Report: Female IDF soldiers manning the border observation cameras speak out, ‘They sniped the cameras’

‘They surprised us, and we weren’t ready for it’

Read this article in:

The horrifying moments when Hamas terrorists crossed the border fence and infiltrated Israeli territory shocked the nation. The Hamas terrorists crossed into Israel using 22 location points in the border fence.

Equally shocking was how quickly videos of the invasion were posted to social media.

One of the Israeli military observers in a group of almost entirely female soldiers, spoke with N12 news, describing the horrifying situation.

“I got up for the 4 a.m. shift, a shift that turned out to be a nightmare,” the observer related. “I never thought in my life that I would see something like this at the lookout, I did my best.”

"We all fought as best as possible," she said. "They surprised us and we weren't ready for it. Half of the manpower was at home during Sukkot and Shabbat, there was no intelligence information about it."

She also uploaded pictures of her experience to social media.

She described the moment Hamas terrorists entered the base.

"I took care of the wounded while terrorists were walking around my base, my second home, and were murdering my friends,” she recalled.

“I prepared for this moment for two years - but nothing prepares you for the moment of truth. Crazy noise, blood everywhere. Sixteen hours locked in a small hospital with a lot of hope and prayers."

Another one of the observers said the soldiers who were at the border should not be blamed.

“The girls who sit there prevented and thwarted intrusions that you haven’t heard of, but this was out of their hands,” she explained. “They did everything they could.”

She said that after their cameras were destroyed by sniping, by drones dropping explosives, and by rocket-propelled grenades, there was little the soldiers could do.

“18-year-old girls took care of their wounded friends, hid for more than 8 hours from terrorists who roamed their base and murdered their best friends,” she related.

“This event did not rise and fall on the cameras in the fence, especially on cameras that did not work after being shot with an RPG.”

Hamas released a video of the infiltration this morning, showing terrorists destroying cameras on the border fence, blasting a hole in the security fence and using drones to place explosives on observation towers.

The limited number of combat soldiers at the base, reminiscent of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 left the observers practically defenseless.