Road 232 - Kibbutzim

Kibbutz Meflasim

Establishment and Background:

• Founded in 1949 by immigrants from South America.

Events on October 7th:

• The kibbutz was attacked by 20 Hamas terrorists from three directions.

• They blew up the pedestrian gate of the kibbutz.

• 12 members of the emergency squad, led by Moshe Kaplan, and soldiers on leave fought the terrorists, killing three.

• A YAMAM (Israeli counter-terrorism unit) force arrived, including Yossi Taha, who thwarted an attempt by terrorists to kidnap Thai workers on a kibbutz tractor.

• By noon, reinforcements from Sayeret Matkal (an elite IDF unit) and the Kfir Brigade arrived and cleared the kibbutz.

• Several terrorists were captured alive.

• The emergency squad sustained only two minor injuries.

• In contrast, four people were murdered in the shelter at the kibbutz entrance.

Dror's friend's daughter visited her boy friend family experience a horrors one of the mob enter their shelter , he had a knife and he was just sitting with them for hours as he was scared from the IDF.

Finally the army broke in and arrested him.

Kibbutz Kfar Aza

Establishment and Background:

Founded in 1951, located only 2 kilometers from the Gaza border by Jews from Egypt and Morocco.

The kibbutz specializes in automatic irrigation and has a plastic factory called "Kafrit".

Events on October 7th:

About 70 Hamas terrorists attacked the kibbutz from four different directions.

By 8:00 AM, rescue forces joined the emergency squad.

Despite this, Hamas managed to kill 79 members of the kibbutz and kidnapped 19.

In November, 11 of the kidnapped members were released in a prisoner exchange deal.

Subsequent Events:

On December 16, Yotam Haim and Alon Shemrez from the kibbutz were mistakenly shot after they had managed to escape their captors a few days earlier.

Kibbutz Sa'ad

Establishment and Background:

• Kibbutz Sa'ad is a religious kibbutz established in 1947.

Events on October 7th, 2023:

• Following the alarms, the emergency squad took their positions.

• The first vehicle to arrive was of a wounded Lieutenant Colonel from Mefalsim, who informed them of the scale of the attack. The squad directed him to a rear gate, 200 meters from the main gate, which remained closed.

• Subsequently, dozens of vehicles with people fleeing from the Nova party arrived and were also directed to the rear gate and attended to by the kibbutz.

• Simultaneously, the kibbutz set up a blockade at the junction south of the kibbutz, directing additional escapees to Netivot.

Encounter with Terrorists:

• At a certain point, terrorists arrived, but a tank appeared and neutralized dozens of terrorists, an event referred to as the "Tank Miracle" within the kibbutz.

• In March 2024, the tank crew, while taking a break from Gaza, was identified, revealing who was responsible for the rescue.

Terrorists' Plan:

• On one of the terrorists' bodies, a booklet was found detailing a plan to attack the youth center and the school in the settlement.

• This suggests that the attack did not have a fixed date in advance, as there are no school activities or youth center operations on Saturdays and holidays.

Nahal Oz and the Nahal Oz Base

Establishment and Background:

Kibbutz Nahal Oz was established in 1951 as a Nahal (pioneer military) settlement less than a kilometer from the Gaza border.

It was civilianized in 1953 and primarily relies on agriculture, including carrots, cotton, wheat, dairy farming, and poultry.

Historical Incidents:

In 1956, Sudanese soldiers murdered the kibbutz's security coordinator, Ro'i Rothberg, and mutilated his body. Three other kibbutz members were also murdered in the 1950s.

Moshe Dayan eulogy to Ro'i Rothberg was read by Dror. 67 years passed by and still relevant 2014, shelling on Nahal Oz killed 4-year-old Daniel Tregerman.

Events on October 7th, 2023:

Attack on Nahal Oz Base:

Around 200 terrorists attacked the Nahal Oz military outpost adjacent to the kibbutz in three waves.

They killed 66 soldiers, including 20 female soldiers (17 of whom were observers).

Three tank operators and seven female observers were kidnapped. Noa Marciano was murdered in captivity, but her body was recovered by the IDF. The IDF also managed to rescue Ori Megidish.

Observers Agam Berger, Liri Elbag, Naama Levy, Daniela Gilboa, and Karina Aryeh are still held captive.

Only one observer from the base survived.

Attack on the Kibbutz:

Over 200 terrorists infiltrated the kibbutz.

A force of eight YAMAM (elite Israeli counter-terrorism unit) members fought and reportedly killed 214 terrorists.

Despite their efforts, the terrorists murdered 13 kibbutz members and kidnapped 8. Some of these kidnappings were broadcast live on Facebook.

Rescue forces fought for 12 hours to regain control over the kibbutz

Kibbutz Alumim

Kibbutz Alumim is a religious kibbutz established in 1966 near Sa'ad. On October 7th, a group of 30 terrorists attacked the kibbutz. They exploded the lock on the gate and continued into the settlement. A battle ensued within the kibbutz that lasted for hours, involving a response team composed largely of members from elite units. By 9:00 AM, about thirty terrorists had barricaded themselves in a public garden in the kibbutz. During the gunfire, casualties were successfully evacuated, including a critically injured person who was managed to be extracted from the kibbutz and transported to Soroka Hospital (he survived).

In the fighting, two brothers who came from Be'er Sheva on their own initiative, team leader Yehalam, and Itai Cohen, were killed, and four members of the response team were injured. Later in the fighting, the kibbutz lost three of its members in combat in Gaza (as of February 2024).

Ten of the terrorists headed to the dairy farm, where they murdered 14 workers from Nepal and Thailand, kidnapped 8, burned the silo, and damaged the milking parlor. By 12:30 PM, dozens of terrorists arrived at the kibbutz's packing house area but were confronted by a paratrooper force and a special forces unit that killed most of them. Following this, there was an attempt to infiltrate from the avocado groves, but they were also neutralized there.

Kibbutz Be'eri

Kibbutz Be'eri was established on October 6, 1946, during the creation of 11 new settlement points. The settlement's agriculture is based on potatoes, carrots, peanuts, soybeans, and jojoba. It is also known for its printing press. In 2022, it had 1,100 members. Although the kibbutz is known for its support of Gaza Arabs, including transporting Gaza patients for treatment in Israeli hospitals.

On the morning of October 7th, 100 Hamas terrorists infiltrated the settlement in a planned attack. They killed 3 of 6 members of the response team and then murdered 101 residents of the kibbutz. The youngest victim was a 10-month-old baby (Mila Cohen), and the oldest was 88 (Hanna Kritzman). 31 members of the kibbutz were kidnapped to Gaza, with 20 released in November. 11 remained in captivity, but only 4 are still alive.

The terrorists were accompanied by a television crew that broadcasted the infiltration. At 8:37 AM, the first rescue team from Sayeret Matkal arrived with 13 fighters. Realizing they were facing hundreds of terrorists, they evacuated three injured, including two of their own, and positioned themselves at the gate to join additional forces and prevent further infiltration. They managed to kill 30 terrorists there (there is a video of them thwarting terrorists trying to enter in a Kia Picanto). Additional forces arrived only in the afternoon, and the kibbutz was cleared over two and a half days at the cost of 33 dead. It appears the terrorists prioritized two-story houses for better control. If I visit Be'eri, I will verify this.

Events and Notable Figures:

"Pasi's Dining Room" – At one point, 40 terrorists took over Pasi Cohen's house, which housed 14 people. They mistakenly thought it was the kibbutz's dining room. The terrorist leader (Hassan Hamdouna) surrendered and came out with a hostage (Yasmin Porat) to the YAMAM forces. However, the remaining terrorists fired RPGs and a lot of small arms fire. After four hours, including warning shots from a tank on the lawn, the brigade commander, Barak Hiram, ordered a shell to be fired at the roof of the house following the YAMAM's request. After the shelling, the YAMAM broke in. In the ensuing firefight, all the terrorists were killed, but it turned out that most of the hostages were also dead (only Hadass Dagan survived). In March 2024, the IDF declared that the hostages had been killed before the break-in and shelling. An archaeological survey also reached this conclusion. It should be noted that during this time, there were still 300 terrorists scattered throughout the kibbutz.

Yossi Becher – A reserve brigadier general and former paratrooper and Maglan commander. He conducted ambushes against the terrorists as much as he could and killed 15 terrorists. His mother was murdered.

Thomas Hand – Announced that he was glad the IDF had informed him that his daughter, Emily Hand, had been found dead. It was later discovered that she had been kidnapped and was released in November.

Our next visit is to the Nova site