Israeli soldier Nimrod Palmach fought Hamas on October 7 and now fights the scourge of anti-Semitism

Israeli soldier Nimrod Palmach fought Hamas militants on October 7. After seeing many dead bodies and women who had been raped, he was shocked to hear of Australia’s response.

Israeli Soldier Nimrod Palmach at the Sydney Opera House yesterday. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

Israeli soldier Nimrod Palmach thought he would die on October 7. He made a farewell video to his two young children before driving past hundreds of dead bodies, many of them half-naked women who had been raped, to confront the waves of Hamas terrorists pouring into Israel.

He killed many of the militants, saved lives and somehow survived the apocalyptic day, which left 1200 Israelis dead. He thought he could no longer be shocked, until a friend from Australia called several days later to tell him that chants of “kill the Jews” and ”gas the Jews” had been made at a ­­pro-Palestinian rally outside the Sydney Opera House.

After all that he had just seen, this news from supposedly friendly Australia was like a gut punch to the former special forces soldier.

“It was really amazing because at that time Israel had not done anything yet (in response),” he tells The Weekend Australian.

Major Nimrod Palmach with his daughter, Aluma.

“We had not even struck Hamas, we hadn’t launched our attack. I thought this (protest) was an act of hypocrisy and pure anti-Semitism, pure hate of Israel.”

Now Mr Palmach, 39, is visiting Australia to tell his remarkable story and to spread his message that Israel’s fight against Hamas is a global battle against jihadism which is critical for like-minded democracies such as Australia.

“It’s not just Israel against Hamas – I feel this is a jihadist war against Western civilisation, and Australia and Israel are the same, we share the same values like human rights, empathy, love, dignity, unity,” he says.

Mr Palmach says those engaging in anti-Semitism in Australia and around the world need to remember the true horror of what unfolded on October 7.

“If I show you the pictures and video of what Hamas did on that day, and the celebrations in Gaza by the Palestinians, you would have to have a really moral twisted backbone in order to support Hamas and be against Israel,” he says.

In the early morning of October 7, Mr Palmach – who heads the NGO Israel-is and is a major in ­Israel’s reserve forces – was at home when he heard about the terrorist invasion from Gaza.

He decided alone to go and confront the terrorists and, believing it was a suicide mission, he made a brief farewell video to his two children, aged four and seven, before pulling on his army uniform, grabbing a pistol and driving at breakneck speed towards the areas under attack.

As he neared the kibbutzes that were under attack, he saw more and more bodies along the road, mostly young people who he later realised had been trying to escape the Supernova music festival.

“What I witnessed was like a second Holocaust, there were so many vehicles around me, some of them were burned and there were dead bodies all over. It was a rampage of murder and hate. The women I saw were either fully naked or half naked. They were all really young so these were people who managed to run away from the (rave) party and they were caught in different ambushes of Hamas on the highway.”

Eventually he arrived at Kibbutz Alumim, where some 20 ­Israeli soldiers were trying to fight off about 30 Hamas terrorists who were trying to enter the kibbutz. Mr Palmach joined with the Israeli soldiers in a firefight which he says lasted almost three hours.

Eventually the soldiers killed the attackers, saving the kibbutz. Mr Palmach then moved on to nearby Kibbutz Be’eri, where more than 130 people were being massacred by Hamas.

Major Nimrod Palmach raced to battle Hamas terrorists on October 7.

“You just saw bodies everywhere and blood, puddles of blood everywhere in the kibbutz,” he recalls. “They had tortured, they had raped. The terrorists had made meals while the families were tied up and then they cut body parts of their kids in front of their parents.”

He says the soldiers he was fighting with slowly began to liberate the kibbutz from Hamas, moving from house to house.

“We killed most of them but many soldiers also died,” he says.

On the bodies of the terrorists they found instructions about the attack. “We found maps of the kibbutzes and lists of what to do and what not to do. Not to do meaning how many women you are not allowed to rape here and kill because you need to bring them back (as hostages). And what to do with soldiers after you kill them, you need to either burn or behead them and to take (vision) on iPhones. They were really organised with the killing,” he says.

Mr Palmach says he is angered by the silence of many women’s rights groups about the sexual ­violence by Hamas that he saw.

“This is one of the worst things I have witnessed since October 7, the hypocrisy of the women’s rights organisations around the world. The women in Israel have been victims of one of the most barbaric attacks ever in the world against women. Hamas has raped them, mutilated them, cut out their organs. And I saw it with my own eyes. And this is really, really unfortunate that those women in leadership positions cannot say this is wrong, this is appalling, this is something we are truly against.”

Mr Palmach is visiting Australia only briefly because he needs to return to Israel and resume his military duties in the war. He says Israel is completely unified in its determination to defeat Hamas.

“There is zero debate about this in Israel. Everyone understands we have to strike Hamas to a point it no longer exists as an armed force. It’s not just for Israelis, it’s for the Palestinians – not just for our region, for the entire world.”