrorist who broke into her home.

A short while later, other terrorists entered the home and murdered her in front of her 3-year-old and 5-month-old children.

The terrorists remained in the home with the two young kids until around 2 p.m.

Meanwhile, an Israeli Air Force attack helicopter scanned the community for around half an hour at around 12:55 p.m. The helicopter fired several shells in an attempt to reveal the location of the terrorists, but did not manage to identify any.

At the same time, terrorists attempted several times to breach the home of the deputy security coordinator, who fought back, killing at least one and injuring another.

At 1:30 p.m., the terrorists breached the home of resident Avital Aladjem, while an unarmed member of the civil defense squad, Hayim Yeshurun Katsman, 32, was hiding there with her. Katsman was murdered, while Aladjem was ordered by the terrorists to convince her neighbors to leave their homes, though none obliged.

Meanwhile, the terrorists who murdered Vital-Kaploun brought her two children to Aladjem’s home.

At 1:53 p.m., the first Israeli troops arrived at the kibbutz and began to scan Holit’s eastern neighborhood. At 2 p.m., two troops were wounded while battling several terrorists who were holed up in a home.

At 2:06 p.m., another force arrived, led by the then-commander of the Paran Regional Brigade, Col. Shemer Raviv. An all-female tank crew, part of the brigade’s Carcal Battalion, smashed through the locked entrance gate, allowing the troops in.

During fighting at 2:10 p.m., Sgt. Maj. (res.) Liran Almosnino, 42, a reservist with the LOTAR counter-terror regional Nitzana team, was killed.

Between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m., amid clashes, the terrorists began withdrawing from the area, while taking Aladjem and Vital-Kaploun’s children to the Strip.

More forces arrived over the following hour and carried out searches while also engaging some of the retreating terrorists.

In one incident at 3:55 p.m., forces of the IAF’s elite Shaldag unit identified 15 terrorists retreating to Gaza from the kibbutz, opened fire on them, and directed the all-female tank crew to the area. The tank team then ran over and killed several of the terrorists.

At 4:10 p.m., troops of the Golani Brigade entered the southern part of the kibbutz without coordinating with Shemer. Other soldiers identified them, but decided not to open fire over fears, later confirmed to be correct, that they were Israeli forces and not terrorists.

At 4:30 p.m., Aladjem was left alone with Vital-Kaploun’s two young children inside the Strip for unclear reasons. She turned around with the children and began walking with them back to the kibbutz.

She passed several gunmen who were retreating to Gaza, and hid with the children in the sand dunes, slowly making her way back. By 7 p.m., Aladjem and the children reached the kibbutz.

From around 4:30 p.m., residents were evacuated from the kibbutz, while the military continued its scans for remaining terrorists.

The following day at 10:15 a.m., troops encountered several terrorists in the orchards to the east of the kibbutz. The terrorists were killed, and three troops were wounded in the exchange. On October 9, additional terrorists were located and killed by troops in the orchards.

Only on October 12 was the body of security chief Korin located.

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