The IDF announced on Wednesday that its probe of the battle of the Kerem Shalom Kibbutz found that six security forces members were killed and another 10 Israelis injured by Hamas's invasion.
At the same time, the probe found that the tragedy could have been much worse absent some fast-thinking decisions by junior IDF officers and the support of the air force.
Over 100 Hamas invaders attacked the kibbutz and nearby areas, penetrating from 11 different breaks in the border fence, with dozens of them being killed.
The main defending forces were the 934 Nahal Battalion and the local kibbutz volunteer security team.
At 6:46 a.m., a female lookout saw 20 Gazan invaders near the kibbutz.
Multiple vehicles and a tank would eventually come to the kibbutz’s aid.
At 7 a.m. and again at 7:30 a.m., there were two gunfights in two different places in which Israeli defenders fought back with Gazan invaders.
During the second gunfight, seven Hamas fighters were killed.
At around 8:30 a.m., Israeli defenders engaged and killed multiple Hamas invaders trying to penetrate the area from another direction.
Then from 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m., there was almost a complete pause in fighting.
However, at 9:33 a.m., there was a second wave of Gazan invaders.
Israeli defenders held them back or forced them to alter their approach successfully in two different locations.
Then at 10:10 a.m., IDF helicopters attacked dozens of Hamas forces trying to penetrate into Israel, causing many of them to retreat. It was unclear how many were killed in this attack, but based on the other Hamas terrorists killed, it was likely several dozen.
At 10:25 a.m., the volunteer security team was called to investigate suspicions that two terrorists had penetrated one house in the kibbutz and were trying to attack the residents there who were hiding in their safe room.
In fact, the terrorists blew up the safe room door, badly wounding the father of the family who was hiding behind it.However, the security team arrived in time and killed the two terrorists in the house.
Yet in the process of rescuing the family, the security team engaged in a gunfight with those two terrorists and with some others nearby, leading to two security team members being killed.
Security team and Nahal forces blocked advance of Gazan invaders
In another instance around that time, the security team, along with Nahal forces, blocked the advance of Gazan invaders, although an attack and explosion by the invaders wounded a security team member.
At 11:15 a.m., a female lookout spotted six terrorists trying to penetrate into Israel and the kibbutz and directed IDF helicopters toward their location, leading to all of those terrorists being killed.
There was some calm for a few hours, and then around 1:20 p.m., the commander from the Paran Brigade joined the security team and Battalion 450, reinforcing the defense of the kibbutz and the area.
But at 2:10 p.m., Hamas fired four mortars into the area, killing one Israeli and wounding two others.
IDF soldiers in the area given little help
Throughout the defense of the kibbutz until early afternoon, the security forces in the area received little help due to Hamas overrunning the forward command center of Brig.-Gen. Ari Rosenfeld of the Gaza Division as well as killing the Gaza Division southern brigade commander, Col. Asaf Hamami.
The IDF did credit the deputy battalion commander for 934 for focusing his limited forces in key spots to protect the kibbutz, which slowed or stopped Hamas’s advance and saved many Israelis from a greater tragedy.
This battle was also one of the few exceptions in which the air force made some substantial contribution to the kibbutz’s defense, given that in most battles it did not have the assets to help or that the pilots were too afraid of hitting Israeli civilians mixed into the battlefield to be willing to open fire on many of the invaders.
