How the Massacre of Ignored Female Soldiers Came to Symbolize Oct. 7 Failures – WSJ

NAHAL OZ BASE, Israel It was about 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7 when dozens of heavily armed men burst into view on Maya Desiatnik s video screen. The Israeli soldier, charged with monitoring a stretch of the Gaza frontier, picked up the radio at her side and raised the alarm.

There is a Turkish knight! she said, using the Israeli military code word for an incursion into Israeli territory. Palestinian militants were breaching the border. 

For months, Desiatnik, now 20 years old, and her colleagues in the observer unit, all of them young women, had warned their superiors repeatedly and with increasing vehemence that the Islamist militant group Hamas seemed to be preparing a major attack. Their concerns were dismissed.

Now, they were watching as their fears became reality, playing out on video screens in the observers situation room. The women issued urgent warnings to troops in the field. When more than 150 militants swarmed their base, about half a mile from Gaza, they started frantically calling for help.

None came. In the end, around 50 soldiers at the Nahal Oz base, including 15 observers, were shot or burned to death by militants. Seven observers were kidnapped and taken as hostages to Gaza.  

via www.wsj.com