The IDF Archives at the Defense Ministry on Thursday published, for the first time, the official operations logs from the Southern Brigade command post on the morning Gilad Shalit was kidnapped, 20 years after the event that shook Israel for years. The records capture the confusion and uncertainty that followed the attack near Kerem Shalom, as troops tried to understand what had happened.
According to the logs, on the morning of June 25, 2006, Hamas militants crossed from the Gaza Strip through a tunnel dug under the security route and attacked an Israeli armored force operating in the area. Two IDF soldiers were killed, Lt. Hanan Barak and Staff Sgt. Pavel Slutsker, and others were wounded. In the chaos and smoke, the attackers abducted Shalit, pulled him out of the tank and quickly moved him back into Gaza.
The first log entry came at 05:13, reporting multiple explosions in the Kerem Shalom area, initially believed to be incoming fire. At 05:14, the log already noted, “There are casualties,” and called to “scramble attack helicopters.” By 06:40, more than an hour after the start, the first report said, “A soldier is missing from the tank,” and four minutes later the code word “Hannibal” was entered. The log then stated, “One soldier from the tank is unknown where! Hannibal.”
At 07:12, troops found a vest and helmet thrown near the security fence, but no signs of dragging. By 08:00, the kidnapped soldier was identified in writing: “The name of the kidnapped soldier: Gilad Shalit.” Later that morning, the log said, “The soldier is probably alive, his whereabouts are unknown, he may not be in our area.” By evening, another assessment appeared, later proven wrong, that the kidnapped soldier had been moved through a tunnel to Egypt.
