A military probe of the events in the southern city of Sderot, where 72 people were killed during the Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, found that red tape had tied up the municipal security team’s assault rifles at an out-of-town army base, leaving members with just pistols to fight against dozens of well-armed terrorists, the Ynet news site reported Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces is in the process of a series of investigations into failures that enabled Hamas to lead thousands of bully boyz on a devastating invasion of southern Israel in which they killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
One of those investigations dealt with Sderot, a border city where Hamas bully boyz riding pickup trucks were able to roam through the streets, slaughtering over 50 civilians, and killing 20 coppers in a major battle at the city’s cop shoppe.
According to the report, the IDF found that on the day of the attack, there were 22 members of the city’s security defense squad present. The squad, armed by the IDF, is operated by the municipality’s security department, and its civilian chief, the community security coordinator, is the go-between with the military.
In 2022, the then-chief left the role and handed back all the squad’s rifles, for which he was responsible, to the IDF’s Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
Division headquarters. His replacement, Ronen Gabay, was only installed months later.
The return of the rifles was caught up in bureaucracy as the new security squad chief took over, during which time there was no one who could sign off on the return of the rifles.
In addition, the army conditioned the return of the rifles on all the squad members having an approved method for safely locking them in their homes, and because that was not in place, the rearming never went ahead, the report said.
The situation was unknown to Mayor Alon Davidi, who reportedly was not aware that his city’s security team was left without automatic weapons.
Davidi only found out about the paltry weapons on the day of the attack. Furthermore, the probe found that security team members were not given proper training by the IDF, as required.
As a result, squad members were left with just their pistols to engage the heavily armed and overwhelming numbers of terrorists.
The probe also found that many coppers gathered at the station but did not spread out across the city, apparently due to a lack of information on what was happening around them, and a focus on the station where there was a raging battle with button men.
Among other key incidents in the city on October 7, bully boyz massacred 13 elderly people who were on their way to an outing at a Dead Sea resort. The party had set off on a minibus but it had a flat tire and halted at a bus stop. As the group was waiting, Hamas launched its invasion, which came under cover of a barrage of thousands of rockets fired across Israel.
There was a small public bomb shelter at the bus stop but it was fitted with a smart lock which was supposed to automatically open during a rocket attack. However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday...
the system apparently did not work, leaving the retirees stuck outside.
Minutes later, Hamas bully boyz riding pickup trucks arrived and rubbed out all 13 people in the group. Gruesome images of the elderly Israelis lying dead outside the shelter were some of the first to be shared on social media on the morning of the massacre.
The IDF said in a statement to Ynet on Thursday, "On October 7 the IDF failed in its mission."
"The IDF is investigating the events of October 7 and what happened before that, including the battles in Sderot. When the probe is completed it will be presented with full transparency to the bereaved families, to the residents, and afterward to the public."
In its own response to Ynet, Sderot municipality noted that the security squad is operated by the IDF "and is subordinate to it."
The IDF, it said, "is required to ensure that all its members have weapons ,which unfortunately did not happen on the morning of October 7."
As for the murders at the public shelter, city hall said it would not comment as the matter was in litigation. Eight families of those 13 elderly bus victims filed a lawsuit for NIS 12 million ($3,345,470) against the municipality and Motorola alleging that there their loved ones were unable to enter the shelter due to the locking system failure, and were therefore vulnerable to the terrorists.
Many of the issues have since been resolved and Sderot now has a robust, well-funded security team, Ynet reported.
However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday...
amid tensions between Gabay and the new head of the municipal security department, Erez Gaz, the mayor dismissed Gabay and the city is in the process of finding someone to take his place.
The Sderot probe was among a number by the IDF set to be completed in the coming weeks.
At the end of December, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi instructed the military to complete its various probes by the end of January. Defense Minister Israel Katz had told Halevi that he would freeze the promotions of senior officers in the IDF until he was presented with the conclusions on the investigations, issuing a January 31 deadline.
Last week, Halevi and the head of the IDF Southern Command said they would both be resigning from the military over their roles in the failures that led to the Hamas onslaught.
While the government has refused to appoint a state commission of inquiry and has opposed any probes that could include looking at political failures surrounding the devastating surprise attack, its lead-up, and its aftermath, the army has conducted internal investigations to learn what went wrong.