The IDF investigation into events at Yakhini, an agricultural community near the Gaza border and located on a main road, found that a worse massacre of residents was avoided because a large number of armed forces from the military and the police arrived at the scene on their way to join other battles, were able to fight off the attack.
The local security team, numbering 13 members, had only their handguns to fend off the attack because the IDF had removed their assault rifles in 2018. The IDF found that the team had not undergone any training before the massacre and was unfit to defend the community. Only two of its members joined the fight against the invading terrorists.
Terrorists at Yakhini during the Oct. 7 massacre
On the morning of Oct. 7, a group of eight terrorists who were not part of the Hamas Nukhba force and not heavily armed set out on a killing spree at Yakhini. In the short time that they were there, four civilians, one IDF officer and one member of the Border Police were murdered. Eleven others were killed on the road leading into the community.
At 07:38 a.m., the terrorists identified three people who escaped the massacre at the nearby Nova music festival, who were sheltering outside Yakhini because the gate to the moshav was locked. They grabbed one of the three - Ilan, who had tried to get to his car to get water, and murdered him after he refused to help them get to other victims.
They then tried to grab the other two, including Ilan's partner, Ayala and her friend, Shani, who attempted to escape. Ayala was shot, but the two were rescued by a Border Police force that arrived and heard their screams.
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Some of the terrorists entered Yakhini and split into two groups and began their murderous spree. They then lay in ambush on the road outside and murdered two others who escaped the Nova massacre.
After altercations with police forces and others, three were killed and the two others escaped toward the nearby town of Netivot, where they were stopped by forces.
In Yakhini, meanwhile, three other terrorists continued their killing spree until they were killed by defenders of the community. One of them was shot inside Yakhini and the other two were ultimately found in the olive groves.
Although there were no other terrorists found inside Yakhini, residents were evacuated only on Tuesday, three days after the massacre.