"When we arrived at the base on October 7, we were shocked to discover that our readiness equipment was gone; there were no weapons, helmets or vests," fighters from an elite unit in Israel's Border Police revealed for the first time on Wednesday on KAN's Reshet Bet radio channel.
The statements come as part of a wider debate about the failures of Israel's military and security forces on October 7, when Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel, murdering over a thousand and taking 240 hostages to Gaza.
The special unit fighters said they had arrived at their Jerusalem base with the goal of traveling to fight in the Gaza border communities on October 7, only to discover that their standby equipment had vanished.
The soldiers, who were eager to protect their people, were then left with nothing to do for two days after being prohibited from going South.
"We trained during our service as a combat force in built-up areas to rescue hostages, respond to terrorist attacks, and sacrifice ourselves," testified reserve Staff Sergeant Major R. "We found ourselves walking around doing nothing when we could have saved lives."
"Only at the end of the first day were we given weapons without any additional accessories. We asked to go down to the South, and it turned out that they had sent an emergency vehicle to rescue one of our fighters who lived in the South and another vehicle that was traveling south was returned."
"For two critical days, we remained at the base without equipment and with nothing to do. When we had already received the equipment, they forbade us from going down to the South; they ordered us to stay at the base in Jerusalem," he said.
Res. St.-Sgt.-Maj R added that looking back, he realized the fighters could have contributed to clearing the border communities of terrorists and called it "delusional" that they were unable to.
Res. St.-Sgt.-Maj R told Reshet B that the reason for the unit not being deployed was apparently that they did not belong to the Southern sector.
However, Res. St.-Sgt.-Maj R insisted that in an event of this magnitude, a departure from the norm was necessary.His unit was told they were forbidden to go outside the borders of Jerusalem - their remit.
The fighters were asked to travel South in their private vehicles but were forbidden to do so.
Res. St.-Sgt.-Maj R said he was left with a bitter sense of loss.
"You know that your friends are being murdered, and you sit at the base and wait to be told what to do. In an event of this magnitude, forces, especially special forces, are deployed to the sector that is being attacked and act as reinforcement."
After two weeks of not fighting, Res, St.-Sgt.-Maj R chose to stop volunteering in the reserve unit.
Police response
The Israel Police responded to the statements by saying that the reserve and regular soldiers in the unit prevented a significant escalation in Jerusalem, which is the reason they were not deployed South.
"Israel Police officers in general and Border Guard fighters in particular were the most significant force that responded to the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023," it said.
However, the police added that this particular special reserve unit, which was based at the Jerusalem Naval Academy, was only operationally activated for the first time on October 7.
"All reserve fighters were deployed in an orderly and rapid manner, and on that same day, all fighters had full combat equipment," the police said.