Three weeks before the war, when Sergeant Oral arrived at Nahal Oz, he did not imagine for a moment that on 7.10 he would be part of the first line of defense between the terrorists and the outpost. 

In a chain of encounters, his squad, together with Golani fighters, killed dozens of terrorists. Now he recreates for us the dramatic hours in the base that became a dangerous battlefield, and tells about the long gunfights, the feelings in the critical moments and the spirit of the fighters that Saturday

Hello, I'm Ural, from Be'er Sheva, serving in a paratrooper patrol. My story from the war begins in Nahal Oz.

Tell me when you got there

In the three weeks before the war, we were, along with other units, reinforcing the PSADs (disorders), right on the fence. I arrive on Hol HaMoed, a week before 7.10, with my young squad that finished the course a few days before. It was a normal week.

6.10, I'm in the room, I'm told there's talk about the PSD that should take place at noon. We're getting organized, the equipment is ready. Area 14:00 We head out towards the fence, a good atmosphere inside the vehicle, nothing develops, so we return to the base in the area at half past eight in the evening .

And Saturday morning?

06:20, we get up to the color red. We run towards the migonit, which is inside the center of the company of Golani's 13th battalion. At first, especially as a southerner, I'm not very excited. We are there for a good few more minutes, about 50, 60 fighters in it. After a few minutes one of the MMM arrives luckily with a vest, he also had contact. He puts in the headset and a report comes up that there are many terrorists on the fence.

We decide to make our way towards the rooms, get on the equipment properly while the alarms sound, go out blue, come back, get on B. A last link came to put on a uniform but not enough. The HMM stops them and says "Listen, we are in a serious incident, there is an infiltration of terrorists into Israeli territory and the observations report that there are terrorists in the 60 area on their way to the outpost."

I grab my squad, report to them about the incident, while digesting what is happening. After a few minutes, we hear gunfire in our direction. The terrorists arrive in the direction of the outpost, make a kind of detour, form a crown around the base, and start shooting from the outside to the inside. Two MMMs decide to go out with two platoon, some to HML, some to ShG, and tell me "Stay here, we'll catch up."

What's going on with you in the meantime?

I'm still in the shield, left with about 30 more fighters. When the forces go out I hear bangs, and try to understand what is happening there. I decide to go out with my squad, you can't stay inside and just wait. We advance two buildings forward, to get a picture of the situation at the base. Continue towards the toilets, the last line of buildings in the outpost. I look towards the fence and catch terrorists running towards the Sheg.

I saw terrorists with my own eyes a few times during the service, but it was not something usual. We saw the evil in their eyes. They came with one goal in mind, and they didn't care who was standing in front of them.

I catch the first terrorist, identify him, shoot him, see that he has fallen and verify a kill from a distance. Another fighter kneels down, fires another bullet, hitting him from a distance of about 200 meters. Another terrorist falls. After he hits him, they open intense fire on us. We barricade ourselves inside, there is an exchange of fire between us and between them for a good few minutes.

At this point are they already inside the outpost?

Not yet. not everyone. They begin to approach the Sheg. I hear someone calling my name from the shield, "Come here, we need you." I yell back at them to give us backup fire and start jumping towards them in pairs.

In the shield there are two seriously wounded fighters. I'm sending two of my squad to help with the treatment. At this point I start talking to the force I am with in the migonit, most of them from Golani. Explains to them what is happening outside, so that they will connect to the event as well.

What were you thinking at that moment?

Thoughts of "I'll get out of here alive". I told myself there was no way I was going to die here today. I also thought there was no way I was losing any of my warriors.

I decide to take command with my guys, along with Golani. They're on my mind, there's a psychic fighting spirit in the air. There is an exchange of fire. One of my squad and one of Golani spot two terrorists coming from the south. They are getting closer, we can already hear voices in Arabic. The terrorists come out of their Zig 4 meters away from them, and we open fire on them. One terrorist was killed. The other was hit in the hand, manages to escape and we hear him calling for more terrorists.

One of the soldiers recognizes through a slit the terrorists advancing towards the center of the company and signals to me with his hand how many. He counts one, two, three, in the end he reaches seven, eight terrorists. One of my fighters replaces him, he opens a zig, surprises them and gives a few bundles. Takes down two terrorists. Suddenly they stop the fire and I feel something strange in the air. I look up, suddenly see a grenade being thrown. The grenade falls right behind me, I shout "grenade!" and ran back. I'm not that far enough away, so I accept that it's going to explode, and wait for the boom. It had fallen, not exploded.

I'm trying to contact forces to come to us, and the observers just acted like machines. We gave full reports and updates and helped us understand where the terrorists are. I am reporting on the seriously injured, their condition is starting to deteriorate.

Right now we just keep shooting. I turn around for a moment and hear someone else shouting "grenade". The second grenade was thrown, he went a little further into the shelter, stopped at the entrance. Everyone enters the room and waits for the boom. does not explode.

And the others, how do they react?

I grab one of my squad, tell him, "We're getting out of here, we're getting everyone out of here. There's no such thing as us dying here now." In the background the exchange of fire continues, we are already leaving the two Zigs. One terrorist tries to enter, I see his weapon go into the safe and shoot, and suddenly he had a stop. I run straight to his wall, and now what separates me from him is a wall. I just insert the weapon, give a few bullets and hit him. He tries to run away but I shoot him again and he falls.

Were you scared?

I don't think I had time to be afraid. I'm just following what I've learned, and in my feeling, when you're commanding soldiers in combat, you can't afford to be afraid. There are soldiers here, you'll have to take them out eventually, so grab yourself and take command.

How long did the silence last?

For another half hour, and he was interrupted by another thrown grenade. This grenade… falls in the center of the force. He was close, so we all stuck to the left corner of the room, some of my guys to his right. After 4 seconds the grenade exploded.

It was full of dust, I don't understand what is happening to me. I fell on the floor from the top. I got up, I hear that I have wounded people from Golani with me. My squad detects a terrorist trying to enter, they shoot him and he goes backwards. We leave the shelter and move to a nearby building. We identify four terrorists and kill them.

It's already 12 o'clock, I'm walking from the building to Migonit. We have two dead and six more seriously wounded, from the grenade. We divide responsibilities between us - some with the wounded and some with the Zigs. I call on my personal phone and try to get outside power.

I go out with the squad and another fighter to bring water and ammunition. Outside I recognize a force trying to enter, which is the IDF. They recognize us and we join each other. We rescued the wounded together, including the female observers who were saved. We go through and eliminate the terrorists who remained in the base, make sure that not one remains and scan the entire outpost.

What time are we talking about?

area 3:30 p.m. We take out everyone we could, including Golani's guys. I lead them out and make sure everyone is okay. I will spare you the sights that were there, there is nothing more difficult than that. I tried to avoid looking. Even now that I understand what is happening in Israel as a whole - we don't have time to mourn.

How long did you stay there?

For another night and a half with troops from Battalion 890 and several commanders, mainly from the patrol. A few more terrorists are trying to reach the fence, some to return to it. eliminate them.

How did you feel at the end of the day?

We have not experienced a voltage drop, until now there is none. I'm still in the same head, we just functioned. All that happened is what we learned all along our route. We acted, that's what I had in mind. The best feeling is that we saved whoever was possible.