'We are officially hostages.' How the Israeli kibbutz of Nir Oz embodied Hamas hostage strategy
Hamas attack on the kibbutz of Nir Oz started a little after 6:30 a.m. on October 7 and lasted long into the afternoon, with dozens of fighters rampaging unopposed through the community with an apparent mission: To capture as many civilians as possible.
By the time the last fighter left, one in five residents of Nir Oz was a hostage.
The remaining residents emerged from their safe rooms and gathered together in a shelter, spending the long night tallying the missing.
Eight weeks into the Israel-Gaza war, the recent release of dozens of Israeli hostages — with as many still in captivity — is bringing new focus on what Hamas did on October 7, the day its fighters rounded them up from communities across southern Israel.
In the kibbutz of Nir Oz, where militants rampaged unopposed, is perhaps the best place to understand Hamas' hostage strategy, an operation that was unprecedented both in its scope and execution.
More than 100 Palestinian militants stormed Nir Oz on October 7 for hours and left with some 80 of its roughly 400 residents. That means people from Nir Oz made up a third of the 240 hostages taken in all and nearly half of the Israelis released, with 35 still in Gaza. For Israelis, Nir Oz embodies their country's vulnerability that day, with the absence of Israeli security forces, the capture of unprotected civilians, their deaths and disappearance into Gaza and their subsequent exchange for Palestinians.
The men who shot out the guard post at dawn on October 7 were the first of about seven groups of armed fighters. They carried out their plan relentlessly as messages flew back and forth on the kibbutz chat and WhatsApp groups.
9:16 a.m.
