On Oct 7, residents of Holit were left alone for 7 hours before IDF troops came to help, investigation shows

For almost seven hours on the morning of Oct. 7, the residents of Kibbutz Holit were left to fend off dozens of Hamas terrorists without any help from the army, according to a new investigation of the battle published by the Israeli military.

The IDF published its report about the investigation into the battle at Kibbutz Holit over two and a half years after the invasion, and almost a year after first presenting it to the kibbutz residents in July 2025.

The residents had demanded further clarifications, particularly regarding the punishments for commanders responsible for the army’s failures on that day.

Kibbutz representatives strongly criticized the IDF for publishing the report without fully answering their demands; however, the investigative team concluded that commanders made professional errors but had found no ethical failure.

A shoulder-launched missile was found near Holit close to the border with #Gaza and Egypt at the site of a #Hamas unit that breached the border on Saturday. The source of the video (South First Responders), says those weapons have been found in several other areas.

There are… pic.twitter.com/67q0VmZobs

— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) October 11, 2023

As the IDF has concluded regarding several other battles on that morning, the military’s response completely collapsed, leaving the responsibility to defend the town in the hands of a few armed civilians.

Overall, 13 residents were murdered, three IDF soldiers were killed and nine civilians were abducted from Holit, located at the southern end of the Gaza Envelope, near the Egyptian border.

Out of the nine hostages, three were released that same day, four were returned in a hostage deal, and two were murdered and their bodies were returned later.

According to the report, over 60 Hamas terrorists invaded the Kibbutz in two waves, starting around 7:30 a.m. The four armed members of the local emergency response team, as well as other civilians heroically tried to fight off the heavily armed terrorists for almost seven hours, until substantial army troops arrived around 2:00 p.m., by which time, most of the murders and abductions had already taken place, and most of the terrorists had left.

The main reason for the lack of response was the heavy “fog of war,” the general confusion and lack of a clear situational overview by the army, created by the surprising and simultaneous attacks on Gaza border communities.

Shlomi Mathias, 49.

That Saturday, Shlomi stayed with his wife Shahar and their son Rotem in their home in Kibbutz Holit.

Hamas terrorists infiltrated the kibbutz, and the couple were murdered in the attack while protecting their son with their bodies, saving him.

Shlomi was… pic.twitter.com/7RLBTLclSj

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 23, 2025

This caused several incidents that harmed the defense efforts in Holit, including the departure of a small IDF reconnaissance unit that was in the kibbutz in the early morning but left to join another battle at the nearby Dangour Monument, leaving Holit undefended.

Later, forces of the Caracal Battalion arrived at the Kibbutz but left to toward the Sufa outpost without helping the residents. Afterward, forces of the Bardelas Battalion reached the Kibbutz but came under fire from the orchards outside the gate, causing them to stay outside.

The report stated that both commanders made serious professional mistakes of judgement by not entering Holit, but their decisions were made due to a lack of intelligence, not due to fear or a lacking sense of seeking contact with the enemy.

The residents of Holit had demanded clarifications specifically regarding the decisions of the two commanders, questioning whether they bore any personal responsibility for the IDF’s gross failure to protect Holit’s civilians.

Despite this, the IDF has refused to reveal how the review process for Caracal commander Lt.-Col. Or Ben Yehuda and Bardelas commander Lt.-Col. Ivan Kon was conducted, what its conclusions were, and whether they faced any punishments.

“We have been waiting for two and a half years for answers, for full transparency, and for real accountability. Nearly a year has passed between presenting the investigation to the community and its publication today, but the feeling is that nothing has changed,” charged Holit’s spokesperson, Nir Kaspi-Sultan.

“For us to be able to return home, we need to know that the full truth has been told and that someone is truly taking responsibility.”

The Kibbutz said in a statement, “Two and a half long years after Oct. 7, the IDF probe into that terrible day was presented today to the Israeli public. We thank the army for conducting the probe and recognizing the failures and omissions, but for us this is only further confirmation of the great failure of that morning — a morning of extraordinary civilian heroism in the face of the greatest military failure the state has ever known.”

“On Black Saturday morning, Kibbutz Holit was left without protection,” the statement continued.

“The search for truth has not been completed, and we demand that it be pursued through a state commission of inquiry that will examine in depth all the failures and circumstances that led to the disaster and, above all, restore trust.”