Battle of Zikim
Part of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel
Date7 October 2023
Location
Near Zikim, Southern District, Israel
31°36′28″N 34°31′18″E / 31.60778°N 34.52167°E / 31.60778; 34.52167
Result Hamas fails to capture the Zikim training base and Zikim kibbutz[1][2]
Belligerents
Hamas  Israel
Commanders and leaders
Ahmed Musa Israel Lt. Col. Shay
Israel Capt. Adir Abudi  †
Israel First Lt. Or Moses  †
Col. Eitan Paz (Ashdod naval base commander)
Units involved

Al-Qassam Brigades

On the coast:
 Israeli Navy

51st Battalion, Golani Brigade[5][6]

At training base:
Officer staff of the Tavor company, Home Front search and rescue brigade[7]

At Yiftach:
77th Battalion, 7th Brigade[6]

Outside kibbutz:
Civilian security team
Strength
30-35 cross Israeli maritime border on boats,[5][8] 11 of whom land on beach[5][9]
Dozens cross into Israel by land[6]

At training base:
14 soldiers in combat[7]
90 recruits and 30 administrative staff sheltering in place[7]

At Yiftach: 5 soldiers in combat[6]
Majority of garrison sheltering in place[6]

On coast: 4 soldiers[6]
Casualties and losses
At sea: 2-3 boats sunk[5][8][9]
At training base: 13-15 killed[10]
At Yiftach: Multiple killed[6]
On coast: 2-3 killed
Outside kibbutz: Multiple killed[11]		 At training base:
7 killed[7]
7 wounded[7]
At Yiftach:
7 killed[6]
Multiple wounded[6]
On coast:
19 civilians killed
1 soldier killed[5][6]
Outside kibbutz:
2 wounded[11]
Zikim is located in Ashkelon region of Israel
Zikim
Zikim
Site of the battle in Israel

The Battle of Zikim (Hebrew: קרב זיקים; Arabic: معركة زيكيم) was a military engagement between Hamas militants and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that took place on 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched a large-scale attack against Southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. According to Haaretz, Hamas's goal was to capture Zikim's military training base. The Israeli navy prevented most Hamas militants from landing on the beach, although an estimated 11 militants landed. Fighting took place outside Zikim, at three military bases, and on the adjacent coastline. The garrison of the training base held out, but the other two bases were overrun, and a civilian security team prevented an incursion into the kibbutz. An estimated 19 civilian beachgoers were killed.

Background

The Zikim training base, also known as Bahad 4, is located eight kilometers south of Ashkelon and five kilometers north of Gaza City.[7][12] During the 2014 Gaza War, the Israeli military repelled an amphibious assault on the base.[12]

The base is used to train the search and rescue brigade of the IDF Home Front; 90 new recruits who had been drafted in August were on the base at the time of the attack.[7] It is one of three military bases in the vicinity of kibbutz Zikim, in addition to the Yiftach and Erez outposts.[7][6] The latter, a former naval base, is 100 meters from the coastline, and had been manned by soldiers of the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade in the months prior to the war.[6]

Zikim beach, the southernmost beach in the country, had been considered very popular among residents of southern Israel.[13]

Assaults on military bases

On the morning of 7 October, at 6:30 AM local time, the Zikim training base was struck with what its commander called an "insane volley" of rockets, concurrent with the heavy artillery barrages targeting Sderot and other communities across the Gaza envelope signaling the commencement of Operation al-Aqsa Flood.[7]

In response to the surprise bombardment, new recruits on patrol duty at the base's perimeter fence were immediately sequestered in safe areas and replaced by junior officers by 6:36. The base's garrison began hearing gunfire from the direction of nearby military bases at 6:45.[7]

Observers at the Yiftach outpost witnessed dozens of Hamas fighters breaking through the Gaza-Israel barrier, armed with RPGs and driving motorcycles, trucks, and tractors towards their outpost. They arrived outside Yiftach's gate by 7:00, and Naama Boni, 19, the only sentinel, called for reinforcements. She was soon met by three young soldiers who rushed to the gate without uniforms and a member of the 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigade who had been positioned in the rear guard. The remainder of the garrison chose to shelter in place, and the five defenders were quickly overwhelmed by numerically superior Hamas forces and killed. Inside the outpost, two soldiers died and several were injured in intermittent clashes that lasted for twelve hours, though Hamas never breached the base's command post.[6]

Combat on the Zikim training base began at 7:30, when patrol teams at two separate locations spotted militants and reported incoming fire. The two highest-ranking officers on the training base at the time of the assault, company commander Capt. Adir Abudi, 23, and deputy company commander First Lt. Or Moses, 20, were killed in combat at "Position 6," where three other officers were wounded. A sentry post at the base's firing range was overrun once its defenders ran out of ammunition after 45 minutes of clashes; four officers were killed and two wounded in its defense.[7]

The fall of the firing range marked Hamas's first successful incursion into the training base, though they did not go on to attempt to take over other positions, which base commander Lt. Col. Shay ascribed to casualties and exhaustion. A single Hamas fighter managed to breach one of the "safe areas" where recruits were sheltering, killing an 18-year-old private who had been drafted two months prior before being killed by another recruit.[7]

Shay, who was at home in Sderot at the time of the battle, requested support from the nearby military bases, but realized that there was "no one to talk to" as they were also under assault. The other two bases in the area were eventually overrun amid serious losses of Israeli life.[7]

Amid the 6:30 rocket barrage, which also targeted Israeli naval facilities, four boats with an estimated 35 fighters of Hamas' Nukhba unit were observed crossing into Israeli waters from the Gaza fishing zone.[8][5] Col. Eitan Paz, commander of the Ashdod naval base, having been forewarned of the invasion by Gaza Division commander Avi Rosenfeld earlier in the morning, immediately ordered the forces under his command to defend the Israeli maritime border and prevent raids on the coast.[5]

Israeli sources stated that three of the boats were destroyed by patrol boats of the Israeli Navy's 916th Patrol Squadron from Ashdod naval base before they reached the shore, and sailors of the Snapir unit, the Israeli Navy's protection and harbor security unit, subsequently moved in on Defender-class boats and killed the survivors as well as Hamas divers they discovered with gunfire and depth charges. However, the remaining boat soon made it to Zikim beach.[5][14][15]

Zikim beach

The IDF estimated that 11 Hamas militants managed to land on the beach. Two or three were killed by naval gunfire shortly after landing, but the rest began killing civilians on the beach.[5] According to Israeli sources, 19 civilian beachgoers were killed; the deceased included fishermen, teenagers on a camping trip, and employees of a bar in Beersheba who had held a party on the beach the previous night.[16] Hearing the shots, four soldiers of the Golani Brigade's 51st battalion stationed at the Erez base went out to the beach in a military vehicle to investigate. Realizing they were outnumbered, three of them retreated and left the vehicle behind while one, Cpl. Dvir Lisha, moved to engage the Hamas fighters and was killed.[6]

Some 20-30 civilians managed to flee the beach and take refuge in the Zikim training base, where they were kept in a secure area with the new recruits.[7]

Reinforcements from the Nahal Brigade were sent to Zikim beach in Eitan AFVs, which drove on Highway 6 at speeds of up to 120 km/h. The Nahal Brigade soldiers killed several militants on the beach before moving forward to support other units.[17]

Kibbutz Zikim

The bulk of the remaining Hamas fighters were eventually killed while attempting to enter the kibbutz of Zikim. An emergency security team made up of civilians there had been alerted to the infiltration by the navy, and preemptively positioned themselves along a fence surrounding the kibbutz.[5][11] A squad of six Hamas militants arrived at the kibbutz driving the Israeli military vehicle that had been abandoned on the beach. A firefight quickly ensued, and the militants dispersed, eventually being tracked down and killed after about an hour of combat.[11][18][6] The security team remained at their positions until 2:30 the next morning, assisting in the evacuation of civilians and awaiting IDF reinforcements that never arrived.[6]

Aftermath

After the assaults on the military bases, Sayeret Maglan and Shayetet 13 forces secured the area, deployed along the Gaza border fence, and assisted in the evacuation of civilians and recruits.[7][6]

The commander of the Zikim training base, Lt. Col. Shay, credited the resistance there with preventing massacres in Zikim, Karmia, and Ashkelon.[7] Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant made similar comments about the garrison of Yiftach camp, saying they "obtained life for the civilians who live a bit further away."[19]

Fighting at Zikim beach on 7 October is notable for involving the first-ever use of the Israeli Eitan AFV in combat, which was originally scheduled to have been put into operation in 2024. The successful use of the vehicle at Zikim beach prompted Tamir Yadai, head of IDF Ground Forces Command, to integrate the Eitan into plans for the invasion of the Gaza Strip.[17]

On 10 November 2023, the IDF announced that Ahmed Musa, a company commander in the Nukhba unit who was among the leaders of the attack, was killed in a raid by Israeli ground forces in Jabaliya.[20][21]

Subsequent infiltrations

On the morning of 8 October, the 916th Patrol Squadron killed five Hamas militants on the Zikim beach.[22]

On 10 October, the IDF's official Hebrew-language Twitter account claimed that troops from the Bislamach Brigade's 17th Battalion had clashed with Hamas militants in the Zikim beach area, killing four. According to an investigation by France 24, the video appeared to show Israeli soldiers killing four Palestinian men who were attempting to surrender, a war crime under international law. France 24 also states that there were no clearly visible weapons in the drone shot of the initial encounter, "though the images are blurry and it is impossible to see whether weapons were on the scene."[23] The incident was geolocated by Al Jazeera English to an area about a kilometer southwest of the Zikim training base.[24]

On 11 October, the IDF claimed to have killed eight Hamas militants in Zikim.[25]

On 13 October, a suspected security incident forced residents of Zikim inside their homes.[26] Israel National News later reported that a militant had been killed on the beach by the IDF.[27]

On 16 October, reports cited by the Institute for the Study of War suggested that two militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated the coastline west of Zikim, and were subsequently killed by an IDF helicopter.[28]

Israeli authorities issued an infiltration warning for Zikim on 24 October after the Israeli Navy engaged a group of Hamas divers attempting to enter Israel via sea. Israeli media sources subsequently reported that at least four Hamas fighters were killed, while one report put the figure at eight. Israeli fighter jets subsequently bombed the base in Gaza from which the divers set out. The IDF noted that it was still monitoring the area for militants who may have escaped initial engagements.[29][30][31]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "A Handful of Israeli Officers Saved 90 New Recruits From Hamas Terrorists. They Paid With Their Lives". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 2023-10-22. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
    • "The terrorists had a clear goal: to capture the base."
    • "The Zikim base did not fall but seven of its fighters did, while defending it."
  2. ↑ "Netanyahu visits Zikim Base, site of 'heroic battle' on Oct. 7". Jewish News Syndicate. 2023-11-15. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
  3. ↑ "This is How Al-Qassam's Navel Units Stormed Zakim's Fortified Military Base – VIDEO". The Palestine Chronicle. October 9, 2023. Archived from the original on October 9, 2023.
  4. 1 2 "New footage shows harbor security unit foiling Hamas naval infiltration on October 7". The Times of Israel. 14 October 2023. Archived from the original on 14 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Amir Bohbot (2023-11-27). "המודיעין החסר, הפשיטה על חוף זיקים והחילוץ שהתעכב: כך נכשל חיל הים ב-7 באוקטובר" (in Hebrew). Walla! News. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 ""זו הסיבה שאף אחד לא יודע מה קרה בזיקים: האזרחים מתים והחיילים לא מדברים"" (in Hebrew). 2023-11-16. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "A Handful of Israeli Officers Saved 90 New Recruits From Hamas Terrorists. They Paid With Their Lives". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 2023-10-22. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  8. 1 2 3 Amir Bohbot (2023-10-10). ""ב-06:30 הגיעו ארבע סירות. זה היה חלק מההונאה": תחילת הלחימה בזירה הימית". Walla! News. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
  9. 1 2 Bob, Yonah Jeremy (2023-11-07). "'Post' observes IDF naval bombardment of Hamas in Gaza City". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  10. ↑ Sheridan, Danielle (2023-10-12). "Israeli commander raced to military base to defend it from 'surprise' Hamas attack". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Eyewitness account: 'Kobi and the squad saved the kibbutz'". Arutz Sheva. Archived from the original on 11 October 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  12. 1 2 Hilo Glazer (2014-07-09). "Fighters attempt raid on Israel army base". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 2023-12-23.
  13. ↑ Yegorov, Ilya (2023-09-07). "בעקבות קריסת תחנת ביוב בעזה - חוף זיקים נסגר לרחצה" (in Hebrew). Israel Hayom. Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  14. ↑ Gianluca Mezzofiore; Paul P. Murphy; Allegra Goodwin (9 October 2023). "Videos show new details on how Hamas launched surprise assault on Israel". CNN. Archived from the original on 10 October 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  15. ↑ Fabian, Emanuel (2023-10-14). "New footage shows harbor security unit foiling Hamas naval infiltration on October 7". The Times of Israel.
  16. ↑ קוריאל, אילנה (2023-11-04). "אלינה בילתה עם חבריה, אריה ואלי יצאו לדוג: 19 נרצחו בחוף זיקים במתקפת הפתע". Ynet (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 2023-12-02. Retrieved 2023-11-27.
  17. 1 2 Amir Bohbot (October 18, 2023). "טבילת האש הראשונה: נגמ"ש "האיתן" חיסל מחבלים בחוף זיקים" (in Hebrew). Walla! News. Archived from the original on October 19, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  18. ↑ "The alertness of the kibbutz's first-response team resulted in the terrorists' elimination". Archived from the original on 2023-12-05. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  19. ↑ "Gallant on Gaza border: 'This will be a massive, deadly, exact, and decisive war'". Israel National News. 2023-10-15. Retrieved 2023-12-25.
  20. ↑ Fabian, Emanuel (2023-11-10). "IDF says it killed several top Hamas commandos in a series of raids". The Times of Israel.
  21. ↑ "IDF eliminates Hamas Northern Brigade sniper commander". TASS. 2023-11-10. Ahmed Musa was one of the commanders of the invasion into the Zikim Base, Kibbutz Zikim, and the Yiftach Post.
  22. ↑ Fabian, Emanuel. "Navy says it killed 5 terrorists hiding on Zikim beach". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 11 October 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  23. ↑ "Israeli army tweets video that appears to show soldiers shooting Palestinians who surrendered". The Observers - France 24. 2023-10-13. Archived from the original on 2023-10-16. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
  24. ↑ "Al Jazeera English on X". Al Jazeera English. 13 October 2023. Archived from the original on 22 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  25. ↑ @AlArabiya_Brk (11 October 2023). "مراسل العربية: الجيش الإسرائيلي يقول إنه قتل 8 من مسلحي حماس في زيكيم" [Al Arabiya correspondent: The Israeli army says it killed 8 Hamas militants in Zikim]. (tweet) (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 2023-10-17. Retrieved 2023-10-11.
  26. ↑ "Residents of Zikim near Gaza given 'all clear' after suspected security incident". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 2023-10-17. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
  27. ↑ "IDF soldiers eliminated a terrorist on Zikim beach". Israel National News. October 13, 2023. Archived from the original on October 19, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  28. ↑ "Iran Update, October 17, 2023". Institute for the Study of War. October 17, 2023. Archived from the original on October 19, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  29. ↑ "Fresh infiltration alarm sounds in Zikim after sea-borne attack". Times of Israel. 2023-10-24. Archived from the original on 2023-10-29. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  30. ↑ "Hamas divers trying to sneak onto Israeli shore killed, IDF says". Archived from the original on 2023-11-07. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
  31. ↑ "Navy intercepts Hamas divers attempting sea infiltration near Kibbutz Zikim". Archived from the original on 2023-12-04. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
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