Bravery in Ofakim: The civilians, police who thwarted Hamas massacre plan

On October 7, the small town of Ofakim (30 kilometers east of the Gaza Strip border) found itself on the brink of previously unthinkable events. It all began with a massive rocket barrage from Gaza at 6:30 a.m. when simultaneously a group of Hamas terrorists launched a surprise and audacious attack, threatening a larger massacre comparable to those happening in other areas closer to the Gaza envelope. While several families were tragically slaughtered in Ofakim, the community, for the most part, managed to avoid a larger bloodbath. This is the story of two remarkable initial responders at the heart of this heroic effort: Rabbi Shachar Butzchak and police officer Itamar Alus.

Butzchak had been living in Ofakim for the past two years. Before, he was the community rabbi and leader of the emergency response committee of Moshav Mivtahim, a cooperative community located a few kilometers from the Gaza border. At 6:30 a.m., the air raid sirens blared, warning of a barrage, intense beyond the ordinary. Like countless others that morning, he quickly turned on his cellphone and checked his WhatsApp. In Mivtahim, the community emergency response lead sent an SOS reporting waves of terrorists infiltrating the community. Butzchak responded he was in Ofakim and ready to help.

Gunshots towards Ofakim

However, at 7 a.m., gunshots were heard from the direction of his neighborhood’s entrance. Bands of Hamas terrorists were arriving in pickup trucks. “They entered, passed by my neighborhood. They saw a few neighbors having an early coffee outdoors and started shooting at them,” Butzchak recounted. These were the first gunshots heard in Ofakim. The shootings were an unusual experience for the typically tranquil town, especially on Simchat Torah.

“This may have been a mistake on the part of the terrorists because it alerted us. ‘What are gunshots like that in Ofakim?’ Maybe it was something else. After a few minutes, we realized they were from an automatic weapon. I took my handgun from home and prepared to respond. I asked my wife to take the kids and seek shelter in the protected room, and I went to the street in the direction of the gunfire,” he explained.

Butzchak was one of the approximately 10 initial citizen responders who went out to confront the gunmen. There was a mix of armed civilians, police officers, and on-leave soldiers that joined the effort. The focal point of the battle was an old neighborhood at the entrance of Ofakim, known as Mishor Gefen, which was a few blocks away. Butzchak quickly encountered two other initial responders, one of whom was a friend with experience in security services, to be referred as “A” in this article. The other was an on-leave soldier staying in another area of Ofakim, named Neorai Said.

“I ran and heard gunshots a couple of hundred meters from my home. They shouted, ‘Three terrorists armed!’ On the road known as Tamar Street, the Hamas men opened fire. The whole road shook, everything flew into the air, and a massive boom was heard,” Butzchak described.

The three of them formed a spontaneous combat formation to confront the gunmen. However, what initially appeared to be three terrorists, quickly became more than a dozen. “I said, ‘Okay, we will still take them on.’ Three soldiers in our own formation – let’s maintain the formation. I was in the front. We needed to advance as if we were in the army, to get closer to them. But in no army training were we taught how to challenge a Kalashnikov and an RPG with our handguns. We were in a corridor of death,” Butzchak said.

The Hamas terrorists were hard to identify, confusing the responders. “I saw a terrorist in front of me, but at first I didn’t identify him as a terrorist. He could have been a soldier, a civilian, or a terrorist. They were dressed in equipment that looked like army green fatigues. Initially, they did not appear to be terrorists,” he explained.

However, it soon became clear, as the responders found themselves ambushed. Butzchak and the on-leave soldier were hit by automatic gunfire. Butzchak was struck in the left leg above the knee, while Said suffered terminal wounds. The rabbi alerted A, the last man in the formation, that he was wounded. The terrorists started to approach them but, as before, it was challenging to identify them. As such, they took cover behind cars that were two to three meters ahead. Behind the cars, they saw three bodies, victims shot before. A then opened fire from the rear, eliminating one of the approaching terrorists. More arrived, and A noticed that the slain soldier was without his military belt. The terrorist opened fire and missed. Butzchak then alerted the community through WhatsApp to stay in their protected rooms, as terrorists were on the loose.

Police officer Alus arrived on the scene as Hamas men were approaching Butzchak. “There were terrorists on the road ahead and on the road behind,” Alus said. “There was a paramedic who had just been slain. I went to the street where the rabbi was and saw two wounded individuals. I saw the rabbi, and he told me, ‘I cannot, I cannot move because of my legs.’ I removed his pants to examine his wound. Suddenly, we came under gunfire. I shielded the rabbi as bullets passed within millimeters of me, returned fire, and killed one of the attackers.”

When the gunfire subsided, Alus took the rabbi to a nearby safe house, where he applied emergency first aid. However, the owner of the safe house was initially hesitant to open the gate, fearing the danger outside. In the midst of a scene reminiscent of a war film, with grenades, RPGs, and automatic gunfire all around him, Alus returned to check on the wounded soldier who was with the rabbi. Tragically, the soldier was in his last moments, and nothing could be done to save him. Alus then climbed a nearby fence of a home to gain a higher vantage point, opened fire, and killed at least one of the Hamas fighters. On the other side, he found himself amid a grim scene, with many bodies lying around. Following this ordeal, he spotted a soldier who was severely wounded but still conscious. It was a situation similar to what he had experienced with the rabbi. Despite receiving gunfire, Alus reached the soldier and protected him, returning fire.

The soldier, named Dennis, expressed his doubt about surviving, saying, “I am sorry, but I don’t think I’m going to make it.” In a spur-of-the-moment decision, and with the help of local neighbors, Alus commandeered a Honda pickup. “I put him in the car, drove him to Soroka (hospital) in Beersheba, left him at the hospital, and returned to Ofakim,” he recounted.

By this point it was 9 a.m., and the counter-terrorism undercover unit (YAMAS) of the Border Police had entered Ofakim to confront the remaining Hamas fighters.

“They suddenly opened fire on the special forces, and a fierce exchange ensued, but one of the terrorists survived. After 15 minutes, I heard an Arabic cry. ‘Hello...’ I said, ‘Quiet, quiet. He’s talking to me.’ He said, ‘I need someone who speaks Arabic.’ I told him, ‘I speak Arabic.’ He said, ‘I want to get out.’ I said, ‘You must come out slowly with your hands in the air. Go slowly, slowly.’ I climbed onto the roof of the storage area where the terrorist was hiding. As he started to emerge, I saw some sort of missile. Maybe he intended to use a detonator or wanted to blow himself up. I didn’t take any chances. As soon as I saw him come out, I put two bullets in his head, that’s how it ended,” Alus said.

The only terrorists remaining in Ofakim, two of them, had invaded the home of Rachel and David Edri. The residents were eventually rescued by special forces.

At this point, Alus himself was profoundly shaken. In the course of two hours, he had been the target of grenades, RPGs, and automatic gunfire at least seven times, yet miraculously he remained unharmed. He reflected on the events and his experiences with a mix of awe and sadness. “There were about ten brave individuals. Brave people who came to the scene... I prayed to God that I would also be honored... that it would be over. I wanted the honor (to also be wounded)... but it wasn’t God’s will, because I was not injured. God didn’t want me to be injured. I kept going and going... I rescued the rabbi... then I killed a terrorist, then I saw more horrors, and I saw another soldier and rescued him. I thought it had all ended... and by then, special forces arrived... now I felt strong with my friends... however, the others were no less warriors than I,” he concluded.

According to both Butzchak and Alus, when bands of Hamas terrorists entered Ofakim that morning, they had a well-planned massacre of residents in mind. They arrived even before the air raid sirens, selecting the least protected neighborhood in Ofakim for a reason: They intended to use the air raid sirens as bait to draw people out of their homes, where they could be picked off one by one. Some of the terrorists went door to door, mercilessly massacring families whose doors were left unlocked.

However, due to the initial rallying of the ten initial armed citizens, a larger bloodbath was prevented. Notably, ambulances from MDA and IDF forces were absent from the scene. Butzchak and Dennis had to be transported from Ofakim to receive medical care in the hospital. By the end of the tragic events, 52 residents had lost their lives, including armed citizens, police officers, and on-leave soldiers.

It is important to note that not everyone along the road participated in the battle, as some chose to prioritize the protection of their homes and families. As Alus reflected with a sense of empathy and sadness, “Some residents had cold feet, but who could blame them? When I asked some men ‘Why didn’t you go outside?’ they answered, ‘When I heard the gunshots, I went to protect my home, my wife, and my children.’”

Images of the aftermath

Images of the aftermath show the road and the surrounding area bloodied, with slain bodies of terrorists and civilians. However, the crossfire between the armed citizens and the terrorists largely contained the carnage of the area.

As Alus reflected in hindsight, “Citizens and police who were home went out and interfered with the terrorists’ plans. They [the terrorists] had intended to return to their vehicles to reload with ammunition, but people confronted them, even though they were armed with just handguns, small weapons. Suddenly, one terrorist was down, so they went into ‘combat mode’ and couldn’t proceed with their plans.”

In the words of a statement from the emergency response committee, translated from Hebrew, “In the neighborhood, fierce battles took place between the terrorists and between policemen and residents who heard the sound of gunfire and came out to defend the city. Many members who had weapons went out to fight the terrorists and, with their bodies, prevented a larger disaster.” ■