“Shayetet! Shayetet! Stay in the bunker, we’re coming!”
Fighters of the IDF’s Shayetet 13 naval commando unit came to the rescue of Israelis who were trapped inside Kibbutz Sufah (Storm) on the Gaza border.
The information was cleared for publication by the IDF on Thursday, and describes in part the military response to attacks by Hamas last Saturday.
Both active and reserve forces of the unit were dropped into the fight by helicopter shortly after the first reports of the infiltration at the Gaza border on Saturday morning.
The commandos joined the forces fighting in the field for a joint effort to rescue the IDF troops who had been surrounded, and repelled the Hamas attackers.
At the same time, the forces also began fighting terrorists who had invaded the surrounding towns and those who were at sea.
The IDF described how the Shayetet fighters moved from point to point in area kibbutzim and fought the terrorists throughout the region while under fire to free the hostages.
The forces operated in many areas, specifically in the area kibbutzim of Be’eri, Sufa, Kfar Aza, Sa’ad, Mefalsim and Nir Oz.
Shayetet 13 fighters eliminated more than 60 Hamas terrorists and rescued about 250 hostages.
During the operation, 26 terrorists were arrested, among them the deputy commander of the Hamas southern naval brigade, Muhammad Abu A’ali.
Hana Levi Julian contributed to this report.
