When terrorists broke into the home of Eran Smilansky at Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, he was waiting for them in the closet of his safe room. Smilansky, a member of the kibbutz emergency squad, had heard them roaming the paths of the kibbutz and he saw them enter his house disguised as Israeli sea commandos. At first, he wasn’t sure if they were actually Israeli troops or terrorists, but when one of the terrorists opened the door, he leaped from the closet and fired a burst of bullets. Next, another terrorist entered, and Smilansky surprised him as well. The two wounded terrorists called out for help, and through the kitchen window, he saw a group of six terrorists heading for his house. He knelt down, and with the window slightly open, he fired single but evenly timed shots. The terrorists, he says, fell one after another.
At the end of the battle at his home, he joined the kibbutz’s emergency squad and saved his father and his two daughters, who were suffering from smoke inhalation after the terrorists tried to burn them and their house. By the time the army arrived at the kibbutz that afternoon, the remaining terrorists were already back in Gaza.
