Oct. 7 report – While soldiers ducked out, tiny Israeli town saved by civilians from neighboring community

The tiny moshav was attacked by ten terrorists who were repelled by an emergency squad forces and a few police officers.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The IDF released Thursday a report on the Hamas attack on the tiny moshav of Pri Gan during its October 7, 2023 invasion of southern Israel which revealed that while IDF forces in the area ducked out of engaging the enemy, heroic civilians from a neighboring village as well as some police officers successfully repelled the infiltrators.

Pri Gan, which has fewer than 250 residents, had only four members in its emergency response squad, and only two of them were in the moshav at 7:20 AM, when ten terrorists drove in from Rafah on motorcycles and began invading homes.

The pair of defenders did not engage the terrorists, being unprepared and woefully undertrained, the report said, but guided those who came to their aid and gave them updates as the situation unfolded.

Over the course of the next two hours, two sets of volunteers rushed to Pri Gan.

The first arrived about 15 minutes after the infiltration and consisted of a police superintendent, Avi Zidon, who came from his home in Yevul and joined the sector’s security chief, Lotem Nagar, and another police officer.

Zidon was shot dead while providing cover for Nagar after the third officer was wounded and required evacuation.

Nagar had called for help on the radio, however, and nine members of the security squad answered from Shlomit, which was a few kilometers away and hadn’t been attacked itself.

Two of them were killed in the battle in the moshav, and one was murdered while making his way there through the fields.

Around 9:15, the first army force made its appearance – and refused to engage the enemy.

The Caracal unit’s commander said she had to wait for her platoon sergeant. Only when he arrived a quarter of an hour later and ordered them to enter did they do so.

At this time, it became clear that the attackers had fled, and the soldiers just searched the moshav and evacuated the wounded.

A Nahal Brigade reconnaissance unit that arrived around 9:40, also would not go into Pri Gan, saying the troops had to be given explicit orders to do so as they “had prior missions.”

The report made clear that it was due to the heroic actions of the policemen and civilians from Shlomit that no Pri Gan residents were killed or abducted.

“The courageous fighting and camaraderie demonstrated by the civil defense squad members of the village of Shlomit and other security forces who fought in the area are what repelled the terrorists and saved the moshav,” it stated.

By contrast, the report condemned the IDF forces who stayed outside the gate, saying they should have “strive[n] for contact,” and acknowledged that the army had “failed in its mission to defend the moshav.”

The report noted that troops from the Sufa outpost, two kilometers from Pri Gan and the closest source of professional manpower, were trying to fend off a serious attack on their position that had begun before the ten-man team invaded the moshav, which is why they did not come to help.

Other bases in the area were also attacked by Hamas forces, committing damage to the chain of command and communications at the brigade, battalion and company levels, all of which prevented the army from doing its duty towards the residents under its protection, the report said.