On the morning of October 7, 2023, 41 Palestinian terrorists invaded the southern city of Sderot, located less than a mile from the border with the Gaza Strip, amid the Hamas-led onslaught, murdering dozens of civilians and police officers.

Nearly 1,000 Israeli security forces ended up in Sderot, a city of 38,000 residents, on October 7, as terrorists were abducting and massacring hundreds of civilians and numerous smaller communities close to the border, where troops reached hours later. Hundreds of troops remained in the city even after no further terrorists were invading.

On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces presented its probe into the attack on Sderot — among its detailed investigations into some 40 battles and massacres that took place during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, when some 5,600 terrorists stormed across the border, killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages to Gaza.

The probe highlighted the bravery of police officers and other troops who fought that day in the southern city, including a cop who killed four terrorists from the roof of Sderot’s police station as the Hamas attackers captured the building.

The investigation concluded that the IDF “failed in its mission to protect” the residents of Sderot, mainly because the military had never prepared for such an event: an Israeli town being attacked by terrorists, as well as a widespread assault on numerous communities and army bases simultaneously by thousands of terrorists.

In all, 53 people were killed in Sderot amid the Hamas onslaught, including 37 civilians, 11 police officers, two firefighters and three IDF soldiers.

Unlike other towns attacked on October 7, no hostages were taken by the terrorists, as all were either killed or captured.

The circumstances of the death of one civilian in Sderot, Semyon Avdalimov, 66, remain unknown. And two of the three slain soldiers, Staff Sgt. Itamar Bruchim, 20, and Staff Sgt. Adi Baruch, 23, were killed in rocket attacks on Sderot in the days following Hamas’s ground invasion, well after the fighting had ended in the city.

The probe into what happened at Sderot, carried out by Col. Nitai Okashi — the deputy commander of the 36th Division — covered all aspects of the fighting in the city and surrounding area that began on October 7.

Okashi and his team spent hundreds of hours investigating the onslaught and battle at Sderot. The IDF said the investigators made visits to the scene and reviewed every possible source of information, including footage taken by terrorists with body-mounted cameras, surveillance videos, army radio communications, and interviews with survivors and those who fought to defend the city.

The Sderot 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 was covered in separate, larger investigations into the IDF’s intelligence and defenses.

The investigation found that Sderot had no formal security perimeter being defended by the IDF, despite being located close to the Gaza border, which enabled the Hamas terrorists to quickly breach the city after taking a nearby highway. The investigation team recommended reorganizing the deployment of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade to prevent large-scale, quick and surprise ground invasions from the Strip.

The probe found that because of the wide-scale attack on numerous areas simultaneously, the Gaza Division’s command and control had collapsed, which prevented the troops deployed to the border from understanding what was occurring in Sderot.

The troops deployed to the border came under massive attack during the onslaught, however, they did manage to prevent dozens more terrorists from reaching Sderot in the second and third waves of infiltrators, “preventing a larger disaster in both Sderot and Kibbutz Nir Am,” the investigation team stated.

“But in practice, they did not affect the events within the city, as [the forces from the regional brigade] did not reach the city during the attack,” the probe said.

The Hamas terrorists who managed to reach Sderot did so after breaching the Gaza border near the Black Arrow memorial site, which was not known to the troops deployed to the frontier at the time.

The fighting in Sderot was led mostly by police in the first hours, and later, senior IDF officers arrived and established a new chain of command.

Sderot was overflowing with Israeli troops during the October 7 onslaught, while Hamas was massacring civilians in other communities in the southern section of the border, reaching a peak of around 500 soldiers and police for several hours. In all, around 1,000 Israeli forces were in the city on October 7.

This was mainly because many forces were heading to Gaza from the north, and as such, passed through the city and stopped there to fight. Additionally, Hamas terrorists had taken some of the main junctions heading south from Sderot, preventing forces from driving on them.

Sderot also took up a lot of attention because of clips circulating on social media, and broadcast on television, of Hamas terrorists on pickup trucks in the city.

Additionally, the IDF, without a clear picture of what was happening in southern Israel, prioritized sending troops to larger towns and cities, under the assumption that Hamas was focusing its attack on population centers.

Even after Israeli forces had established “operational control” over Sderot at 10:30 a.m., hundreds of troops remained in the city.

Additionally, the investigation found that the IDF provided no warning to the city and police of terrorists breaching the Gaza fence across from Sderot. “If a warning was sent to the city on the infiltration of terrorists already at the start of the events on the border fence, it would have been possible to place police roadblocks on the main junctions at the entrances to the city and foil the enemy’s attack,” the probe stated.

The probe also stated that Sderot’s 22-strong local security team — which is supposed to be armed and trained by the IDF — was underequipped and not prepared for such an event.

In August 2022, the IDF required all Gaza border towns to return their assault rifles to the military following a series of break-ins in which weapons were stolen.

The army conditioned the return of the rifles on all the squad members having an approved method for safely locking them in their homes, or alternatively, an armory in the city. Because that was not in place, the rearming of the team never went ahead.

As a result, squad members were left with just their pistols to engage the heavily armed and overwhelming numbers of terrorists.

The investigation noted in the two years before the onslaught, the local security team did not carry out any training drills with the army; the IDF did not provide the security squad with a “defense dossier,” a type of document detailing scenarios and responses; and amid the attack, bomb shelters in the city which were supposed to open automatically amid rocket fire did not.

Because most residents of Sderot are observant Jews, many were unaware that terrorists had invaded the city. Authorities had sent out a text message after the terrorists invaded the city at 6:58 a.m., but many of those who were keeping the Sabbath did not have their phones with them. This led to many residents walking around the city or praying at synagogues even at 9 a.m., as many terrorists were still in the city.

The IDF Home Front Command had set off sirens warning of rocket fire, but not for a terrorist infiltration. During the entirety of October 7, 45 rockets were fired at Sderot, including 10 within the first 45 minutes.

Since the onslaught, the military has implemented a terrorist infiltration warning system in Gaza border communities.

Of the 41 terrorists who invaded Sderot, 39 were killed by security forces and two were captured alive.

The terrorists included 40 members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force and one unaffiliated Palestinian man who invaded the city later in the day — the latter of whom was one of those captured by Israeli forces.

Timeline of the attack (Warning: Graphic footage)
There were three major battles during the Hamas attack on Sderot on October 7: At the city’s police station, near a local shopping center, and in one of the neighborhoods.

The police station battle

At 6:58 a.m., a group of 26 Hamas terrorists on two pickup trucks and a stolen Hyundai i10 car drove toward Sderot. The terrorists briefly stopped at a roadside bomb shelter at the entrance to the city, where they murdered Mor Gabay, 30.

The terrorists continued into the city, where at 7 a.m., they shot dead Dolev Swissa, 34, at a traffic circle.

Dolev and his wife, Odaya Swissa, 33, had gotten in their car with their two young daughters and tried to leave the city as the attack began, but were ambushed by the terrorists as they tried to escape.

At 7:03 a.m., the terrorists began to attack Sderot’s police station and opened fire on vehicles approaching the area. The first officer to arrive at the scene was Command Sgt. Maj. Adir Shlomo, 47, head of logistics at the Sderot police station. As he reached the entrance, the terrorists opened fire, killing him.

Meanwhile, an officer at the station, Master Sgt. Eliyahu Michael Harush got a call about terrorists at the nearby Zikim Beach and headed out of the station. Unaware that the terrorists had already reached Sderot, he was killed battling the gunmen who had gathered outside the station.

Amer Odeh Abu Sabila, a Bedouin construction worker, was in Sderot that morning and heard Odaya screaming after Dolev had been killed. He got into the driver’s seat to try and bring Odaya and the two young girls to safety at the Sderot police station, without knowing that it had been taken over by terrorists.

Both Abu Sabila and Odaya were murdered outside the police station at around 7:07 a.m., along with an officer, Command Sgt. Maj. Shmuel Golima, 48, who had also rushed to the scene.

The Swissa’s daughters, Romi, 6, and Lia, 3, were lying on the floor of the car and were unscathed. Harrowing video footage showed the two young girls screaming for help as police officers arrived shortly after, with Romi pleading, “Are you from Israel? Take us!”

Another officer, Command Sgt. Maj. Meir Abergel, 54, the Sderot police station investigation coordinator, arrived at the scene at 7:10 a.m. and was shot dead in his car.

The officers inside the police station headed for the roof of the building, as some of the terrorists began to raid the first floor.

At 7:15 a.m., from the roof of the police station, one of the officers, Supt. Aviad Aaka, opened fire on the terrorists outside, killing four of them. This caused the remaining terrorists outside to rush into the station.

As the remaining terrorists entered the station, they killed Command Sgt. Maj. David Ben Dayan, 58, in the briefing room on the first floor.

They then began to attack the officers who were holed up on the roof of the station and during the exchange of fire, officers First Sgt. Mor Shakuri, 29, and Command Sgt. Maj. Yaron Dayan, 52, were killed.

At 7:20 a.m., a group of police officers led by the commander of the police’s Southern District, Deputy Commissioner Amir Cohen, began to arrive at the scene, although they did not know how many terrorists were inside the station.

At 7:39 a.m., the officers began to organize an attempt to recapture the station and rescue the officers on the roof. At 8:01 a.m. they entered the building before coming under massive fire from the terrorists.

At 8:37 a.m., the officers made another attempt to enter the station but came under fire again.

During these attempts, Command Sgt. Maj. Denis Belenky, 47, Supt. Alexei Shmakalov, 34, and Chief Supt. Martin Kyzmickas, 46, were killed.

At 9 a.m., a group of officers from the police’s elite Yama counter-terrorism unit arrived at the station and launched a new attempt to recapture the building at 9:52 a.m., during which they managed to take over the first floor and recover those wounded.

At 1:30 p.m., the Yamam officers using a crane rescued the officers stranded on the roof of the police station.

At 2 p.m., the officers made an attempt to capture the roof of the station from the terrorists but were unsuccessful. By then, no more officers were inside the building.

At 4 p.m., police and the IDF began carrying out a tactic known as “pressure cooker,” which involves escalating the volume of fire against a building to flush suspects out. The officers fired LAW missiles at the building at this time.

At 7 p.m., four terrorists attempted to flee the building and were killed by the forces waiting outside. At 10:23 p.m., another five terrorists tried to flee and were also killed.

At 10:37 p.m., an Israeli Air Force drone carried out an airstrike on the building, and an hour later, at 11:37 p.m., a tank from the 401st Armored Brigade fired shells at the building. At 1:50 a.m. on October 8, an IAF helicopter fired at the building, as terrorists were still inside.

During the night, the IDF brought a D9 armored bulldozer in an attempt to destroy the building. At 2 a.m., another terrorist tried to flee and was killed, and at 2:13 a.m., a further four terrorists attempted to run from the station and were all killed.

At 8:46 a.m. on October 8, the final terrorist inside the police station was killed, and at 9:30 a.m. the building was declared cleared of threats.

During the attack on the Sderot police station and the surrounding area, all 26 terrorists were eliminated. Sixteen people were killed, including 10 police officers and six civilians.

The shopping center attack

At 7:01 a.m., a group of nine Hamas terrorists entered Sderot. They drove through the city and murdered Leonid Lozovsky, 51, who was heading out for work.

At around 7:15 a.m., the terrorists reached a public bomb shelter close to the Rami Levy supermarket in the city.

Outside the shelter were 13 elderly people who were on their way to an outing at a Dead Sea resort. The party had set off on a minibus but it had a flat tire and halted at a bus stop.

As the group was waiting, Hamas launched its invasion, which came under cover of a barrage of thousands of rockets fired across Israel. There was a small public bomb shelter at the bus stop but it was fitted with a smart lock which was supposed to automatically open during a rocket attack. However, the system did not work, leaving the retirees stuck outside.

Minutes later, the nine Hamas terrorists riding pickup trucks arrived and shot dead all 13 people in the group. Gruesome images of the elderly Israelis lying dead outside the shelter were some of the first to be shared on social media on the morning of the massacre.

A further four civilians were murdered by the terrorists close to the Rami Levy supermarket.

The terrorists then set out for the Mall 7 shopping center on the edge of the city, while murdering two civilians en route.

At the shopping center, the terrorists at around 7:28 a.m. tried to enter a gas station, where 11 civilians were hiding.

The terrorists then headed back out of the city, reaching the Sderot Junction. A group of Yamam officers had reached the area, and exchanged fire with the terrorists, killing three of them on a pickup truck. One officer, Sgt. Maj. Chen Nahmias, 43, was killed in the incident.

The other five terrorists fled toward Sderot’s train station. At 8:35 a.m., Yamam officers and several other Border Police officers exchanged fire with the terrorists on the Route 34 highway, near the train station.

By 10 a.m., when another group of police officers arrived, all of the remaining terrorists were killed.

In all, 30 people were killed by these nine terrorists, including 27 civilians, two firefighters and one police officer.

The Ahuza neighborhood attack

At 7:30 a.m., a group of five Hamas terrorists invaded Sderot’s northwestern Ahuza neighborhood on foot.

Surveillance camera footage timestamped at 7:34 a.m., showed the terrorists trying to breach into homes. In one of the homes, the terrorists killed civilian Haim Ashraf, 63.

Over the following hour the terrorists walked around the neighborhood, trying to break into homes and kill civilians.

At 8:30 a.m., terrorists tried to breach a synagogue. Outside the synagogue, the terrorists murdered Alon Toledano, 54.

Two soldiers who were at the synagogue fought back, and the terrorists moved on to other homes.

Another man, Meir Malka, 78, was killed by the terrorists at 8:35 a.m.

The terrorists then split up in the neighborhood.

Yamam officers who had been dispatched to the Ahuza neighborhood from the police station at 8:40 killed three of the five terrorists.

At 8:45 a.m., soldiers of the IDF’s LOTAR counterterrorism unit arrived in the neighborhood and exchanged fire with one of the terrorists. The terrorist was killed, as was one of the soldiers, Staff Sgt. Ben Rubinshtain, 20.

The fifth terrorist was captured at 9:15 a.m., after he was found to be hiding in a bush.

At 10 a.m., an unaffiliated Palestinian man who had infiltrated Israel via the Erez Crossing — which had also been attacked by Hamas — reached the Ahuza neighborhood. He broke into a kindergarten and stole a knife before being detained by troops at 10:30 a.m.

Source: TOI