Six hours at hands of Hamas - new accounts reveal how Israeli base fell on 7 October

  One year on from the 7 October Hamas attacks, tough questions are still being asked within Israel about the deadliest day in its history, when the country's powerful army was caught off guard and swiftly overwhelmed.

The BBC has heard accounts given to families of what happened at one military base that guarded the border with Gaza.

The Nahal Oz base was overrun by Hamas gunmen on the morning of 7 October and more than 60 Israeli soldiers are reported to have been killed - with others taken hostage. 

Israel’s military is yet to publish its official inquiry into what happened there that day, but it has already briefed relatives of those killed there, and some have shared those details with the BBC.

This is the closest we have to an official account by Israel’s military of what happened on the day.

In an attempt to further piece together events, we have also spoken to survivors, seen messages from those who died, and listened to voice recordings reporting the attack as it happened, helping to build a picture of the speed and ferocity of the invasion.

The BBC has found:

• Suspicious activity was spotted by many soldiers at the base before 7 October, not just the young women whose job it was to monitor border cameras

• Soldiers noticed an abrupt stop to Hamas activity in the days before the attack

• Many Israeli troops there were unarmed and official protocols had soldiers standing back when under attack, instead of advancing

• Some surveillance equipment was either out of action or able to be destroyed by Hamas with ease

The details we have established raise questions - including why so few soldiers were armed at a base so close to the border, why more wasn’t done to respond to the intelligence and warnings that had been received, how it took so long for reinforcements to arrive, and whether the very infrastructure of the base had left those there unprotected.

We put our findings to the IDF, who responded to say it was in the midst of a “thorough investigation into the events of October 7th, including those in Nahal Oz, and the circumstances preceding”.

FULL REPORT AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg7825rk8j9o