Before 10/7: IDF's Gaza Border Spotters Were Briefed That a "Big Event" Was Coming in October "After Sukkot"
What did the superiors to the IDF's Gaza surveillance unit know about the impending attack? A translation of an under-the-radar Hebrew news report.
In this post I reproduce a Google translation of an Israeli Channel 12 news report in Hebrew from December of 2023 that doesn’t seem to have been reported on in English (other than a tweet I posted recently). It contains an extremely interesting detail regarding Israeli foreknowledge of the events that occurred on October 7th, 2023 (see my post from April—which is already a bit outdated given the rate of new leaks—for a summary of a lot of other evidence that Israel knew about the attack in advance but allowed it to happen as an excuse to commit genocide in Gaza). The article concerns the “spotters” that Israel employs on the Gaza border to monitor the area and report any notable changes (they also shoot Palestinians with the remote controlled machine gun turrets that line Israel’s Iron Wall with Gaza). It has already been widely reported that the spotters consistently and with increasing frequency noted Hamas’ preparations for its impending attack in the period leading up to October 7th, but this story relays a new detail that goes far beyond that important point. The full translation is reproduced below, but here is the key excerpt that deserves attention:
"They were briefed, we were told that there would be a big event after Sukkot"
Nitzan Ron, a former observer in Nahal Oz, said: "I was released a year ago. Ever since my time we would talk about this, and not only would we talk about the possibility of an attack - the senior echelon would also talk to us about it. A raid warning is not something, not from yesterday, not From yesterday and not from a month ago.
According to Eshel's parents, the observers were told that "there would be a big event after Sukkot [ed: Sukkot ended on October 6th, 2023]. They were instructed, they were told more than once," said Eyal. Sergeant Weinstein confirmed: "We were asked about it, it was known that it would be during October. But no one ever told us in our lives that it would be of this magnitude.”
Read it again. Again! That is an overwhelmingly important fact if true. The implications are huge. Not only did the IDF know the Hamas attack was coming, but they also had information on the timing—in October, and after October 6th—and they shared it among at least a subsection of the most disposable1 soldiers in the army. Despite this, the intelligence provided by the spotters—frequent reports on Hamas’ enormous drills that simulated conquering Israeli villages and kidnapping their populations, for example—fell into a black hole. In a separate story describing an interview with spotter Roni Lifshitz, ABC News reported:
[I]n the days leading up to Oct. 7, her unit was reporting unusual activity in Gaza on a daily basis — so much so that she says there was apparently a running joke on base: Who would be on duty the day Hamas attacked?”
Another spotter who happened to be home during the attack stated to Haaretz:
“As soon as I understood that there was such a large infiltration, I told [my family]: ‘There’s a Hamas raid, they’ll kidnap soldiers and charge into the residential communities.’ I even told them there was no way they weren’t coming with paragliders. They looked at me like I was crazy. I started shouting that we knew there would be something and no one would listen to us.”
Those soldiers got lucky, since they were both away from Nahal Oz base on October 7th. Their squadmates were less fortunate: 15 spotters at Nahal Oz were killed on October 7th, and six were taken prisoner by Hamas. And it’s likely that some fraction of those deaths weren’t actually due to Hamas—the IDF has confirmed that the Hannibal procedure was invoked at Nahal Oz. Likely in response to this invocation, an Israeli Elbit Hermes 450 “Zik” drone arrived at the base shortly before 8:00 am, where “it had difficulty distinguishing between Israeli soldiers and Hamas, according to the IDF account, which meant it was slower to attack its intended targets.” This was followed at 9:45 am by the appearance of an IDF combat helicopter that “fired into the base 12 times.”
The story of the IDF’s spotters is a microcosm of October 7th as a whole, providing a clear demonstration of Israel’s detailed foreknowledge of the attack as well as its striking proclivity for killing its own soldiers. This utterly-ignored Israeli news article from almost a year ago makes an important contribution to that narrative, so I hope you find it worthwhile. Sorry for any Google Translation errors. Without further ado, here it is.
Failure to observe: The parents of the late Roni are conducting an independent investigation, her friends: "They treated us as 'eyes' only"
15 female observers were killed in the Nahal Oz base in the surprise attack by Hamas. Some were kidnapped - and only 2 who were at the base that Shabbat were saved • This tragedy resonates, because these observers alerted and warned in the weeks leading up to the attack about what was happening at the border • The parents of the late Roni Eshel, who was an observer at Nahal Oz, decided to conduct an independent investigation into what happened there: "The terrorists did whatever they wanted
Roni Eshel, 19 years old, was on duty at the military base in Nahal Oz on Saturday, October 7. Hamas terrorists raided the base, blew up and burned the military base. Roni was considered missing for a month and two days. In retrospect, that was the time it took to identify her body. "We know that the explosion in HML was between 11:30 and 12:00, that is, they were alive for five hours, and no one came," said her mother Sharon sadly. In the terrorist attack on the base, 15 female observers were killed, some were kidnapped - and only 2 saved
Observers who are still serving and those who were recently released started arriving at the house of the Eshel family after Black Sabbath. Sharon and Eyal, Roni's parents, Zikrona Barakah, are slowly putting together the picture with their help. There were those who saw, there were those who warned, but there was no one to listen. And many of those who warned, paid with their lives.
Now Eyal and Sharon are conducting an independent investigation from their home, what happened to their daughter and her friends that morning. "At 7:09 in fact the cameras had already stopped working. I can tell you now that on Friday at noon there were many forces in Nahal Oz. They ate noon in Nahal Oz and then they went to Yosh, because they jumped there in force - among other things to guard the sukkah of Zvi Sukkot," said Eyal.
The notebook - written from day one
Sharon shows us the notebook in which she wrote everything, in great detail. "On Saturday morning, at 6:30, they recognize already on the fence the swarm of terrorists that is coming and ask for help, but they were told: 'Get it together, there are other priorities.'" According to Eyal, if the commander on duty on that shift had made the right decision, Roni would be alive: "If that's the case, he should have made a decision, put the girls on the Hammer - and they would be sitting here with us today."
According to the parents of the late Roni, the notebook was written from the first day of the attack. "We interview people. First of all, it comes to us. The information flows to us, and it really, really increased during Shava," they say. "During Roni's Shava, there were over a thousand people here a day. And it just came to us all the time, including requests for help from observers all over the country.
I really also expect, demand, wait for the IDF's investigation which has not yet arrived," Eyal said painfully. "I was at the base five days after the disaster. I have already seen the ruins and the concentration camp and the holocaust that was there. The terrorists were just celebrating inside the base - and we saw it. They ate lunch, looted, did whatever they wanted there."
"We saw a higher frequency of events, we were only treated as 'eyes'"
We met three female observers, those who are serving during this period, and also those who have already been released. "We saw a much higher frequency of incidents, of all kinds before the attack," said Sergeant Margaret Weinstein, an observer in Nahal Oz. "If it's crossing the fence, and if it's shooting at our forces and disturbances.
"There were the line patrols, which were excessive," added Sergeant Roni Lifshitz, an observer in Nahal Oz. "There was a time when they weren't many, and in recent times they just came endlessly and in droves. These are convoys of huge cars full of people - of Noach's. They would just move from position to position - looking, taking pictures, talking, pointing."
They saw and reported on the changes in the field, of intelligence gathering, and closely followed Hamas exercises that were carried out in front of their eyes. They also saw a scenario simulating how fences are breached, how people are kidnapped, as well as the burying of the charges near the fence in the weeks before. All these nightmares came true on Black Saturday.
But when they started reporting in the weeks and months before about what they saw, the alert was not picked up by the higher levels of intelligence. And the question that will have to resonate, probably for many years to come, is - why?
"I'm just a soldier, sitting in front of a screen and they don't really listen to me," Sergeant Lifshitz said. "No one really understands that I know the area. Because I don't have degrees, maybe." Sergeant Weinstein reinforced her words: "We were only treated as eyes, that's the point here, that it was only 'eyes' and nothing beyond that: neither our feelings nor our conclusions - our experience was of no interest to anyone either."
"They were briefed, we were told that there would be a big event after Sukkot"
Nitzan Ron, a former observer in Nahal Oz, said: "I was released a year ago. Ever since my time we would talk about this, and not only would we talk about the possibility of an attack - the senior echelon would also talk to us about it. A raid warning is not something, not from yesterday, not From yesterday and not from a month ago.
According to Eshel's parents, the observers were told that "there would be a big event after Sukkot. They were instructed, they were told more than once," said Eyal. Sergeant Weinstein confirmed: "We were asked about it, it was known that it would be during October. But no one ever told us in our lives that it would be of this magnitude.
And there is also the other default, the defense. Why were they there without weapons? And the other question, would it ultimately be possible to do the same work, the main thing of which is sitting in front of a screen, at a greater distance from the border?
"They never talked to us about if 100 terrorists physically enter the ShG, how am I supposed to conduct myself? What am I supposed to do? It's something that, in retrospect, could have saved lives, and it's a serious omission, in my opinion," claimed Nitzan.
"She told me 'Dad, it's boiling over there'. I wasn't there for her"
Roni Lifshitz, shared that since the surprise attack - she did not return to service in the IDF. No one told me to return, not to return. I was on my own, I just said, 'Well, I'm staying at home. No one is talking to me. I will not return.' According to her, no commander called to ask how she was, since that black Sabbath.
Eyal and Sharon were surprised by Roni's words. "We don't know who the mat is. She didn't come to any funeral, to any gathering, to any family of abductees." I am ashamed of Roni's commanders. I am ashamed of them, I don't think they deserve to wear the uniform and serve as officers in the army," Sharon said painfully.
Roni's father, Eyal, tearfully shared the days before the attack: "If I distill everything down to the end point, then Roni finally stood here on Wednesday before she came back and said to me, 'Dad, it's boiling over there. It's not good.' I put my hand on her the shoulder, and I said to her, 'What happened to you? We are the best army,' and I was not there for her myself".
The IDF stated in response: "The IDF accompanies the families of the kidnapped female soldiers, is in regular contact with them, and our hearts are with them in these difficult times. We will continue to do everything to bring them home. We share in the grief of the bereaved families, accompany them and hug them to us. The IDF, as a whole, is focused these days on fighting the terrorist organization Hamas. After the war, the IDF will conduct an in-depth, incisive and uncompromising investigation into the events of the Shivah in October, and will publish the information to the families and the public. The investigation will examine in depth all the issues related to the array of observers that emerge from the publication.
The spotters were unarmed despite their front-line positioning along the Gaza border