A police officer in the Israeli border city of Sderot says it was just after six in the morning on October 7 when he was alerted that the city was under terrorist attack, and he rushed to begin a day-long firefight at the police station.
“There was a big fight in here and gun shooting, and eight police officers died,” Sderot municipal police officer, Elad Buadana, told The Daily Wire in front of where the police station once stood. “That’s what remains from the place I call home.”
Sderot, a city of about 30,000, is routinely the target of rocket fire from Gaza — the attacks are so common that there was once a shelf displaying dozens of rockets fired at the city’s civilian population. The police officer said he was in disbelief when he learned that terrorists were on foot attacking the city after his commander called him to fight.
ISRAELI OFFICER RECOUNTS DAY-LONG FIREFIGHT WITH HAMAS FROM SITE OF LEVELED POLICE STATION
“I took my gun, I reloaded, and I started to drive to the city,” he said. “We saw a dead body on the sidewalk … we looked to the left and saw another one. It’s not something we are used to. We took care of the two bodies and then someone from the roof started shooting at us.”
Buadana said he wanted to get to the police station to help his fellow officers inside who were begging for help on the radio, but was fired upon again.
The police station appears to have been the main target of Hamas in Sderot, but terrorist documents obtained by The Daily Wire show that it had larger plans. A map outlining the plans for Hamas’ takeover of the city was recovered from a home attacked by terrorists by an Israeli volunteer, who shared it with The Daily Wire. It outlines Hamas intentions to take over several buildings in the city including the fire department.
A Hamas map shared with The Daily Wire by a member of Zaka who recovered it from a home attacked by terrorists on the Gaza border. It details Hamas’s plan to attack the city of Sderot.
Terrorists successfully took control of the police station, but the Israelis decided to destroy the entire station — killing the Hamas force and potentially ending any further plans it had for operations in the city.
“They decided to destroy the police station because the chief commander said ‘enough blood, I don’t want any more police blood on the street,’” Buadana recounted. “The decision to throw the police station over the head of the terrorists was a very hard decision.”
Over 20 civilians, eight police officers, and 26 terrorists were killed near the police station, a spokesperson with the Israeli government confirmed to The Daily Wire.
Buadana said he personally witnessed the IDF destroying the police station with a tank and helicopter with Hamas terrorists inside. Buadana said the police officers who escaped to the building’s roof were evacuated before the call was made to destroy the building, during the standoff which he said went on for 18 hours.
“The tank was here … and the helicopter came from the back side and they shoot together on the police station,” he said. “If you tell me to write down a script to a movie, I could not write a script like that, but when you see it in your eyes, it’s something.”
Many civilians in Sderot were shot at point-blank range by Hamas, including Dolev Swisa while attempting to flee from his car with his daughter. Amer Odeh Abu Sabila, a Bedouin construction worker heard the cries of Dolov’s wife, Odaya, and hopped in the driver’s seat to take the mother and her two daughters to safety.
When the vehicle arrived at the police station being overrun by terrorists both he and Odaya were killed, a surveillance camera shows. The 6 and 3 year old daughters survived by laying on the floor of the car, according to The Times of Israel.
In a separate incident, elderly passengers waiting for their bus to have a flat tire repaired were gunned down by Hamas terrorists. The son of Valeri Friedman, who was killed in the attack, told YNet News that the group included Holocaust survivors who were traveling to the Dead Sea for a day of leisure.
Sderot municipal police officer, Elad Buadana, said he has still not processed the horrors he saw during the Oct. 7 massacre.
Buadana said the sight of bodies in the street was too much for him to handle on the day of the attack, and that he still hasn’t processed what took place that day.
“People are dying and I see their faces,” he said. “I see people I know: the taxi driver, the man from the market, I know them.”
“I don’t believe what I was seeing, so I say ‘please replace me, I cannot see that anymore,” Buadana said, adding that he took a one hour break before returning to the site of the police station.
Buadana said he occasionally visits his family in one of the hotels holding refugees from Sderot, but remains in the city to work.
“I’m still in a war zone,” he said. “I’m still working 18 hours a day, I don’t have the time to process it.”
Police in Sderot, a city on the border of Gaza, have been collecting common goods — diapers, formula, canned food — to deliver to residents who are unable to flee. Sderot is one of the main targets of Palestinian rocket attacks
Here's officer Elad Bohdana with @KassyDillon pic.twitter.com/DgMSrERmPL
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) November 29, 2023
Residents are slowly coming back to the city, many of which request the police to walk through their homes to ensure there are no terrorists hiding before they arrive, according to Buadana. He said that one woman requested a video of her empty home from police to be reassured.
Though the city is free of terrorists, Sderot has been under frequent rocket attacks prior to the ceasefire – a reality the city is equipped for with scattered shelters all over the city and in civilian homes. Residents in Sderot have been subject to rocketfire during other conflicts and have about 15-30 seconds to run for shelter.
With many stores closed, the city stepped up by having police officers deliver goods needed by residents who are still in the city. Buadana said officers frequently deliver food, diapers, toilet paper and other products to anyone who requests them.