Hanan Greenwood
Israel Hayom, Dec. 10, 2023
“Our encounters are mainly on the routes and mainly during the day because they’re afraid to come out at night. They’re firing RPGs from the alleyways or operating explosives and escaping. Dozens of missiles have been fired in our direction, but the vehicles are moving and most of the soldiers haven’t been hurt.”
The Hummer drove quickly in the pitch black along the dirt road. The driver, with night vision goggles over his eyes, quickly made his way through the darkness. Suddenly, from the right, there was a sudden explosion and a light flashed in the sky. There was a flurry of shots. The Golani soldiers who accompanied us weren’t concerned. They were already used to it. Welcome to Gaza.
We had made our way into the Gaza Strip a few hours earlier. The last rays of sunlight dissipated as we headed west on the dirt track, crossing what’s left of the houses of Be’eri. The soldier accompanying us cocked his weapon and entered a magazine into the chamber.
The route we were taking to the front (an area surrounded by walls and sandbanks to protect against fire), which is spitting distance from the neighborhood of Shuja’iya, is under Israeli control – but, as is known, control is an elusive concept in Gaza. The previous day a shaft had been discovered meters from our target, so we didn’t know what else was left hidden in the vicinity.
Just before we went in there was also an emotional closing of circles. Fadida, a reservist in the Golani Brigade who serves in the Alpine Unit and was featured in an Israel Hayom article about Mount Hermon around a year ago, painted his weapon in black and white and came to fight in Gaza. “In the Hermon snow or the mud of Gaza – the Golani Brigade is here forever,” he said.