TEL AVIV (Dispatches) -- An Israeli soldier stationed near the Gaza fence has testified that he and fellow troops were ordered not to carry out their routine early morning patrol on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas launched a large-scale assault on Israeli military outposts and nearby settlements, according to new Israeli media reports cited by The Cradle.
Shalom Sheetrit, a soldier in the Golani Brigade, revealed the unusual directive during a session held by the reserve personnel lobby in the Israeli Knesset. The order effectively canceled the usual patrol along the fence until 9 a.m., a critical window during which Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, crossed into Israeli occupied territory and launched deadly attacks on army bases and kibbutzim.
“We were playing on the phone at 5:20 a.m. when suddenly a strange message came from my battalion commander,” Sheetrit said. “He said something like, ‘I don’t know why, but an order was issued that there are no patrols at the fence until nine in the morning.’” He added that such patrols were routine for his battalion, integral to border security.
The Pega outpost, where Sheetrit and his unit were based, was heavily targeted in the assault known as Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Hamas fighters reportedly killed 14 Israeli soldiers there. The outpost was responsible for guarding Kibbutz Be’eri, which also suffered an attack resulting in the deaths of over 100 Zionists.
Asked whether the canceled patrols explained why many soldiers were still asleep when the attack began, Sheetrit said he was uncertain. “In our mortar department, there was an alert at dawn, and we woke up. It’s possible that in the patrol departments, they were told not to wake up. I don’t know,” he explained.
Following the initial Hamas incursion, the Israeli military launched

 heavy airstrikes targeting Be’eri and other border kibbutzim. The strikes, which included helicopters, tanks, and drones, were reportedly intended to prevent Hamas from retreating into Gaza with captives. However, according to testimonies and reports, hundreds of Zionists and Hamas fighters were killed in these strikes, including during the controversial attack at the Nova Music Festival, carried out under the secretive “Hannibal Directive.”
The rapid attribution of all casualties to Hamas, without acknowledgment of the consequences of Israeli military actions, highlights a broader pattern of obfuscation.
Sheetrit expressed deep pain over the tragedy, saying, “Unfortunately, we were not up to the task. There were dozens against hundreds of terrorists, 25 against 150, and so we couldn’t arrive, unfortunately.”
Crucially, the revelation of a standing order to cancel routine patrols feeds into growing evidence that Israeli political and military leadership were aware in advance of the impending Hamas attack yet chose to ignore warnings. This apparent negligence allowed the operation to proceed unimpeded, serving as a pretext for harsh Israeli military onslaught on Gaza.
Multiple intelligence signals were reportedly dismissed in the days and weeks leading to October 7. Female Israeli soldiers tasked with surveillance along the Gaza fence issued warnings of an imminent attack, yet these were allegedly ignored by higher command.
“In hindsight, we could have done a lot of things; we could have listened to the observers, we could have brought up the air force, and these things didn’t happen,” Sheetrit said. He criticized senior military officials for ignoring intelligence alerts and for leadership failures that contributed to the disastrous outcome.
Further criticism is leveled at Israeli authorities for downplaying the scale of intelligence failures and the systemic issues within the military chain of command. The incident exemplifies broader Israeli strategic objectives, which include justifying aggressive campaigns in Gaza, the destruction of Palestinian urban centers, and advancing settlement expansion on occupied land.
Analysts view these revelations as confirmation that Israel’s military leadership deliberately allowed the Hamas attack to unfold, creating a pretext for further aggression against Gaza and intensifying the ongoing displacement and suffering of the Palestinian people. This episode reaffirms the urgency of international efforts to hold Israel accountable for its actions and to support the rights of Palestinians under occupation.