Pri Gan

Pri Gan was attacked by Hamas terrorists with the aim of massacring the residents of the community and kidnapping them to the Gaza Strip. Miraculously, none of the moshav residents were injured or killed, thanks to the incredible bravery and selflessness of the security chief Benny Meshulam and the civil defense team of neighboring Moshav Shlomit. Along with two civil defense team members of Pri Gan and two police officers who happened to be on the moshav at the time, they fought a fierce battle with the terrorists for several hours, until the invaders retreated, leaving the community intact. Sadly, one policeman and four members of Shlomit’s civil defense team were killed in the fighting, and five others were injured.

The initial invasion began at the house of retired army officer Yonatan Ben Na’im, who shot at the door to keep them away. In response, the terrorists surrounded the house and shot in his direction from all sides, and when Yonatan and his family members closed themselves in the safe room, they even opened fire inside the house, into the safe room through a small opening in the window shutters. Yonatan’s son posted from the safe room in the WhatsApp groups where he relayed their location to local security teams.

In response, and despite the risk of leaving their own families unprotected during what was unfolding as a complex attack, three members of Shlomit’s civil defense team took off for Pri Gan, to save their neighbors. They were met with gunfire and within a few minutes, all three members of Shlomit’s team were injured. Benny Meshulam called for back up, “Come, come quickly, we have two here in critical condition, if you do not come we will lose them.” A second team arrived at the scene, but they as well were shot and injured, leading to an additional call for reinforcements. The third team was warned to avoid the main road, since “anyone who arrives there has been shot.” The third team was also shot at, but by that time the group from Shlomit had discerned where the gunfire was coming from and began to fire towards the source.

Shlomit resident Bachor Sweid was on holiday with his family members in Moshav Shuva, a 30 minute drive from Pri Gan. Early on Saturday morning he sent messages to Benny Meshulam, asking for updates on the unfolding situation, but his messages went unanswered, and having seen news of the invasion, he raced to help them. Tragically, he encountered many terrorists on the roads near the moshav, and was killed around the Magen junction before he could make it to his friends.

After several hours, a small group of IDF soldiers from the Karakal unit arrived to help, but by then, the terrorists had left. “They just understand that they are not managing over here, so they picked up their feet and ran off,” Meshulam explained. “We paid a heavy price, but it comforts us a bit that we succeeded in preventing a massacre in an entire community.” From the moshav’s perspective not a single person was injured in Pri Gan.

When asked what might have happened had they not gone out in Pri Gan’s defense, civil defense team member Yehuda Rabinowitz said, “In the investigation afterwards they found explosives, RPGs, they found tools to break in, to open the windows of the safe rooms, like they did in other communities, and we prevented that.” Another team member, Oz Glick added, “I don’t want to think about it, it’s only in my worst imagings. But they would have gone from house to house.”