Lieutenant Ilan Elharar

When the lead commander was injured, Ilan realized she was the commander in the field. An operations officer of the 13th Battalion in Golani, Ilan was the one who managed the base’s headquarters in Nahal Oz. About one hundred terrorists infiltrated the base early in the morning under the cover of a missile attack. Ilan gathered the troops in a safe room and ran to the headquarters from which she conducted the battle. When she realized that the forces coming to help were first assigned to the civilians on kibbutzim, she put tanks into positions and called up helicopters, working with them on locating targets. After four hours of fighting, the terrorists surrounded the headquarters and managed to lob grenades inside; these exploded and caught fire. Ilan encouraged everyone to take a risk and attempt an escape; she and other soldiers ran to a bathroom where she remembered that there were windows without bars, searching for the windows through heavy smoke. Six soldiers managed to escape through the two windows; together they hid in the bushes and made contact with special rescue forces. Altogether, about seventy soldiers were saved, thanks to the fighters and tank forces that defended them and the rescue forces that eliminated the remaining terrorists.