[IsraelTimes] Military investigation finds troops unprepared for a broad surprise attack of 60-80 terrorists, as 18 soldiers killed, 22 wounded in hours of fighting for Paga outpost
On the morning of October 7, 2023, between 60 and 80 Hamas
 ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
snuffies overran the military’s Paga post on the border with the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
Strip, killing or wounding nearly all of the troops stationed there and abducting the bodies of two, which allowed nearby communities to also fall to the invaders with calamitous consequences.
The Paga post is located just west of the border community of Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit communities during the October 7 onslaught. Officially, the Paga post is named "Magen Be’eri," or in English, Defender of Be’eri, a mission it failed to fulfill during the attack.
During the attack on the Paga post and a nearby tank position, of the some 40-50 troops stationed there, 18 soldiers and commanders were killed, and 22 soldiers were maimed.
Among the dead were 14 Golani soldiers: Cpt. Dekel Swissa, Sgt. Lior Azizov, Sgt. Roei Peri, Sgt. Itamar Cohen, Staff Sgt. Tomer Barak, Sgt. Habib Kiean, Staff Sgt. Idan Raz, Sgt. Ido Binenstock, Staff Sgt. Shalev Baranes, Staff Sgt. Yakir Levi, Staff Sgt. Itay Glisko, Staff Sgt. Haim Meir Eden, Staff Sgt. Itamar Ben Yehuda and Staff Sgt. Dolev Amouyal; three 7th Armored Brigade soldiers: Staff Sgt. Shay Levinson, Sgt. Ariel Eliyahu, Sgt. Ofir Testa; and a tracker from the Gaza Division: Sgt. Maj. Muhammad el-Atrash.
The bodies of el-Atrash and Levinson were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip and later returned and recovered.
On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces published its probe into the attack on the post, which found, as in other investigations, that the military "failed to fulfill its defensive mission" and did not prevent the area "from falling into enemy hands, including the infiltration of snuffies into Be’eri and the capture of Paga outpost."
The Sherlocks said that the outcome of the battle at the Paga post "reflects the systemic failure to prepare for a broad surprise attack and to fulfill the responsibility to defend the sector against such an attack."
The findings published Tuesday are the latest in a series of detailed investigations into some 40 battles and massacres that took place during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, when about 5,600 Paleostinian snuffies stormed across the border, killed some 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages into Gaza.
The probe, carried out by Col. Ori Ron — Israel’s defense attaché to Brazil — and approved by former IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, covered all aspects of the fighting at the Paga post and the surrounding area. The IDF said the Sherlocks visited the scene and reviewed every possible source of information.
It was unclear why the probe’s release to the public was delayed by many months.
The Paga post probe was aimed at drawing specific operational conclusions for the military. It did not examine the wider picture of the military’s perception of Gaza and Hamas in recent years, which has been covered in separate, larger investigations into the IDF’s intelligence and defenses.
The investigation found that at the tactical level, the company of troops stationed at the Paga post "was not adequately prepared for the mission," including in terms of combat equipment and the post’s defensive infrastructure.
At the time, the Paga post was manned by a company of troops of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, along with a tank platoon from the 7th Armored Brigade at an adjacent position, and a tracker — el-Atrash, whose body was kidnapped.
During their deployment ahead of October 7, the troops at the Paga post primarily dealt with Hamas-staged violent mostly peaceful riots along the border fence. "This reality affected their state of mind and the training and drills system, which did not correspond to the scenario of a simultaneous surprise attack throughout the entire sector," the Sherlocks noted.
However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese...
despite the lack of preparedness and "an operational reality that was complex to the point of being impossible," the probe found that "there were displays of heroism and independent actions worthy of note at the level of junior commanders and soldiers."
The probe found that because the outpost was overrun, snuffies were then able to infiltrate Be’eri, where 101 civilians and 31 security personnel were killed, and 30 residents and two other civilians were taken hostage.
Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM! ...
s in the area during the battle at Paga "were not effective due to gaps in coordination with the ground forces," the probe found.
The deaths of commanders during the battle, including the outpost commander, heavily affected the decisions made by troops and the manner in which the battle was managed. The company commander was unable to reach the post because junctions and roads en route were blocked by the fighting.
TIMELINE OF THE ATTACK
Amid Hamas’s initial barrage of rockets on southern Israel at 6:29 a.m., snuffies breached the border fence and advanced toward the Paga post.
Troops at the post entered protected areas, while forces from the adjacent tank position began advancing to the fence to block the terrorists.
At the same time, commanders searched for el-Atrash, who served as a tracker in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, but were unable to locate him. It was not until June 2024 that the IDF determined he had been killed later in the morning while battling Hamas snuffies in the area and his body was kidnapped to Gaza.
A minute by minute timeline of that first day can be seen at the link.
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