Fatal mix-up: How an IDF soldier killed an Israeli hero on October 7th

Ran Poslushni was a reservist sergeant and a father of four, a man who loved his kibbutz so fiercely that on October 7, 2023, he grabbed his soldier son’s rifle and stood guard over his family and a group of frightened Thai workers barricaded in his home’s safe room. That day, as Hamas terrorists swept through Kibbutz Nahal Oz in a deadly rampage, he fought from the second floor, a lone protector amid chaos—until an Israeli soldier, mistaking him for the enemy, shot him dead in his own house.

The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged this tragic error two days ago, nearly 17 months later, in a wrenching presentation to residents of the southern kibbutz, where the scars of that day still linger.

The admission came during an investigation briefing, a belated reckoning for a community that lost 15 residents and saw eight others kidnapped in the Hamas assault. Ran, 48, was not supposed to die that way. His son Ilay, 20, a soldier on leave, had left his rifle at home but was not there that night.

When the attack began, Ran seized the weapon and took up a position on the second floor, shielding his wife, Sharona, their three other children—sons Imer, 18, and Einan, 15½, and daughter Emmanuel, 7½—and the foreign workers he had ushered to safety. “Show me someone who [would] open the door on that day and shouts to Thai workers outside, ‘Come in, get inside,’” Sharona told Ynet in an interview, her voice a mix of pride and pain. “He was a man of action.”

The chaos of October 7 unfolded with merciless speed. Around 2 p.m., as Ran battled to keep the terrorists at bay, an IDF force arrived, misreading the scene. Sharona, who was with her husband moments before, recalled the shouts from outside: “Terrorist, terrorist!” She watched Ran race upstairs to respond, then heard the soldiers call out “second floor.”

Desperate, she leaned from a window, screaming, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” and urged Ran to retreat to the safe room. “I shouted, ‘Quick, come in, they think you’re a terrorist,’” she said. He was steps away from safety when the gunfire erupted. “The second he entered the house, they sprayed the entire floor,” she recounted. Ran fell, killed by a bullet intended for the enemy he had been fighting.

Sharona’s account of that moment is steeped in a haunting clarity. “If they had approached the door or tried to negotiate, they would have realized it was us,” she said, her words heavy with what might have been.

The IDF has suggested a sniper fired the fatal shot, but Sharona believes it was a squad unloading a barrage of bullets in a frantic sweep. “Everything happened very quickly,” she said. “There was an unbearable trigger-happiness.” Yet, standing beside her husband’s body, surrounded by young soldiers with “frightened faces,” she found herself offering absolution. “I told them I wasn’t angry and I understood the mistake,” she said, a gesture of grace amid her grief. “These were 19- and 20-year-old guys who thought there was a hostage situation, determined to save Jews.”

Ran’s death was not an isolated tragedy that day. The IDF investigation, presented by figures including Major General Dan Goldfus and Lieutenant Colonel Yaron Sitbon, revealed that at least two other civilians in Nahal Oz—teenager Tomer Eliaz-Arava and his mother, Dikla—were likely killed by Israeli fire in similar errors, part of the fog of war that enveloped the kibbutz as 180 terrorists infiltrated in three waves.

The briefing began with an apology: “We’re sorry we failed to protect you,” the officers told residents, a stark admission of the military’s collapse on a day that saw 15 locals murdered and two still held captive in Gaza.

For Sharona, the investigation brought answers, however incomplete. “We got answers—it was a tragic mistake,” she said. She met with the Givati Brigade commander and Lieutenant Colonel Sitbon, who had been at their home after the shooting, piecing together the sequence of events.

Ran, a member of the kibbutz’s emergency response team, was posthumously recognized as an IDF casualty, a soldier in spirit if not in uniform that day. “He was like Rambo,” Sharona said, conjuring an image of a man who refused to cower. “He wouldn’t have let anyone put him in the safe room to hide.”

The broader investigation painted a grim picture of Nahal Oz’s fate. Terrorists breached the back gate at 7 a.m., followed by waves from the north and other entry points over hours. The kibbutz’s security coordinator, Ilan Fiorentino, fell early, leaving few armed defenders. Eleven Special Police Unit fighters battled valiantly, preventing an even worse slaughter, though one died and four were wounded. Maglan commandos arrived near noon but were ambushed en route, entering only at 1:15 p.m.—too late for Ran and others. Residents, like Sharona’s children, remain defiant. “Mom, we’re going home,” they told her, despite the trauma, echoing her resolve: “We have no other country.”

The IDF declined to release full findings until Friday but issued a statement acknowledging its failure. “On October 7, the IDF failed in its mission,” it said, honoring “the bravery of the emergency response teams, IDF soldiers, reservists, and civilians who risked their lives.”

For Sharona, Ran’s legacy is indelible. “He loved the kibbutz and gave his whole life to it,” she said. “I imagine Tzachi Idan, Omri, and everyone who was kidnapped or murdered, and tell myself, ‘I’m going back there.’ We are stronger than this.” Ran chose Nahal Oz for a reason, she added—a reason that endures, even in his absence.