On 7 October 2023, dozens of Hamas militants attacked Alumim, a kibbutz close to the border fence with the Gaza Strip, as part of the surprise attack on Israel. There were 41 Thai and Nepalese foreigners working at the kibbutz. The militants killed between 16 and 17 of these workers and kidnapped between five and eight of them. The kibbutz's security team were too far away and unable to save the employees. The militants did severe structural damage to the Kibbutz's dairy farming operation.
After heavy fighting, the security team were able to push the militants back with the help of the Israel Defense Forces and police. No deaths among the remaining civilian population of the kibbutz were reported, although one Israeli civilian who had fled to the kibbutz after escaping the Nova music festival massacre was killed by the defenders in a case of mistaken identity. Three Israeli soldiers, two of them off-duty soldiers who had come to volunteer, and a police officer were killed in the fighting.
