IDF to Arm Border Lookouts, Move Bases to ‘Safe Distance’

Photo Credit: Moshe Shai/Flash90

An Israel Defense Forces guard tower near Kibbutz Nahal Oz and the Gaza Strip, May 17, 2018.

The Israel Defense Forces has decided to provide all female field observers (“tazpaniot”) with weapons and move their bases back from the borders in the north and the south, the military said on Thursday.

The decision by the army’s Ground Forces branch comes 14 months after dozens of field lookouts were killed and many others were taken captive during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist assault on southern Israel.

As part of the lessons learned following the cross-border attack, soldiers assigned to monitor movements on the borders will be given X95 Tavor assault rifles in the coming six weeks. On October 7th, they were unarmed.

In addition, lookouts will no longer be stationed at outposts along the frontier but will carry out their job at a “safe distance.” The IDF said the move would be executed as part of a “multi-year plan.”

Avi Marciano, whose daughter Cpl. Noa Marciano was among the seven observers who were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from the Nahal Oz base on Oct. 7, 2023, and was subsequently murdered in captivity, told Ynet on Thursday: “If only they hadn’t been there on the border. If only they would’ve had weapons. If only the war room would’ve been protected.”

“Everything could’ve been different. I would give everything so that everything would’ve been different,” the bereaved father said.

In May, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum released video footage of Hamas terrorists abducting the IDF observers on the morning of Oct. 7. The footage, captured by Hamas body cameras, revealed the violence and trauma experienced by five of the seven spotters taken alive.

The decision to release the video clip was made by the families of the five spotters who remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip after 427 days: Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Daniela Gilboa and Naama Levy.

The other two observers captured alive were Ori Megidish, whom the IDF rescued in October, and Marciano, who was murdered at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital and whose body was retrieved in November 2023.

Israeli intelligence failed to detect the Hamas plans to attack on Oct. 7, apparently ignoring repeated warnings from the lower ranks, including female lookouts stationed along the border with the coastal enclave.

In January, Israel’s Walla news outlet cited military sources as claiming that while the IDF was aware of Hamas’s repeated attempts to blow up the security fence on the Gaza border in preparation for the invasion, higher-ups opted to dismiss the rehearsals as “provocations.”

An intelligence document compiled by the Gaza Division three weeks before Oct. 7 warned that Hamas was preparing for an attack in which at least 200 hostages would be taken.

The memo, which was internally circulated on Sept. 19, 2023, was brought to the attention of at least some top intelligence officials in the military’s Southern Command, Israel’s Kan News reported on June 17, 2024.