I have taken part in a few incursions into the Gaza Strip, but I have to admit that I have never been this scared. The intensity of the war, my family situation, including a son who’d been injured and undergone a long recovery, stirred up many conflicting thoughts. Yet when we received final approval from the IDF last Thursday to join the troops for a day, all my doubts dissipated.
By Friday, we were on our way down South to join up with the Negev Brigade, a reserve infantry brigade, as it traversed to Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip.
Civilian communities on Gaza border turned into makeshift military bases
Immediately after the war broke out, many of the kibbutzim that border Gaza were turned into makeshift military bases, a different pace from previous military operations, where civilian activity mostly continued as usual. Today, barely any civilians remain in any of the communities.
“Up until October 7, we were reservists,” one soldier stationed in the area said. “Now, we are all soldiers. Some of the reserve units’ equipment was antiquated, but now we have everything we need.”
We were then informed that no journalists were being let in, since Southern Command Commander Maj.-Gen. Yaron Finkelstein needed the vehicle to meet with Negev Brigade Commander Ivri Elbaz in Beit Hanun, and view firsthand the enormous number of tunnels that were dug from inside residents’ homes and in fields. “Our troops always need to be on guard, since terrorists are always popping up from tunnels we have not yet identified and shooting at any soldiers,” another soldier added.
One of the soldiers from the Rotem Brigade and Sayeret Givati, the brigade’s reconnaissance company, said that one of their regiments stationed on the Israeli side of the border encountered Hamas terrorists a few times who were trying to infiltrate Israel through tunnels.
None of them succeeded, but this served as another example of the complexity of the war. Everywhere underground Gaza has been turned into a massive complex “metro,” making it that even if the IAF and ground forces succeed in destroying Hamas infrastructure above ground, the tunnels remain another front.
Shir, one of two female paramedics who were called up for reserve duty on October 7, was a border guard during her mandatory service, then trained to become a paramedic with Magen David Adom. She said “hopefully there won’t be too many casualties. We all have families back home waiting for us, some of us have kids. We sleep on the ground just like everybody else; it’s all part of the job.”
When the time came to finally enter Gaza, a last-minute briefing by security officials explained that we would be entering alongside a convoy of tanks and armored personnel carriers, so loud it is difficult to hear the commander.
The greatest concern, the officials explained, was coming under fire from anti-tank missiles fired by terrorists popping out of the tunnels, and quickly disappearing back underground. Dror Aharoni, 56, the driver of the nearby APC, stopped doing reserve duty 12 years ago.
He is not the only retired reservist who volunteered when the time came to drive a personnel carrier: “They needed experienced drivers, five of us volunteered. We know how to get the job done, we are going in and doing what we have to do.” The heavy carriers don’t move very fast, but Aharoni pressed down hard on the gas pedal to move as quickly as possible.
Remembering Bei Hanun
The main concern was coming under fire from anti-tank missiles, a common occurrence. As we began the drive to Beit Hanun, we passed an area I recalled from my service during operations Protective Edge in 2014, Cast Lead in 2008, and Summer Rains in 2006. Beit Hanun today looks nothing like it then.
We met Elbaz in one of the few buildings that remains more-or-less intact. Before October 7, more than 40,000 Palestinians lived in Beit Hanun; none remain now. During the window of time Israel gave Gazans to relocate to the southern part of the Strip, Hamas booby-trapped a large portion of these buildings.
As someone who served many years in Sayeret Givati, and fought in almost all of the operations in Gaza, Elbaz, 39, knows the area well. During Operation Hot Winter in 2008, as the assistant company commander of the Palsar Unit, which specializes in counterterrorism, intelligence, hand-to-hand combat, and tunnel warfare, Elbaz was wounded by friendly fire.
After recovering, he returned to service and was appointed commander of the reconnaissance battalion, currently one of the most experienced commanders in combat operations in the Gaza Strip. Agreeing that this war was certainly different from any previous operations, he spread out a map on the kitchen table of the home, and explained how the IDF is coordinating all of its combat operations, and marking the locations of tunnels uncovered so that as many as possible can be destroyed.
Climbing up the stairs, we were given a clear view of Netiv Ha’asara and the broken security border fence. A few days ago, a number of terrorists tried to breach the border using underground tunnels. Kibbutz Erez and the Ashkelon power station could also be seen from this vantage point, which clarified for me instantly how much information about the border the architects of the October 7 massacre had from just observing everything from here. You could see everything.
“From here, you can see all of the orchards that, until just a few weeks ago, were bursting with date, pomegranate, and olive trees,” explained Elbaz. “You passed by their destroyed remains on the way here today.”
A division commander began then to describe the incomprehensible network of tunnels uncovered underground that reach from Gaza to Israel. Elbaz estimated that 80% of the homes in Beit Hanun have some sort of terrorism-related infrastructure underneath, and were outfitted with explosive materials and booby-trapped in the days leading up to IDF’s ground invasion.
“In previous operations, there was a much clearer division between the civilian Gaza population and terrorists. But now, the extensive network of tunnels created by Hamas is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” Elbaz concluded.
Translated by Hannah Hochner.
Comments are closed.