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.
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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.
Two months have passed since the invasion of thousands of Hamas terrorists to the Gaza Envelope and the terrible massacre that they carried out on men, women, the elderly, young people, and innocent children. It is only symbolic that now, Golani troops, who took dozens of losses on that terrible Shabbat, are attacking the neighborhood that became a symbol with full force.
The Rebbe appeared in Gaza
Shuja'iya is one of the most fortified targets Golani has faced since the start of the war. The neighborhood is extremely crowded, with a casbah in its center and a battalion of terrorists that's viewed as the strongest in Gaza. The commander of the Shuja'iya battalion, Wissam Farhat, who was assassinated a week ago, commanded the terrorists who attacked the Golani troops in 2014's Operation Protective Edge, during the disastrous Battle of Shuja'iya, in which six soldiers were killed, and the body of Oron Shaul was taken. He was also responsible for sending hundreds of terrorists to carry out the massacre at Nahal Oz and the adjacent military position. In recent weeks, in the knowledge that this would be a critical target for the IDF, he fortified his positions in the neighborhood.
Seventy-five percent of the neighborhood escaped, among them several hundred terrorists, but there are still many hundreds of terrorists hiding here. The IDF understand that Hamas also sees Shuja'iya as a symbol and therefore weren't surprised by the strength of the resistance. However, they admit that what disturbs them most is underground – an entire city of terror tunnels located underneath the neighborhood and endangering the soldiers. Because of this, the troops are advancing carefully, while using plenty of intelligence and assistance from the air force, who are attacking less than 200 meters from the military forces in order to clear the territory.
We arrive at the fortifications and unload the equipment, with the aim of joining the Golani's Deputy Brigade Commander, Lt. Col Ohad Moyal, in the heart of the notorious neighborhood, but the battles taking place prevent this from happening. Technical teams run around the complex in the pitch dark, fixing armored vehicles, replacing APC engines and the protective panels of tanks. Dozens of devices damaged by RPGs are fixed in real time and returned to combat. In the operations room located in one of the buildings, there is a debriefing about a difficult battle. Outside the door, they show us an improvised tefillin stand located between the destroyed buildings. "The messiah will come" is written on a picture of the Lubavitch Rebbe next to a Magen David.
Soldiers arriving at the fortifications tell us about difficult battles taking place inside Shuja'iya. It's true that the forces have identified a drop in the terrorists' determination, but the hornet's nest is far from empty. "We came across explosives," one of the soldiers says as we get into the vehicle on our way back to Israel.
Tough days
"The number of encounters is very high," Lt. Col Moyal says. Golani has been at the forefront of combat since 7th October, but he also admits that the fighting in Shuja'iya has been greater than what has been seen so far. Golani fighters tried to mislead the terrorists and to surprise them with different tactics, but in recent weeks the terrorists had greater time to prepare. In practice, the brigade's soldiers are fighting against three trained Hamas battalions – Zeitoun, Darj Tafah, and Shuja'iya. It's true that this isn't a fighting force that can be compared to the IDF, but it is acting like a military force in every way. "There were a few really tough days here," he says. "Shuja'iya is also a symbol for them."
It's important to note that all the battalion commanders here fought in Operation Protective Edge. "We have an unresolved debt," the commander explains. "There's a monument here to mark what for us was the APC disaster during Protective Edge, including the model and the dog tags. I promise you that, before we leave here, this monument will be removed. We saw the pictures; we hope to soon see it with our own eyes."
"We're fighting in the heart of Shuja'iya. 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."
"We feel that their battalion is stronger than the other battalions we've fought, but this won't subdue the Golani Brigade," the deputy brigade commander says. "These are attacks by small groups, four or five people who try to shoot and escape. We found Hamas vests and weapons in a school in which there were refugees who left before the fighting. They come out of the mosques, the schools, and the cemeteries and shoot. We haven't been surprised by what we've seen – we've come prepared. Over around 48 hours we killed about 130 terrorists. We hit their infrastructure hard. The houses and their vehicles were destroyed, and in the end, all the infrastructure connected to Hamas was destroyed as well."
According to the estimates of the forces in the field, around another week and a half is needed to complete the operation in Shuja'iya. Of course, this wouldn't mean the eradication of the entire threat – including the underground city beneath the neighborhood. It's true that the terrorists used the ceasefire to get organized, but the IDF also took the opportunity to plan the attack in depth.
"The ceasefire didn't interest us. We had time to prepare the brigade for the next battles. From our perspective it's an existential war to remove the evil," says Lt. Col Moyal with great determination. "As someone who was company commander here in 2014, and lost seven soldiers and Oron Shaul (who was my driver), obviously we belong to this place. This time we are tens of thousands stronger, and we'll hit them hard."
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