Mix of chauvinism and complacency led senior officers not to heed young women who saw Hamas preparing attack

Roni Eshel told her father many times that she could see Hamas militants training for an attack near the Nahal Oz base where she served in a surveillance unit. The scale of the preparations left her frightened for her life.

She detailed the activity in daily reports over the summer and early autumn of 2023, raising the alarm together with dozens of other young women “spotters” – charged with watching a tiny section of the border in intense detail – who were posted along Israel’s border with Gaza.