The fighting in Israel's south is stretching the Israel Defense Forces to the limit, but it's unlikely that many commanders had to deal with the challenges of warfare as had the commander of the 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigade, Lieut. Col. Tomer Greenberg. His battalion held the Nahal Oz sector, was taken by surprise, and paid an especially painful price in blood – but recovered, headed into battle, eliminated dozens of terrorists, and stabilized the front line. Now it's training for the ground campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
That Black Sabbath, Greenberg was at home in Kibbutz Almog, on the Dead Sea. "At 6:30 that morning, I got a phone call saying that a rocket and mortar attack had begun. I got dressed and set out. I called my deputy battalion commander in order to understand what was happening, and he told me there were terrorists everywhere," he recounted in a special interview with Israel Hayom. "I told him two things: Get yourselves aboard the Leopard [reinforced armored personnel carrier] and give [civilian] localities priority over [military] outposts."
He rushed to his sector. On the way, he was informed that his deputy had been killed (in fact badly wounded, as was discovered later) and that one of his company commanders had perished as well. At 9:00, he reached his sector, joined up with additional forces, and began to run a gauntlet of encounters with the enemy: first next to Kibbutz Gevim, then near Re'im, and once more at Sa'ad Junction. "At Sa'ad, I tried to understand what the picture was, what was happening with the battalion, and all of a sudden a heavy burst of gunfire was opened on us from the bushes. That's when I took command. I arrayed the forces, sent one force on a flanking maneuver that killed the terrorists, and then I was given a situation picture that's every battalion commander's nightmare."
Q: What was that picture?
"That there are terrorists in all the localities in my sector, that terrorists broke in and established a presence in all outposts in the sector, that we had sustained many wounded and many killed. I asked which locality was the worst off. They answered: Kfar Aza. So a friend drove me there in a private vehicle."
In Kefar Aza, he found a mixed multitude of forces and absolute chaos. "I entered the first house where I saw soldiers. I found a young man and a young woman there. They were sitting in their protected room and blocking the way so no one could get in, and the soldiers in the living room were sticking their weapons out of the windows and firing. I saw blood and, the main thing, I heard gunshots from inside. I understood more-or-less where the terrorists were and began to advance very slowly."
"Wiping away a tear"
At this stage, Greenberg was joined by two Leopards and a GSS operations officer who helped the Golani force get focused. "We went through six or seven places where they'd detected [terrorists]. They showed us where the terrorists were and we took care of them and went on to the next house. That evening I was told that they'd detected a house where there were no terrorists. I asked him what was in the house, and he said: two babies whose parentshad beene killed.
Video: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is at war / Credit: Twitter
"We reached the place and burst in, and I saw the mother in the living room. She'd been shot. I reached the children's room and saw their father prostrate with a bullet in the head," he remembers in anguish. "I identified the father: he was a former Golani officer; once I'd had the occasion to work with him. And I saw two sweet babies, blue-eyed, maybe two years old, just sitting quietly in their crib. We wrapped them up and took them with us in the Leopard and drove away. Before we left, I went into the bathroom of the house to wash my hands, but what I really wanted was to wipe away the tear that I'd shed."
"The men fought heroically"
Greenberg's battalion kept fighting the next day. It eliminated dozens of terrorists, patched holes in the [Gaza Strip] fence with Leopards and tanks, and fired at every terrorist who tried to break through or return to Gaza. On the evening of the first day, he called his soldiers together. The 13th Battalion had paid a painful price in blood: 41 dead and 91 wounded. In the Yom Kippur War, where the battalion was also on the front, it had sustained 23 dead. Many of Greenberg's soldiers fell while defending outposts.
Explaining the high casualty toll, Greenberg notes that his battalion was deployed over a large number of locations and under inferior conditions in each. "The [battalion] had made preparations to break into one location, two at the most. [But] they broke into all of them and we were taken by surprise at the outposts, too" he says. "The men fought heroically. We had a soldier who jumped onto a hand grenade and a company commander who was wounded, bandaged himself, and went back into combat. That we stayed there and wiped out more terrorists was the greatest way to commemorate those who were killed. It was also what's expected of us."
Now the battalion is preparing feverishly for the next stage. Golani will be the spearhead, as always. Motivation is at its peak. "No one thinks it's going to be a pleasure trip, but let's remember that it's an attack in enemy territory and not in ours. When I don't have to be the fastest to reach the middle of a settlement, I can do more correct work, smarter work, with more firepower, because I'm not under pressure. The enemy will challenge us but I'm sure victory will be ours," he says.
How do you define victory?
"To wipe out as many terrorists as possible and make sure that those in the Gaza periphery will live in peace. Those twins whom we saved – to make sure terrorists won't enter their home again. Those twins are my motivation."
But Hamas has spent fifteen years preparing for this battle.
"We've spent fifteen years preparing for it, too. Now let's see who's better prepared. It's clear to everyone what we're fighting for and no one has to tell us too much. In Golani, it's harder to get people to show up for calisthenics than to go to war. They're more willing to go in and fight than ever. It's not revenge. It's the twins; they didn't even cry when we took them away in the Leopard. I thought about my three-and-a-half-year-old daughter. It's for them."
What do you say about the pointed comparison that's being made with the Yom Kippur War?
In the past few days, my soldiers have been saying that they're going to be the Yom Kippur II generation. You have to remember that the Yom Kippur generation, after it was taken by surprise, attacked [the enemy's] interior and defeated them – not in the first offensive but in the second offensive, the counteroffensive. We'll wind things up that way, too."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
