This time, going into Gaza, I brought earplugs and a face mask.
When I last visited northern Gaza, including Shifa Hospital, I learned the hard way how thunderingly loud it was inside a “Namer” armored personnel carrier (APC) and decided that on the trip to Khan Yunis, being able to hear myself think was a priority.
Likewise, the dust that I inhaled on my last trip to Gaza – the area is so destroyed that both open and mostly closed vehicles get covered in dust – convinced me to pull out the “rainy-day” coronavirus masks that I still had lying around so I could breathe normally.
The Namer soldiers all had earphones, and many of the soldiers had their faces completely covered with thicker material than a cloth mask.
Leaving from a southern IDF base, we traveled entirely by Namer to the forward headquarters of IDF Brig.-Gen. Dan Goldfus, crammed into the tiny converted space inside a mostly still-standing building.
We sat (some on the floor and some on a table with cookies and chips) staring at a projector showing your standard army PowerPoint, sitting essentially side-by-side with officials who followed in real time the progress of forces in Khan Yunis.
Here and there, Goldfus paused to quietly issue new updated orders, before returning to addressing our group, the first media visit to the southern Gaza front.
Seeing Sinwar’s house in Khan Yunis
The next stop was Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar’s house in Khan Yunis.
Even with the earplugs, we all were disoriented when we emerged into the daylight and what was left of the street next to what was left of Sinwar’s house.
Either because of that disorientation or because the IDF first wanted to show a standing house with bullet holes and holes caused by explosions where there had been a tense fight with Hamas only two days earlier, all the reporters initially started filming the wrong house.
After interviewing and recording both Goldfus and Commando Chief Col. Omer Cohen – in front of the wrong house – we all soon realized that the main event was behind a 20-30 foot mound or artificially created dune across “the street” (there was no paved street left.)
Everyone dashed over to and up the mound – at least three reporters fell as they were climbing the steep incline, but were caught by others – to reach the top of it where we could see the enormous crater of what is left of Sinwar’s house.
Inside the crater was an assortment of shattered and contorted doors, pieces of furniture, carpets, pink and other multi-colored clothing, pillows, and a life-size large blue stuffed animal.
It was quite a sight, and standing over it physically made it clear how deeply the IDF has penetrated Gaza, even if the fight to subdue Hamas is far from over.
It looked a lot like northern Gaza, where much of the landscape had been demolished.
In contrast, much of the area we traveled through in Khan Yunis looked beaten up by fighting, but most of the structures remained intact.
If the IDF said it learned lessons from northern Gaza, one of them may have been that destroying less of the landscape in southern Gaza would allow quicker rehabilitation and a better chance to reach a more stable situation once the war is over.
Alternately, the IDF used northern Gaza to send a message to Hamas, Hezbollah, and ultimately Iran, and believed that with that, there was no reason to do the same to southern Gaza.
Southern Gaza also still holds more agricultural areas and trees, something which IDF commanders noted, that Khan Yunis is less built-up and has a more diverse landscape than the more urban Gaza City.
Trip to Khan Yunis more dangerous than the last trip
Many warning signs, however, pointed to this trip to Khan Yunis being even more dangerous than the last.
The number of air strikes and the volume of artillery fire that could be heard nearby was far higher in Khan Yunis, along with near-constant gun fire in the background.
Inside the Namer, the intense focus could be felt by the personnel. One of the operator’s vehicles was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade – he lived to tell the tale, serving as a personal testament to what these vehicles can take.
Furthermore, the security briefing, and the convoy we were part of, were far more specific, and went into detail about different battle scenarios and why the rules would be different during this outing.
Put simply, the fight was still on at the highest levels in Khan Yunis, whereas at Shifa, Hamas had been cleared out not just of the block, but most of the nearby area.
In Shifa, many of the questions that we asked Maj. “D” of Shaldag special forces were about the tunnels and altercations in the hospital right in front of us.
In Khan Yunis, most of the questions to Cohen revolved around who was not there – Sinwar himself – who fled his house before the airstrike pulverized the area.
On both trips, we did not see civilians.
Whether in the north or south, it is quite rare that Hamas is still standing to fight, and almost all altercations that take place are in a smaller hit-and-run style ambush, where terrorists emerge briefly from a tunnel to attack, and then disappear.
As we hopped back into the Namer, I wondered when I might return to Gaza, and whether on that trip we would be traveling in greater safety and stability with more of a horizon, one that would reinstate Israelis’ sense of security and free Gazans from Hamas’s grip.
Or, whether any next trip would merely be another symbolic victory, which itself would expose how much farther Israel has still to go to achieve its goals.
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