Questions for IDF over fall of border post Nahal Oz on 7 October

The details we have established raise questions – including why so few soldiers were armed at a base so close to the border, why more wasn’t done to respond to the intelligence and warnings that had been received, how it took so long for reinforcements to arrive, and whether the very infrastructure of the base had left those there unprotected.

We put our findings to the IDF, who responded to say it was in the midst of a “thorough investigation into the events of October 7th, including those in Nahal Oz, and the circumstances preceding”.

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On 7 October, Sharon – not her real name – began her shift at Nahal Oz, about a kilometre from the Gaza border fence, at 04:00.

She was part of the base’s all-women military unit – known as Tatzpitaniyot in Hebrew – and their role was to study live surveillance footage captured by cameras along the fence.

The women worked in shifts in the base’s war room, or Hamal, watching Gaza through a bank of monitors around the clock.

The Hamal is a windowless room protected by a solid door and blast walls, with strict security protocols.

The IDF has told families of people on the base that day that many military staff were unarmed.

Gen Israel Ziv, former head of the IDF’s Operations Division, told the BBC that during his service, there would never have been unarmed soldiers in border areas.

“It doesn’t make sense… The soldier is about the weapon,” he says.

The armed staff at Nahal Oz that day included a unit of infantry soldiers from the IDF’s Golani brigade.

The BBC has previously reported that the Tatzpitaniyot had noticed an escalation in suspicious activity on the other side of the fence, but we have now established that these concerns were also shared by other soldiers at the base from different units.