IDF helicopter saw Hamas invasion on Oct. 7 but didn’t intervene – report

The IDF investigator, who had been on the scene and called for the backup, was shocked when he saw the video clip of the incident.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

An armed helicopter spotted Hamas convoys racing between kibbutzim in the Gaza envelope on Oct. 7, 2023, but did not fire at them, Ayala Hasson of Kan News reported Saturday night.

“Route 232 between the settlement of Be’eri and Re’im, it’s down the main road that we see between the settlements, he says there’s an abandoned tank with a group of citizens as well as a group of terrorists,” the helicopter pilot can be heard saying in a video clip reporting to headquarters in Tel Aviv after 10 a.m.

The pilot informed command that he was going to check out the area, and if he identifies the tank, “I’m going to attack.”

He then can be heard telling his superiors, “I see a lot of pickup trucks going down Route 232,” as the clip clearly shows that the backs of the 4x4s were filled with armed men.

The person in touch with the pilot was Brig. Gen. (res.) Oren Solomon, who lived in Kibbutz Saad near the Gaza border. He had run out immediately with his personal weapon and his officer son to defend the area, not knowing the scope of the attack.

He told Hasson he met up with two police officers from Ofakim who had also driven down Route 232 to see what they could do.

They met at the tank, whose crew had been murdered.

Solomon detached its machine gun to use, as his impromptu team did not know how to operate the armored vehicle.

With it, while waiting for IDF reinforcements, they protected some 60 civilians who had escaped the nearby Nova music festival, holding off dozens of terrorists who were firing at them nonstop.

Solomon recounted, “I called division headquarters, which answered me all day, and told them, ‘I must have forces here. We’re in open space; there are dozens of survivors. Send me an attack helicopter.’”

A few minutes later, he said, an intelligence officer called him back and told him there was a helicopter right above.

Solomon gave the helicopter their exact location and that of the terrorists.

“They are coming out of the wooded area. That’s your target area. Shoot!” he told the pilot.

Minutes later, he said, the pilot told him he could not identify the terrorists and had to go on other missions.

When Solomon saw the helicopter footage a year later as one of the IDF investigators into the invasion, he told Hasson, it had “shaken” him.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said.

In the complete footage, he said, there is a lengthy debate over whether people spotted by the pilot are terrorists or friendly forces, but while the soldier could not clearly identify the terrorists, “he sees 10 tenders, absolutely clearly,” the senior officer stated.

This was about four hours after the surprise Hamas-led invasion began, when everyone in the country already knew Israel was under attack and most had seen footage of pickups full of Hamas terrorists careening around, Hasson noted. Yet no one gave the order to shoot.

This was despite at least one part of IDF command knowing that by 9:10 the terrorists had taken over the small, two-lane highway and were ambushing anyone trying to flee from the Nova festival that had turned into a killing field or coming to aid the trapped residents of nearby settlements.

Solomon said he holds nothing against the pilot.

“He’s not the story,” the officer said. “But it can’t be that this incident, whose outcome – a battle helicopter, with our best men and weaponry, during the most critical hours, are on the scene, see 10 tenders of terrorists… and nobody tells Nova or Be’eri. It’s like he disappeared.”

A total of 101 Israeli civilians and 31 security personnel were killed and 32 hostages were taken from Kibbutz Be’eri.

The music festival was the worst-hit site on Oct. 7. Hamas terrorists murdered 378 people there —344 civilians and 34 security personnel — wounded many more, and took 44 hostages to the Gaza Strip.

IDF helicopterNova FestivalOct. 7th massacre