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Report: Many IDF posts on Gaza border failed inspections in days before Oct. 7

Nearly all of the army’s posts along the border with the Gaza Strip failed a routine inspection carried out just three days before Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, Channel 12 news reported Wednesday.

  • The report said the snap inspection was carried out at 6:30 a.m. on October 4, exactly 72 hours before the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, during which some 3,000 Palestinian terrorists stormed the border and killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 253.

The Israel Defense Forces struggled to mount a response on October 7, with bases closest to the border overrun and the chain of command seemingly broken amid the chaos.

According to the report, only one base in the Gaza Division managed to get passing marks on the inspection.

Aside from the Yiftah outpost near the Zikim base, all other positions “failed” the check-up.

Channel 12 detailed the results of the inspection at the Nahal Oz base, which was among those that failed.

  • In the inspection, troops had failed to prevent unauthorized people from entering the base on foot or by car without permission; unauthorized people from entering the base’s war rooms; weaponry from being taken from the ammunition room; sensitive material being stolen; and the keys to the armory being stolen.

Nahal Oz was overrun by hundreds of Hamas terrorists three days later, with dozens of the troops stationed there being killed and kidnapped to Gaza.

The IDF in response to the report said the inspection was “routine” and was aimed at improving the base’s defenses, and was not “examining a scenario simulating a sudden attack of thousands of terrorists, as had occurred on October 7.”

Israel responded to the Hamas attack with a military offensive to destroy Hamas, topple its regime in Gaza, and free the hostages, of whom 129 remain in captivity.

The IDF is carrying out internal probes into the failures in the lead-up to Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

The attack on the Nahal Oz base, which housed members of the Border Defense Corps’ 414th unit and is located less than a kilometer from the Gaza border, came at the very start of the Hamas assault.

Soldiers in the unit are tasked with monitoring surveillance cameras along the Gaza border and dispatching forces to tackle potential incidents.

During the attack on the base, 15 IDF surveillance soldiers were killed and six more were taken hostage. A command center was torched. In total, 66 soldiers were killed in the assault on the base.

  • Terrorists also raided the Gaza Division’s base, the Re’im Camp, killing soldiers and capturing others.

In March the IDF opened its probe into how the army handled the October 7 assault.

  • The probes are aimed at drawing operational conclusions for the military, and will not look into the policies of the political leadership, avoiding a fight with government leaders who have insisted that investigations wait until after the end of Israel’s war against Hamas.

The Gaza Division is among those to carry out the investigations and the findings are expected to be presented to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi by the beginning of June, according to the military.

The investigations are not related to planned external probes of the army’s conduct in the lead-up to October 7, which are currently on hold.

Plans for the independent review were met with protests from government leaders, who apparently feared they could be criticized.

  • In late January, Halevi said the external investigation would only be launched once the internal probes were completed.

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman also has plans to investigate the army’s failures as well as the conduct of the government, although Halevi had requested that this also be put on hold.

Source: TOI