Members of Kibbutz Magen’s civilian security team prevented a massacre during Hamas’ October 7 attack while the Israel Defense Forces failed in its mission to protect the community, according to an army inquiry released on Thursday.
The probe, led by Colonel Ziv Beit Or, found that the kibbutz’s 26-member standby squad and volunteer residents successfully repelled waves of Hamas terrorists, forcing their retreat and preventing kidnappings that could have resulted in far greater casualties.
The report is the latest in a series of detailed army probes into how some 5,000 terrorists from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad managed to attack numerous Israeli communities and overrun army positions. The IDF probes only address issues of operations, intelligence, and command, not decisions made by the political echelon.