On July 21 around 7 a.m., IDF soldiers hit the footpaths of Nir Am, a kibbutz located a few hundred meters from the Gaza Strip border. The soldiers passed through all the houses, knocked on every door and checked with the residents to make sure that everything was OK. They went to great efforts to check the alleyways, day care centers, hothouses and grounds of the entire kibbutz.
Meanwhile, the residents were instructed to lock themselves in their homes, bolt the doors and not open them to anyone. Half an hour earlier about 15 Hamas terrorists had appeared on the scene, dressed like IDF soldiers: the same uniforms, the same equipment. They emerged from a tunnel a few hundred meters away and ambushed the large IDF force that faced them. They succeeded in killing an officer, Lt. Col. Dolev Keidar of blessed memory, and three of his soldiers before the terrorists were eliminated by an aircraft, a tank and IDF infantry forces. Now, the mission was to check whether any terrorist had survived to infiltrate the kibbutz and carry out a terrorist act for bargaining purposes: to kill as many civilians as possible and try to abduct some to take back to Gaza through the same tunnel.
