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Israel-Hamas war: How a legendary IDF commando was killed on October 7
“We knew he went out on missions, of the type that the Shaldag [Unit] carries out, to bring intelligence from all kinds of places, but he didn’t talk about it and we didn’t know a great deal more than that,” Zeevik Rosenthal tells me as we sit on the sofa at his family’s well-appointed house in Mevaseret Zion. “Only after his death, we saw all sorts of medals and awards describing how he was in countless operations, and 550 people came to the funeral, mostly from the unit, all with similar stories… and suddenly you receive the full picture of who your son was.”
Zeevik’s son, Chief Warrant Officer Ido Rosenthal, was a legendary fighter of the Shaldag (Kingfisher) commando unit, one of the IDF’s most senior and classified units. He was killed on October 7 in the first hours of the Hamas rampage through the Gaza border communities.
Apparently on his own initiative, Ido left his home in Moshav Ben-Shemen and made his way to the Shaldag base. From there, together with a few comrades, he headed south. In the first chaotic hours following Hamas’s destruction of the border fence, with the official defense structures hardly functioning and the civilian communities largely without defense, he and his colleagues hurled themselves at the enemy. They were heavily outnumbered. They did not hesitate. The cost was high.
So I am at Zeevik’s house to try to piece together the events of that day and to explore a single one of the accounts by which, on October 7, official structures of Israel descended into chaos and dysfunction for a period of several deadly hours, and nonetheless individuals and small groups of Israelis stepped into the resultant void. And I want also to take a closer look at one of those individuals, not necessarily in order to generalize from the particular to the communal.We were joined at the house in Mevaseret by Ido’s sister, Noa Ziv. The portrait of Ido that emerges, as we sift through the photos and documents that Zeevik places on the table in front of us, is of a singular and very far from ordinary man.
Ido Rosenthal in the IDF
A regular soldier, Ido Rosenthal spent the greater part of his adult working life as a fighter of the Shaldag Unit. So we should begin by understanding a little about this unique and most discreet of Israeli military formations.
Nothing much exists officially with regard to it. Its veterans, like Ido, don’t tend to go into detail. Nevertheless, a fair amount of general information can be gathered.
Formed in 1974 by colonel Muki Betser, the unit was initially intended to specialize in forward air control. Today it has moved far beyond that function. Now it specializes in long-range penetration deep inside hostile territory, special operations, and reconnaissance inside enemy areas, often related to intelligence-gathering tasks. From its beginnings as a reserve company of the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, it is now operated from within the Israeli Air Force.
“Shaldag’s mission as forward air controllers is only their rather outdated and official task,” a former Military Intelligence officer of my acquaintance tells me. “They are an integral part of every war and major operation.”
As to the precise nature of the actions in which Ido took part, it’s not possible to say. But among the very long list of operations that are associated with this small unit during the period of his service, according to unofficial sources, are Operation Orchard, the mission to destroy the Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007; and Operation Sharp and Smooth, a successful raid on Baalbek in southern Lebanon during the 2006 Second Lebanon War. In the former operation, according to the Sunday Times, Shaldag fighters, operating on the ground in Syria, carried out their classic role of identifying targets for aircraft, and infiltrating and marking a depot adjoining the plutonium reactor under construction at al-Kibar.
Shaldag is one of the very top tier of Israel’s special forces units. It shares this distinction with the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit; Shayetet 13, the naval commandos; and Unit 669, the airborne rescue unit. This is the environment in which Ido spent his working life, with breaks to study visual communications at Hadassah Academic College in Jerusalem, and to travel. And to raise three children with his partner, Noga, in Ben-Shemen.
Ido Rosenthal, the man
Ido loved nature, hiking, and hard traveling. “He went once from Mongolia to China on a motorcycle, all the way across China and to Thailand – 3,500 km. on a motorbike,” Zeevik tells me.
Ido was of Hungarian and Iraqi Jewish origin, and grew up in Jerusalem. As a young man in his early 20s, already four or five years into service in Shaldag, he sometimes used to come out to the city’s music bars, to have a beer and meet with friends. I was a part of that scene, too, about 20 years ago, and he and I had a number of mutual friends. I even remember him from those days, as I told Zeevik and Noa.
What I chiefly remember about him (which I didn’t tell them) was a sort of contrast.
On the one hand, I remember that Ido had an unmistakable physical presence. That is, he was very obviously an unusually tough man, with an easy fluency about his movements suggesting supreme physical fitness.
On the other hand, there was absolutely nothing assumed or pretentious about any of this. He did not refer to his military service, had no interest in conveying any image, still less any aura of mystery, and he liked talking to people about all the things people who gathered in those places liked to talk about – music, beer, sometimes history and politics, as I remember. No arrogance or nonsense about him.
I only spoke to him a couple of times and don’t claim to have known him or to have been his friend. Ido’s cousin, however, Ziv Adika, with whom he was very close, is a good friend of mine from those days. Ziv played the bass in a Jerusalem punk band that was well known around those times. Ido used to go to their concerts when he was home on leave.
“I gave him a poster of Crass [a well-known British anarchist punk band from the 1980s] once,” Ziv tells me as we sit in his apartment in central Jerusalem. “You remember that one, with the dead guy’s hand and the message ‘Your country needs you’? Ido stuck it up at the Shaldag HQ, but they made him take it down.” We laugh. “But they loved him there, you know? And because he was so good at what he did, like 100% and a lot more, they let him get away with those things.
“He never had fear. Of Anything. As kids in Ramot and the German Colony we used to jump off roofs, over fences, and he was just without fear. There are people like that, right?”
So it would seem. The following is an account of Ido’s activities on the morning of October 7 as related to me by his father and sister, who in turn base it on many conversations with comrades from Ido’s unit.
October 7
On that morning, at just after 8 a.m., having become aware of the events in the South, Ido left his home in Ben-Shemen. He made his way to the Shaldag base, somewhere in central Israel. At the base, the unit maintains a number of helicopters fully equipped for emergency response. Other fighters had already begun to gather there. Ido was assigned to a four-man team, led by the Shaldag deputy commander. He was the No. 2 in this hastily assembled group. They boarded the helicopter after equipping themselves for action and receiving weapons. They took off around 9:30 a.m. The helicopter landed at Kfar Maimon.
Shaldag’s helicopters are loaded with small, rough-terrain vehicles which the unit uses to travel across hostile territory on its deep penetration missions. The four fighters boarded one of these and began to head in the direction of Kibbutz Be’eri. Hamas had already entered the kibbutz and were in the midst of slaughtering its inhabitants.
On the road, the Shaldag men came across a lone Hamas terrorist. They killed him in the short exchange of fire that followed.
Arriving at an IDF position, they were told by the officer commanding there that they could go no further. “Ahead of here there’s areas containing and controlled by terrorists,” he told them.
“That’s what we came for,” the commander of the Shaldag force replied, and they continued on their way.
Somewhere in the course of all this, they had picked up another two reserve fighters, so the team now numbered six.
Arriving close to Be’eri, the team identified a large group of around 30 Hamas terrorists making their way across the open ground from Be’eri in the direction of Kibbutz Alumim. The Shaldag men decided to engage. Exiting the vehicle, they left two fighters next to it as a rescue force if needed. Four, including Ido, went forward, advancing as an infantry section across the open ground.
At the appropriate distance, the four charged the group of 30, opening fire. Around 10 of the terrorists were killed in this first attack, with the remainder taking shelter behind some sand dunes in the open ground. A firefight ensued. One of the terrorists managed to get to the side of the Israeli force and opened fire. The first of the Shaldag men was wounded. A round went through his hand, penetrated his ceramic vest and then remained between the vest and his chest. The soldier, seeing the blood spreading from his hand, assumed he was dying. Ido reached him, assessed the situation, and said that he would be okay, telling him to crawl back in the direction of the vehicle.
Making his way back to the vehicle, around a minute later the wounded soldier heard a long burst of automatic fire. This, it appears, was the burst that killed Ido, a bullet entering his neck, and wounded the commander of the team, the deputy commander of Shaldag. The two remaining members of the force pulled back, with Ido’s body.
The commander noted that the 20 or so remaining terrorists remained hidden behind the dunes, evidently looking to continue the firefight. He managed to radio back and called for a helicopter gunship, which arrived after a few minutes, wiping out the remaining Hamas men.
“And that’s it, that’s the story,” Zeevik tells me in Mevaseret Zion. “So, because of their action, they saved Kibbutz Alumim. The group [of terrorists] that was supposed to go to Alumim didn’t get there. Ten killed by Ido’s group, and the remainder by the helicopter crew. And as a result, the community was saved.”
His family speaks
We talked a while longer. More anecdotes, more memories. For example, the time that Ido, most unusually, had asked his mother to iron his class A uniform. “There’s some ceremonial army event,” he had remarked when asked the reason. And only years after, they discovered by chance that he had needed the uniform to receive the Israel Security Prize, a major citation, from then-defense minister Avigdor Liberman.
And the family gathering they had on Friday, October 6, when Zeevik and his brother-in-law, both combat veterans, had reminisced and argued about the positions along the Suez Canal prior to the 1973 war, and Ido had gathered all the family’s kids for a game of soccer as he liked to do.
“I accept all of it, and I don’t have any complaints about the specific situation that Ido came to,” Zeevik tells me, by way of parting. “He was a fighter… Ido went to save civilians. That was his profession, and he loved what he did.”
And his cousin Adika said something similar. “I used to say to him, ‘Enough already. You’ve done your part.’ But he died as he would have wanted to have died, in battle, not, I dunno, aged 70, of cancer, you know?” And then, by way of conclusion: “They didn’t bury him on Mount Herzl. Noga didn’t want that. He’s buried in a place next to Ben-Shemen. In a place of trees and nature, like he loved.”
Piecing it together
I have seen some camera footage of the Shaldag men operating around Kibbutz Be’eri. One should not imagine them as a hastily assembled, improvised force. They came in from their base in helicopters, properly equipped. They look like what they were: highly trained special forces operators moving with speed and effect.
Nevertheless, it remains the case that for many hours on October 7, the security structures of the State of Israel largely disappeared, effectively ceased to function. Ido Rosenthal was one of the small group of fighters, men and women, who stepped into the breach and chose to bear the burden and the heat of the day.
Even after they arrived at Kfar Maimon, the Shaldag men could have chosen to wait at the first position they reached for orders from somewhere or other above. Even after they continued forward, they could have assessed that the 30-strong force ahead was too numerous to engage and waited for assistance. They didn’t. They chose to go forward. Five hundred and thirty people – men, women, and children at Kibbutz Alumim – were saved. But Ido Rosenthal was killed.
May his memory be a blessing.
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Hamas claimed on Friday that it was ready to engage in negotiations that have dragged on for two weeks in Doha as a ceasefire holds in Gaza. Hamas is playing for time, and it is receiving a ceasefire for Ramadan.,
There is no urgency in Jerusalem to do a deal with Hamas. The US is focused on Ukraine at the moment and the chances of a ceasefire deal with Moscow. As such, Hamas sought to grab the spotlight on March 14 with a claim it was ready to release Edan Alexander, a hostage held in Gaza who holds US and Israeli citizenship.
Hamas said it had “received a proposal from mediators yesterday to resume negotiations, and responded responsibly and positively.” This apparently refers to various proposals floated since March 1. On March 1, the first phase of the ceasefire and hostage deal ended. Thirty-three hostages had been released in 42 days. Israel refused to move to phase two of the deal, which would have seen the rest of the hostages released and an end to the war and the IDF withdrawal from the Philadelphi corridor.
In general, Israel has been unable to get a deal with Hamas and has waited for the US to make the move. US President Donald Trump had been keen to see the hostages released, but he can’t wave a magic wand.Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, was able to get the mid-January ceasefire deal to materialize. Reports indicate that he has sought to bridge the gaps between Israel refusing to move to phase two and Hamas refusing to extend phase one. Reports say that the proposals in Doha relate to a deal to free several living hostages and some deceased hostages for up to 60 days or more of ceasefire. This would represent far fewer hostages than were released in previous deals.
Clearly, the Hamas goal is to get Israel to agree to less of its people being returned.
Hamas thinks that the US hostages held in Gaza are more important
Hamas thinks that the US hostages held in Gaza are more important because they can use a release of these hostages to potentially gain something. Hamas said on March 14 that it would release Edan Alexander, whom it called a “Zionist soldier,” and the remains of four other “dual citizenship” hostages. These are presumed to be deceased American hostages held in Gaza.
Reports have named them as Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, Judith Weinstein, and her husband, Gadi Haggai. Neutra’s parents spoke at the Republican convention in 2024. He was later declared to have been killed on October 7. “We reaffirm our full readiness to engage in negotiations and reach a comprehensive agreement on the issues of the second phase, and call for obligating the occupation to fully implement its commitments,” Hamas said.
Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office put out a statement on Friday in response to the apparent Hamas offer. “While Israel accepted the Witkoff framework, Hamas persists in its refusal and continues to wage psychological warfare against hostage families. The Prime Minister will convene the ministerial team tomorrow evening for a detailed briefing from the negotiating team, and to decide on steps to free the hostages and achieve all our war objectives.”
Meanwhile, other issues relating to the hostages appear to be in motion. Reports that Adam Boehler had withdrawn his nomination to be the US administration’s hostage envoy. However, it appears he will stay focused on US citizens detained or held abroad.
Boehler had been in the spotlight in early March when reports emerged that the US was having direct talks with Hamas. Israel’s government was put in a bind with this report. Jerusalem is afraid of angering Trump or even pushing back on Trump’s moves. As such, it was clear Israel’s government didn’t like the idea of an envoy talking directly to Hamas, but they figured they would let this go on and hope that Boehler would misstep.
That’s what happened when Boehler went on Israeli media for interviews. It didn’t go well, and he was reported to be sidelined. It wasn’t clear if this was because of Israeli pressure or perhaps because he was perceived to have horned in on Witkoff’s work or muddied the waters of the talks.
The question is whether Hamas said it would release Alexander and other Americans in order to try to keep the Boehler track of talks ongoing or if Hamas is trying to get a separate deal with the US. It appears Hamas was putting out claims that it was not communicating in public. This has left mediators nonplussed in the US and Israel. Witkoff characterized the Hamas demands as “unrealistic,” reports said.
So far, there is a lack of clarity on what Hamas is up to. What does seem clear is that Hamas has received a Ramadan ceasefire and not had to turn over any hostages for weeks. Hamas is recuperating and recovering and recruiting. In Israel, demonstrators who support the hostages and their families turned out on March 15 to demand that the hostages be returned.
Even as Hamas recruits, it continues to threaten Israel. The IDF said on March 15 that “two terrorists were identified operating a drone that posed a threat to IDF troops in the area of Beit Lahia. The IDF struck the terrorists.” Sources in Gaza claimed up to nine people were killed, which would make this the most deadly day of the ceasefire in weeks. Hamas believes it can keep the ceasefire and not have to turn over any hostages.
It is unclear if there is a quiet understanding behind the scenes on all sides that Ramadan will be quiet and Hamas will not have to do anything in return for receiving its free ceasefire. Last year, during Ramadan, there was also less intensity to the fighting in Gaza, but the IDF was still operating against Hamas. At the moment, Hamas controls most of Gaza and thinks it has won the war. It assumes Israel’s current leadership doesn’t want to remove Hamas and that Israel prefers to claim that it will defeat Hamas but not actually go back into Gaza.
Hamas also assumes it can hold onto the hostages for years into the future, releasing a few here and there to receive months of ceasefire each time and then dragging out negotiations between the ceasefires as it is doing now.
Hamas believes that inertia now favors Hamas. It likely assumes that only when elections happen in Israel or there is some incentive for Jerusalem to return to fighting, that there might be another war, and otherwise, Hamas can do as it wants. Hamas has already murdered more than 1,000 people, more Jews in one day than at any time since the Shoah, and it continues to run Gaza after 17 months. It thinks Israel is incapable of defeating it or that interests in Israel prefer to keep Hamas in power and not replace it. Hamas will have to wait and see if this is the case. Until then, it will continue to float various hostage release concepts, as it did throughout 2024, to try to create short news cycles and controversy that favor Hamas as it stalls the negotiations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to hold consultations on Saturday evening following the Israeli delegation’s return from Gaza hostage deal talks in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Israel accused Hamas of deviating from the American proposal for a ceasefire extension after the terror organization announced on Friday that it had agreed to release American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander from Gaza captivity.
Hamas also said it would return the remains of four deceased hostages with American citizenship: Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, Gadi Haggai, and Judy Weinstein Haggai. Israeli officials previously confirmed the deaths of all four hostages named by Hamas.
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff dismissed Hamas’s offer on Friday, warning the Palestinian terror organization that it could no longer play for time with a ceasefire and hostage deal.Gaza hostage deal talks have ‘failed,’ Hamas official tells BBC Arabic
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas officials told BBC Arabic that discussions on the continuation of a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal have failed.
Additionally, Dr. Tarek Fahmy, a professor of political science, told the BBC that despite a lack of movement in talks, he does not believe fighting will continue in the same capacity it did before the recent ceasefire.
Fahmy stressed he believed “there will be no resumption of the war, despite reports that Israel is preparing to launch qualitative strikes” after the ceasefire expires.
Talks continued throughout the weekend as a Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Khayya visited Cairo for updates on the negotiations in Qatar.
Amichai Stein contributed to this report.
Despite the growing criticism, Israel is standing firm in its attempt to banish the United Nations Relief and Works Agency from operating in its territory.
Since its ban came into effect on January 30, Israeli authorities have severed coordination ties with the agency, shut down schools in east Jerusalem, and effectively forced international staff to leave.
The government’s decision was largely driven by its expanding allegations that UNRWA employees hold links to terrorist organizations.
The fallout has been swift. Countries such as the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and the European Union have suspended or withdrawn funding, citing concerns over neutrality.Beyond the political maneuvering and aid cuts, the issue has added fresh scrutiny to a decades-old debate that remains unresolved: Who qualifies as a Palestinian refugee? And should this status be inherited indefinitely – even by millionaires?
A refugee definition unlike any other
UNRWA was created shortly after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to assist 750,000 Palestinians displaced by the conflict. Today, its registry lists over six million refugees.
Critics argue that no other refugee group in the world operates with this mandate.
“Unlike every other refugee crisis in history, Palestinian refugees don’t decrease in number – they increase. UNRWA doesn’t resettle, it perpetuates,” says Dina Rovner, legal adviser for UN Watch. “The result? A crisis that has lasted decades longer than any other.”
Among those classified as Palestinian refugees is Jordanian-American real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid and his five millionaire children, including supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid. Twenty-nine-year-old Zahwa Arafat, the billionaire daughter of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, also retains this status.
Under UNRWA’s unique framework, all descendants of Palestinian refugees “who lost both their home and means of livelihood in Mandate Palestine between 1946-1948 are eligible for refugee status,” regardless of wealth or nationality – a stark contrast to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which removes individuals from its registries once they are resettled or naturalized.
UNRWA, though, asserts that Palestinian refugee status is determined by the UN General Assembly, not the agency itself.
“Palestinian refugees were recognized under Resolution 194 before UNRWA existed, where human rights were not subjected to economic status,” says Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA’s senior communications manager. “In mass displacements, refugee status applies collectively and passes through generations, as seen with Afghan, Sudanese, and Sahrawi refugees”
“Yet, the difference is striking. After WWII, millions were displaced, primarily in Europe, but around 1.5 million were resettled by temporary UN agencies before UNHCR took over in 1952. In contrast, 77 years later, UNRWA remains a permanent institution, even as many, like the 2.4 million in Jordan who hold citizenship, continue receiving its assistance.”
This raises a pivotal question: Does UNRWA’s approach maintain statelessness rather than resolving it?
The debate over disparities
The controversy extends beyond definitions. Critics hold that UNRWA’s budget and staff allocation raise questions about its efficiency compared to other refugee agencies.
When first established, UNRWA’s annual budget was 110 times greater than UNHCRs. Today, it employs 30,000 staff for nearly six million refugees – a 1:200 ratio. In contrast, UNHCR, which serves around 32 million refugees globally, operates with 20,000 staff, translating to one staff member per 1,600 refugees.
“There is a clear inconsistency in how the world treats the Palestinians compared to other refugees,” says Rovner. “If they were under the UNHCR, the majority would not be considered eligible.”
Fowler counters the criticism, explaining that UNRWA’s economic and service model is fundamentally different and of significant value. “It was designed as a sustained relief and works program until a viable solution is achieved, much like the 1930s US Tennessee Valley Authority.” Moreover, he adds, “the value for money is extraordinary – hiring locals not only brings local benefits but also costs 40%-50% less than employing internationals.”
UNRWA under fire
As the debate over refugee classification rages on, Israel’s reports of UNRWA’s connections to terrorism have also dominated recent discussions. Citing its intelligence findings, Israeli authorities maintain that 10% of the agency’s senior educators in Gaza have ties to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
“UNRWA’s response is always the same – to deflect, deny, and cover up. They never take responsibility. They claim to be a ‘humanitarian backbone’ in Gaza but promote Hamas propaganda, like it did with the Gaza famine narrative, which has been totally debunked,” charges Rovner.
However, there are also claims that UNRWA is being targeted politically, as Fowler indicates: “There’s a barrage of misinformation about who we are and who we’re not. We share all our staff lists with regional authorities, including Israel, and have never received pushback about specific employees before.”
Despite Israel’s push to dismantle UNRWA, many European nations have since reinstated funding after reviewing oversight measures and accounting for its critical humanitarian role. Fowler points to the recently commissioned and independent Colonna Report, which found UNRWA to have more robust neutrality standards than any other UN agency. Still, critics like Rovner, remain unconvinced, contending that the problem is systemic.
What happens if UNRWA does disappear?
With increasing calls within Israel and the United States to abolish UNRWA, the question arises: If UNRWA disappears, what happens next?
Fowler says that the organization has no intention of existing indefinitely, but it continues so far as the situation remains unresolved.
“Abolishing UNRWA ignores reality,” observes Fowler. “We are often thanked by Israeli authorities, albeit at the moment not so openly, for the work we do, because without us, the responsibility will fall on them.”
The topic of reform has come up quite a lot where UNRWA and the UN at large are concerned. Some believe that redefining Palestinian refugees under UNHCR rules could force a shift in the political deadlock. Others, though, insist not only is it too little, too late for reforms, but that they are insufficient in addressing the deeper issues.
“As long as UNRWA exists, there will always be a Palestinian right-of-return narrative that keeps the conflict alive. Palestinians have to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their own future. Without Palestinian self-determination, chances of a prosperous future are slim,” says Rovner.
Questions without answers
With funding cuts, Israeli bans, and growing global pressure, UNRWA finds itself at a crossroads. Today, it is continuing to operate, even on a limited scale – holding that as long as millions remain classified as refugees, it has a job to do.
Still, fundamental questions continue to go unanswered: Who should be classified a Palestinian refugee? Should refugee status be hereditary forever – even for those who live in luxury? Who should be responsible for the Palestinians? And what is Israel’s role?
With neither Israel disappearing nor the Palestinian refugee issue nearing resolution, UNRWA persists as a central fault line in one of the world’s most protracted conflicts. Whether the agency serves as a crucial humanitarian lifeline or a political roadblock to lasting peace depends entirely on whom you ask.
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