[8] An account by veteran war correspondent Itai Anghel reported that "around a quarter of the people of Nir Oz were assassinated, kidnapped, or injured in a very severe way.
"[9] The Nir Oz (Hebrew: נִיר עֹז, ניר עוז), is a kibbutz in southern Israel between Magen and Nirim and was founded on 1 October 1955 as the Nahal settlement.
[14] Another armed resident, Yaron Maor, a veteran of the IDF's Givati Brigade, also shot two militants who entered his house and additional ones nearby.
[6] A sister received an WhatsApp message from her brother; Yonatan Siman Tov, in the kibbutz that "They're here, they're burning us, we're suffocating."
[17] An amateur Palestinian journalist also entered Nir Oz and recorded a live stream of the unfolding events.
In one instance, a family taking shelter in their safe room reported hearing looters inside their home rummaging through their belongings, watching Netflix, and preparing food.
[18][19] A subsequent military investigation found that the IDF failed to properly assess and respond to the situation at Nir Oz, sending troops to nearby communities under attack.
At 10:30 AM, a tank arrived at Nir Oz and fired two shells at looters in the kibbutz, but the crew did not understand the magnitude of the situation and moved on towards Nirim.
Also at around 11:30 AM, two commando companies from the Egoz Unit were dispatched towards Nir Oz and Kissufim but they encountered militants along the way and battled them before being diverted to other tasks without the IDF Southern Command having been notified.
[2] Hamas militants killed the Israeli-American Kedem-Siman Tov family in their secure room at the kibbutz, including three adults and three children under the age of seven.
[23][24] BBC Verify reported that some social media users denied that the Kedem-Siman Tov family had been killed.
[25] The killing of Bracha Levinson, an elderly woman from Nir Oz, was reportedly filmed and posted on her Facebook wall by Hamas.
[32][33] Prominent abductees from Nir Oz include Polish-Israeli historian Alex Dancyg and Israeli journalist Oded Lifshitz.