The IDF’s inquiry into Hamas’s attack on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 reported 340 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists swarmed the kibbutz at the height of the assault. The first to infiltrate the Israeli community, of which 101 members were murdered and 32 abducted, were terrorists in Hamas’s Nukhba forces’ Nuseirat Battalion.
The Nuseirat refugee camp is located west of the kibbutz, with the first 25 terrorists from Hamas’s elite forces reaching the area at 6:42 a.m. Hamas’s reinforcement force that arrived later in the morning initially intended to invade Netivot but retreated due to earlier clashes, and also infiltrated Be'eri.
The Nuseirat Battalion, known to Gazans as the "Guardians of Al-Aqsa," is considered a strong and significant battalion within Hamas's military wing. The force that infiltrated Be'eri was led by Abd al-Rahman, a commander in the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who was later eliminated by the IDF.
Among the terrorists who infiltrated, murdered and kidnapped Israeli civilians in Be’eri and the Nova Music Festival were also the sons of Ayman Nofal, a senior figure in Hamas's military wing and commander of the Central Gaza Brigade in the Strip. He was the first senior Hamas official to be eliminated in the war, ten days after it set off.
During the fighting, Nuseirat Battalion terrorists fired anti-tank missiles and launched drones at IDF forces. Back in January, the IDF and Shin Bet reported they had eliminated the Nuseirat Battalion’s commander, Ismail Saraj, and his deputy, Ahmed Wehbe, in an airstrike.
Saraj had previously served as a commander of a Nukhba company and was involved in the production of Hamas munitions. His deputy, Wehbe, was appointed deputy commander after the previous deputy, Abd Al-Rahman Abed, was eliminated. Wehbe held various field and command roles within Hamas, including in the terror group’s training program.