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 Times of Israel