At around 5 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, the operational phone of Ch. Insp. Arnon Zamora, rang. On the other end was a senior officer from the Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit. “The Shin Bet has detected something in Gaza,” he said. “Get ready.”

Zamora, who was at the unit’s base not far from Jerusalem, where he was commanding an alert team, wasn’t told to hurry. The only information he received was to head to the Gaza periphery and take up an alert position. “We’re going to the south for the weekend,” he told his team. “Take sleeping bags with you.”

According to a testimony obtained by Israel Hayom, Zamora’s team set out after 6 a.m. and headed to Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, where they were supposed to meet representatives from the Shin Bet’s operational unit. Such an alert, known as a “tequila,” is common between the Shin Bet and Yamam and is used when intelligence is received about a possible terrorist attack in the near future.