On the morning of Saturday, October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists opened missile and rocket fire at Israel, breached the border fence between Israel and Gaza, and penetrated into Israeli territory. When he heard that the south was being hit, Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, commander of the 99th Division — an infantry division skilled in fighting within fortified perimeters — set out for the Israeli-Gazan border even before the divisional commanders were officially ordered to the battlefront.
Hiram ordered all the soldiers of his division to enter Kibbutz Beit Kama, and he took command of two additional soldiers who were on the scene, cadets from the Officers Training Base. He assumed charge of the battle in Netivot in coordination with the police force there, and of the battles in the kibbutzim Sa’ad, Be’eri, Alumim, and Reim.
Each force that reached Hiram’s command post — from the counterterror unit, Sayeret Matkal (the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit), Shaldag (a commando air force unit), and Egoz — was assigned to protect one of the communities. During the fighting, the forces encountered more than a hundred terrorists who had slaughtered local residents. Heroically, the forces that Hiram directed into the battle rescued survivors under fire while some terrorists, firmly positioned, were still holding other survivors hostage and many of our soldiers were killed and injured.
