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We knew we were exposed 

Unheeded: The IDF ignored critical intel, and paid the price in blood 

Lost In the shadows of a Gaza neighborhood, soldiers sensed danger rising, but their call to move went unanswered. A day later, the silence broke with gunfire and one never walked out.

Israeli soldiers operating in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip background
Photo by Oren Cohen/Flash90

It began with a successful ambush. Inside a residential building in one of Gaza’s densely built neighborhoods, a team of IDF combat soldiers lay in wait. Acting on operational intelligence, they eliminated several Hamas militants. But what followed was a shift, subtle at first, that the soldiers on the ground could feel immediately.

They believed their position had been compromised. The soldiers turned to their commander and expressed a clear concern: the enemy knew where they were.

The field commander, recognizing the weight of their warning, relayed the request up the chain, to fold the position and move the force to a safer location. But the answer came back: hold the position.

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“We knew that if we stayed there, a disaster would happen,” one of the soldiers later told his superiors.

That disaster came the next day. Hamas militants launched a direct attack on the building. In the exchange of fire, one soldier was killed.

Among the questions now being examined is the decision to keep the unit in place despite the concerns raised from the field.

A security official familiar with the matter said that at the time, the decision was based on an internal situational assessment. According to the official, there was no concrete intelligence indicating that the soldiers’ location had been compromised. “In the absence of such information,” the official said, “it was decided to allow the force to continue its mission.”

In the aftermath, members of the unit presented their account to the unit commander, who held a conversation with them about the circumstances surrounding the fatal clash.

The IDF said in a statement that the incident is part of an ongoing operational debrief. “The IDF shares in the grief of the bereaved families,” the statement added.

Channle 12 contributed to this article.

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