Civilian Oct 7 probe: Hamas regularly approached border fence, IDF response was negligible

Hamas would regularly come up to the Gaza border fence before being shooed away with a slap on the wrist from IDF soldiers, the mother of a soldier who served at the Nahal Oz border post told the civilian October 7 probe committee Thursday.

The probe met to hear testimony from some of the hundreds of Israelis who requested to testify.

The body leading the probe is made up of legal and security experts and was announced earlier this month by families of those killed on October 7, representatives from kibbutzim that were attacked, and civil society groups.

One of the primary goals of the committee is to instigate the foundation of a state probe, which has been shot down by Israel’s political echelon.

Nirit Baram, whose son Neta served as a commander at the Nahal Oz IDF outpost, testified before the committee, describing a visit to her son's base around a month before October 7.

"Suddenly, there was noise. The soldiers jumped into two Golani jeeps and drove out to the gate. Neta said, 'Hamas is at the fence again. They are making a mess again.'"

"When I asked him what the soldiers were doing, his answer was: They go there, wag their finger at them, and come back," she said.

Baram told the probe that she asked her son if anyone, such as IDF higher-ups, were aware of the situation, and Neta told her that "of course everyone knows, but they don't do anything about it."

Neta's battalion commander told Baram that he had passed the information along, Baram added.

On October 7, Neta and the four combat soldiers serving under him were the only ones in the sector, said Baram, adding that Neta, a sergeant, was left to manage things while his commanders were not there.

Former Minister Izhar Shay testifies

Former Minister Izhar Shay, whose son, Staff-Sergeant Yaron Shay, was killed on October 7, also testified before the committee Thursday.

"The soldiers on the Gaza border barely slept; they took endless missions on themselves, and they were given stupid missions that they shouldn't have had to deal with, like pulling weeds on the border," said Shay.

"The big and grand IDF can't pull weeds on the border in an organized way - it sends soldiers who have not slept all night because they were patrolling in the heat all day to pull weeds on the border and doesn't even bother to give them a weed whacker or something like that; they work there for a few hours because that is what they are instructed to do."

"That is how the IDF prepared to guard the border between us and Gaza, and that is only one example.

The committee said that in the coming days, it will call on all living prime ministers to testify before them on Israel's diplomatic assumptions.

They called on all prime ministers to accept the invitation, saying that this is not a matte