An IDF investigation revealed that Hamas terrorists murdered officers and female surveillance soldiers at the Nachal Oz base on October 7th with toxic gas, Channel 12 News reported on Tuesday evening.

Fifteen surveillance soldiers and three officers lost their lives that day and six were taken hostage. There were only six survivors – five officers and one surveillance soldier. The families were informed of the results of the investigation in recent days.

The investigation showed that when the terrorists arrived at the base, they stood at the entrance of the building that housed the command room and threw deadly incendiary material inside. The substance, which was not identified, causes suffocation and loss of consciousness within minutes.

“One of the officers tried to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher but the fire spread quickly,” an officer told the families, adding that the “vile murderers used the poisonous gas in the kibbutzim as well.”

“According to the professional opinion of an investigator,” the officer told the families, “the terrorists set fire to materials that ignited and spread – materials that contain toxic gases that cause suffocation within a few minutes or even less.”

Smoke began entering the command room, where most of the soldiers and officers were hiding after the infiltration of the terrorists. The soldiers soaked papers in water and tried to use them to block the smoke – to no avail. There were 22 people in the small command room and they began to suffocate.

Some of the officers and soldiers succeeded in leaving the room and began to feel their way out of the building while coughing and gasping for breath. The few survivors said later that they felt that they were stepping on people who collapsed. Some of them tried to lift them with the last of their strength and call their names as they moved toward the door. But they were in survival mode and were trying to figure out how to save themselves.

But when they reached the door of the building, they couldn’t open it or even get near it as it was on fire. One of the officers managed to reach a nearby bathroom. He climbed in and broke the window and helped five other officers and one surveillance soldier to climb out.

“The same officer tried to break another window and the last survivor managed to escape,” the officer said. “One of the officers then climbed back inside the bathroom. He yelled out but no one answered.”

The officer climbed back out and the seven survivors hid outside and were eventually rescued.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)