Shitrit said during his testimony that at 5.20am on 7 October:

We were playing on the phone and suddenly a strange message came up from my deputy commander, … and what he says on the radio is something like this: ‘I don’t know why, but an order was given that there would be no patrols in the (Gaza) fence until 9am

And sure enough, an hour later, at 6.30am, suddenly sirens.