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When Hamas Attacked, This Israeli Kibbutz Fought Back and Won
(Wall Street Journal) David S. Cloud - At 6:56 a.m. on Oct. 7, Moshe Kaplan sent an urgent alert to his volunteer security force in Mefalsim, a kibbutz where he served as security chief. "There's a shooting in the village from the gate!" he texted after militants fired at his car as he drove past the main entrance. He had trained a dozen men for this moment, a surprise attack from nearby Gaza. More than two dozen Hamas fighters from Gaza had arrived with orders to subdue the small security force. The volunteers rushed from their homes in helmets and protective vests, toting M16 rifles. Outnumbered and fighting alone or in pairs, the men mounted a life-or-death stand. Shaked Porat, 43, part of Mefalsim's security force, saw four armed men in vests and black jeans. Porat realized they were militants and started shooting. A resident who watched the exchange of gunfire from an upstairs window yelled a warning to Porat: "They are throwing grenades!" Porat ducked and escaped injury. When one of the militants ran from a yard into the open, Porat shot him. A second attacker raised his head from behind the car, and Porat said he shot him, too. The others ran away. A group of militants made their way to a dormitory for foreign workers employed in the kibbutz. A dozen Thai workers hiding there were loaded at gunpoint onto a wagon pulled by a tractor that steered toward the front gate. They were intercepted by the security volunteers. One of the kibbutz defenders shot at the wagon, and the militants fled, leaving the workers behind. David Rosenberg, a member of the volunteer force, stood on his second-floor balcony where he kept watch on Mefalsim's southeast fence, armed with his M16. He saw a truck carrying a dozen armed men and a motorcycle ferrying two gunmen roaring across an open field toward the fence. Rosenberg and Eli Levi, 48, start shooting at the attackers, together with Noam Kazaz, 52. Their heavy gunfire prompted the motorcycle driver to turn around. The men riding on the truck jumped off and flattened on the ground. Levi thought he could see several had been hit. They kept shooting for the next 90 minutes - until Israeli soldiers arrived. No Mefalsim residents were killed or taken hostage.