Amit Yerushalmi, who served in the IDF as a lookout at the Nahal Oz base near the Gaza border, spoke Tuesday to the civilian committee investigating the October 7 failures.
Yerushalmi completed her IDF service one month before the October 7 massacre.
"I saw training exercises," she recounted. "It used to be an exercise once a month, twice a month. It turned into once a week and slowly, slowly, became several times a week, and even several times a day. I also saw a change in where the exercises were held. There were times that the training exercises were not held in the training area, which was also suspicious. I saw an increase in disruptions of order on the border."
"During the last period, there were insane disruptions of order. And in addition to that, there was also the line of trucks, which at my last count was really three times a day, a line of trucks traveling on the road from Netiv Ha'asara to Kerem Shalom, about 30 trucks with armed terrorists in them, with cameras and Hamas and Palestinian flags."
"There was no instruction regarding what to do in case of a raid. We were supposed to continue sitting in front of the screen in the war room."
She continued and stated that for two years she and her friends were sure that the IDF authorities were taking their information seriously: "We sat there, and we were certain that they were listening to us and doing something with our information. In light of the result, I understand that they did not do anything with it. When commanders, the Chief of Staff, the Defense Minister, visited the base - they came to see Golani. They did not go into the war room, they did not even go in to tell us thank you for protecting them during their visit."
Eyal Eshel, father of lookout Roni Eshel who, was killed on October 7, said, "This is a very special and painful morning for me, personally, as Roni's father. Because this morning we will hear testimonies from the lookouts - testimonies which directly connect to what will happen in two days from now: On September 19, the moment the government of Israel responds to our appeal to the Supreme Court and publicizes its position regarding a demand to create a governmental investigative committee. And from here I turn to the citizens of the State of Israel: Listen to the testimonies of these dear girls, and tell me: Is it not obvious that we must set up a governmental investigative committee so that these testimonies can be heard before it?"