Inside the Battle for Zikim: The Untold Story

On the morning of October 7, 2023, the quiet Zikim beach, a stretch of sand near the Gaza border, turned into a warzone. At 06:29, the sky erupted with Hamas rockets, and within minutes, 38 terrorists in seven motorized boats sped across the maritime border, aiming to wreak havoc on the Zikim kibbutz and beyond.

What unfolded was a desperate, chaotic battle, one where the Israeli military faltered, but a small band of kibbutz defenders and Navy fighters showed bravery, clear thinking even under an unexpected and savage assault, and grit that saved countless lives.

A months-long investigation, led by Colonel Tal Koritzky and summarized by former IDF Chief Herzi Halevi, laid bare the failures and heroics of that day, shared with Zikim’s grieving families and residents. This is the story of a community under siege, pieced together from interviews, videos, and blood-soaked sand.

Before dawn, Zikim’s defenses were routine. The 77th Battalion, known as Yiftach, patrolled the area, with one platoon guarding the coast. A Navy Dvora vessel and a Tzira-class boat idled near the KATSA oil terminal, while a Shaldag-class ship watched offshore platforms. At 05:30, the battalion ran a “dawn alert,” then shifted to normal operations, unaware of the storm coming.

In the kibbutz, a 14-man standby squad, led by security coordinator (known as the Ravshatz), slept with rifles nearby, ready but not expecting a fight. No one knew Hamas was about to unleash thousands of fighters across dozens of fronts, overwhelming Israel’s border.

At 06:29, the attack hit. Rockets rained on western Negev towns, and Zikim’s calm shattered. Navy control rooms spotted fast-moving boats 1.5 kilometers south of the border by 06:34. Two minutes later, the first boat, carrying four terrorists, crossed into Israeli waters, triggering a “Blue Rider” alert. Navy vessels got orders to fire at will, but a glitch in the fire control system forced manual shots. By 06:39, they sank the boat, but the delay let others slip through. Over 16 frantic minutes, six more boats raced in, carrying 34 more terrorists. The Navy fought hard, killing 14 in the water and eight on the shore, but 10 made it to Zikim beach.

On the sand, seven coastal platoon fighters, alerted to a possible sea raid, raced from their Savannah vehicle at 06:44, heading south. They missed the fourth boat’s five terrorists landing north at 06:45. The terrorists opened fire, killing two civilians in a beach shack.

The platoon fired back but couldn’t stop them, retreating to a restroom building for cover. They lost sight of the enemy, then moved to the parking lot, leaving the bomb shelter and restrooms exposed, which was a fatal mistake. The terrorists stormed the shelter murdering eight and the restrooms, murdering seven civilians, in a 19-minute rampage.

By 06:48, a sixth boat landed with seven more terrorists; the Navy killed two, but five reached the dunes. At 06:51, a platoon fighter ran toward the restrooms, possibly to link with his commander, and was gunned down. A seventh boat hit near Erez post at 06:52, with four of six terrorists killed by the Navy, the rest later stopped at Erez.

During the chaos, the Navy’s Ashdod command called the Ravshatz at 06:40, warning of the sea breach. This gave Zikim’s standby squad 23 minutes to gear up. Instead of heading to the command post, the 11 armed fighters ran to their posts, ready for a fight. At 06:57, four terrorists stole the platoon’s Savannah and drove toward the kibbutz, while six others trekked on foot via the Shikma River. The Navy alerted the Ravshatz again about the vehicle. At 07:02, the terrorists paused at the Shikma bridge, searched a bomb shelter, and pressed on.

At 07:04, as the Savannah neared Zikim’s gate, a standby fighter spotted an RPG inside and opened fire, stopping the vehicle cold. Six to ten terrorists, some on foot, massed near the kibbutz, splitting east and west of the road.

The squad held their ground, trading fire. By 07:05, the Ravshatz and two more fighters joined, and from 07:05 to 07:20, they fought to keep the terrorists out. The coastal platoon commander arrived at 07:20, linking with the squad and likely killing two terrorists by 08:10.

Grenades flew; one hit near a squad post, wounding two fighters, who were evacuated. At 08:20, a security officer driving to Yiftach post was killed after engaging terrorists, who stole his car back to the beach. Three civilians in passing cars were lightly injured by terrorist fire.

By 08:45, a Maglan unit arrived, led by a Zikim native. They joined the squad, killed four remaining terrorists, and swept the area, ending the kibbutz threat. The terrorists retreated, their infiltration foiled.

By 12:30, paratroopers evacuated the wounded, but bodies in the bomb shelter went unnoticed by the Northern Brigade, left until October 13, a grim oversight blamed on the chaos of multiple fronts. At 14:30, a reserve officer evacuated beach bodies, and by 23:00, Zikim residents fled, with paratroopers securing the kibbutz.

The investigation exposed brutal truths: the IDF failed to protect Zikim. Ground forces were overwhelmed, their command crippled early, leaving fighters directionless. The coastal platoon’s seven men couldn’t stop the terrorists, failing to shield civilians or engage closely. A tank sent at 06:43 blocked a land raid toward Netiv HaAsara, but the beach was lost. The Navy shone, killing 22 terrorists and preventing attacks on KATSA and Ashkelon, but a one-minute fire delay due to coordination rules let five terrorists from the sixth boat join the beach assault.

The investigation, built on interviews, beach camera footage, civilian phone videos, and intelligence, admits gaps. The scale of Hamas’s attack, thousands of fighters hitting dozens of sites, overwhelmed Israel’s defenses.

Zikim was a planned target, its maritime raid meticulously executed. For the kibbutz, the scars remain, but the squad’s stand, assisted by Navy firepower, turned a potential massacre into a story of courage under fire.