“We will not be taken hostage,” says Nimrod Eliraz, the sole survivor of the Nahal Oz command center, about how four soldiers fought off Hamas terrorists for hours, even without ammunition
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, the Nahal Oz military outpost was surrounded by a large group of terrorists.
Lieutenant Nimrod Eliraz, along with Lieutenant Yohai Dukhan, Warrant Officer Ibrahim Kharuba, and Sergeant Itay Avraham Ron, stood at the entrance to the outpost, protecting eighteen soldiers who were holed up in the command center, unarmed.
“We said, ‘Come on, guys, let’s get them out of here.
We won’t let them in,'” Nimrod recalls in his first interview with the Uvda TV program.
For hours, the four tried to keep the enemies at bay, but the terrorists managed to break down the door.
“There was an explosion that destroyed the main door of the post, and there was nothing separating us from the terrorists,” he said.
The grenade that didn’t explode
Yohai Dukhan and Ibrahim Kharuba set up a makeshift position at the entrance to the command center, where a heroic fight ensued.
At one point, the terrorists threw a grenade in their direction.
Yohai, seeing it land nearby, “pushed me, shouted ‘grenade,’ and threw himself on it to absorb the impact.” Luckily, the grenade didn’t explode.
With ammunition running low and shouts in Arabic demanding surrender, the four made a decision: “If this ends, we’d rather be shot in the head, but we won’t be taken hostage,” Nimrod said.
When the bullets ran out, they grabbed combat knives.
“We jumped at a terrorist with the knife in our hands, and he was surprised,” Nimrod said.
Soon after, the terrorists threw a Molotov cocktail at the military base, which quickly caught fire.
Of the eighteen soldiers inside, only seven managed to escape.
Nimrod, who was wounded, woke up in the Soroka hospital in Be’er Sheva.
“My first memory was seeing my mother on the right and my father on the left,” he said.
Nimrod continued, “I just wanted to know what happened to my soldiers and go back to the base.” He also made a point of saying that it was important to him that the parents of the female observers know: “We fought to bring them home.” Seven soldiers died defending the Nahal Oz base, and fourteen died protecting the command center.
Published in 04/28/2025 10h55
Text adapted by AI (Grok) and translated via Google API in the English version. Images from public image libraries or credits in the caption.
Reference article:
| Geoprocessing Drone Systems HPC |
| ERP and CRM Systems Mobile Systems AI |