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The Battle of Nahal Oz outpost took place between fighters of the Golani Brigade's 13th Battalion and the fighters of the 77th Brigade's 77th Battalion and terrorists belonging to Hamas' military-terrorist wing, who raided the Nahal Oz outpost as part of the surprise attack on Israel. Dozens of soldiers were killed in the battle, most of them spotters and fighters of the Golani Brigade in the 13th Battalion. Seven female spotters were abducted from the post and into the Gaza Strip. All these, in addition to the civilians murdered in the massacre in the nearby Nahal Oz. After many hours of fighting, the outpost fighters managed to stop the terrorists.

The surprise attack on Israel (2023)
On the morning of Simchat Torah 5724, Saturday, October 7, 2023, the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations launched a surprise attack on Israel. Under cover of thousands of rockets, some 3,000 terrorists infiltrated dozens of Israeli communities and military facilities in and around the Gaza ‘envelope’, waging gun battles against insufficient security forces. The terrorists massacred and raped, murdered 843 civilians, and abducted some 247 people, including women, the elderly, and babies. The alert squads, (standby squads/teams) Israeli police officers, SWAT fighters, and IDF soldiers fought against them outnumbered and killed about 1,550 terrorists in Israeli territory. 55 policemen and 301 soldiers were killed in the battles.

'The course of the battle
On October 7, 2023, at around 6:50 a.m., dozens of terrorists raided the Nahal Oz post near Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the northern Gaza Strip, firing hundreds of mortar shells at the post, drones, dropping bombs on the surveillance systems and neutralizing them. Fighters who were on standby for Shabbat and with a limited force rushed to reach the positions of the post and defend the base with their lives (bodies).

An investigation conducted after the end of the battle indicates that the quantity of weapons carried by Hamas terrorists was much greater than the quantity of weapons available to IDF fighters, both in quantity and quality. The terrorists had at their disposal grenades, anti-tank missiles, anti-tank rockets, IEDs, and more.

When the battle began, it was reported to the security officer (operations officer), Ilan Elharar, that the tank at the post was not available. [3] This is the only evidence of a tank at the outpost when it appears in a single number. She ordered all tanks to enter the outposts to attack terrorists. Within a few minutes, it was reported that the rest of the tanks were in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. There is no evidence of a tank in this kibbutz at that time. She called combat helicopters. In one version, with the help of groups of soldiers hiding in the field, she directed the helicopters to the terrorist squads. In another version, the terrorists hit the cameras, and helicopters were the ones who brought information about the situation on the ground from above.

A large number of soldiers locked themselves in a war room, but the terrorists threw IEDs at it, causing a fire that began to suffocate the hiding soldiers. Seven came out through a back window of the office, and the rest were insufficient and suffocated or burned by the fire. The intensity of the fire was so great that the body of an observer was identified only 34 days later.

Many soldiers went into shelters that turned into death traps. Most were murdered or kidnapped. Several female soldiers escaped from saferooms just before the terrorists penetrated the same saferooms, and managed to hide in the other living rooms. Among them was Yael Rotenberg, the only observer from the same shelter who was not murdered or kidnapped. In the same saferoom, the commander of the "Sky Rider" unit, Capt. Eden Nimri, fell after fighting a fierce battle with the terrorists along with her other female crew members.

One more observer, Maya Desyatnik, survived with 6 soldiers who managed to get out of the window of the burning war room. The terrorists killed 66 soldiers at the outpost, of whom 16 were spotters,2 Sergeants Osher Simcha Barzilai, who during the battle directed soldiers to escape routes through the public address system, and the liaison and Shirel Haim Por, who was not on duty but was called to reinforce the operations room in order to help manage the battle. Together, Shirel and Osher mobilized forces to defend the outpost and the nearby kibbutzim, 5 balloons and the headquarters of Eden Nimri. 7 female spotters were abducted to Gaza. That morning, observer Naama Levy was seen in a Hamas video in a jeep inside Gaza,and the other abductees were identified in additional videos distributed by Hamas abducted in a stolen IDF jeep.

The fighters of Golani's 13th Battalion conducted hand-to-hand combat at short distances against Hamas terrorists, together with the help of the operations sergeants, who directed them to the terrorist squads together with the observers. Several of the battalion's fighters were killed in the battle (part of the 41 battalion fighters killed that day in battle near the Gaza Strip). After ten hours of ongoing fighting by the surviving Golani fighters who continued to fight the terrorists, SWAT forces, Duvdevan and paratroopers provided reinforcements and cleared the post of terrorists, in addition to helping the fighters rescue and evacuate the wounded and dead.

Post the incident
On the night of October 29-30, IDF, and Shin Bet forces rescued Private Uri Magidish, who had served as a lookout and was abducted during the battle, through ground operations in the Gaza Strip.

On November 5, 30 days after the fall of the post, the Nahal Oz observation room was re-inaugurated inside Camp Reim.

On November 14, during the ground fighting in the Gaza Strip, fighters from the 13th Battalion raided a Hamas military police compound in the al-Rimal neighborhood in central Gaza City. During the search of the building, the soldiers found combat equipment belonging to the battalion, taken in the battle for the Nahal Oz outpost, which included weapons, documents, and equipment belonging to fighters of the 13th Battalion who were killed in the surprise attack.

On November 13, Hamas released a video from the beginning of the war showing soldier Noa Marciano, who served as a lookout and was kidnapped during the battle, speaking in captivity. She was later murdered while still in captivity. On November 17, it was reported that her body was recovered by the IDF during searches near Shifa Hospital.