"We have been fighting for five months already, but this is the toughest combat zone we have been in so far. The terrorists here are suicidal, they fight for every square foot," reveal the commanders of the commando brigade we walked around within the Gaza Strip.
We stood outside a multi-story building in the heart of the affluent Hamad neighborhood in Khan Younis. The luxury homes, built by Qatar, are located just a few hundred feet from the sea, with a view of the ruins of the Netzarim and Kfar Darom settlements. Make no mistake, the large buildings were built not just for housing. They are particularly suited for terrorists, some of them from Hamas' Nukhba elite unit, who will do anything to kill our fighters.
Video: Hanan Greenwood visits the Qatari neighborhood in Gaza/Credit:IDF
Despite the apparent standstill in the Gaza war that one could glean from the news coverage, the moment you cross the security fence into Khan Younis, that feeling disappears. Miles of demolished, broken, shattered houses could be seen through the dust scattered by the cruel armored personnel carrier. I have visited combat zones in the past, including in the Kyiv area – but this doesn't even come close to what the IDF forces have done in Khan Younis. The city is effectively gone.
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In the Hamad neighborhood, some of the IDF's top elite units have been operating for 11 days – Egoz, Maglan, Shayetet 13, and the Givati Brigade reconnaissance unit – together with armored, engineering, and air forces. Every multi-story building is a separate battle arena, and a platoon-size force clears it floor by floor.
"This is a very complex battle, there isn't a single building where we didn't find ammunition and enemy operatives working in an organized and coordinated manner," the commander of the Commando Brigade, Colonel Omer Cohen, tells us.
We move forward running after Lieutenant Colonel M., the commander of the Egoz unit. He is a father of five, a resident of Shomron, who studied at the Atzmona pre-military program not far from where he is now fighting with his fighters. On October 7, he was wounded in the battles but returned to combat a short time later. This is an active arena, where terrorists are entrenched, so any movement outside of a protected area is done at high speed, sometimes under fire.
"This neighborhood looks nice, but it is actually one big battlefield," says Lt. Col. M. "There isn't a single location where we didn't encounter terrorists or ammunition. This is a very significant battle with very significant achievements. Unfortunately, two of our fighters were also killed right here, just dozens of meters away. There were amazing fighters here who fought desperately and did great things."
On the third floor of one of the buildings is an arsenal of weapons, seized inside a single building. Kalashnikovs, M-16s, RPGs, explosives, and boxes of Israeli–made ammunition. In one of the nearby buildings, the personal weapon of the late Nachal Commander Yehonatan Steinberg, who was killed in a clash on October 7 was found.
The terrorists fled from other neighborhoods to the Hamad neighborhood as the fighting in the Gaza Strip intensified and prepared for battle. Alongside the weapons, there are also books providing impressive details about the various IDF units. One of the Egoz fighters opened one of the books to a page explaining his own unit.
As we exit the building, we find that the adjacent building has become an actual combat zone. Tanks are charging into the compound, firing from their machine guns and cannons. The fighters instruct us to take cover and conduct a "pressure cooker" maneuver on the building. Eventually, they direct an aircraft toward the site and eliminate the terrorists.
"Encounters are a daily occurrence. There isn't a day that we don't encounter the enemy here. There is a very large number of them here, an unusual amount compared to what we have experienced so far in Khan Younis," explains the deputy commander of the Commando Brigade, Colonel Y. "There are a lot of terrorists who decided to retreat to this area in recent months from other areas. This is a significant center of gravity that we arrived at relatively late, and they have nowhere else left to fight. In addition, it is very possible that there is a center of gravity here that they are defending, and this is the reason for the enemy's concentration of effort to defend the Qatari neighborhood."
Outside one of the buildings, among the brutality and armored vehicles, I met the physician for one of the units. He is a reservist who has been serving since October 7 and fighting in Gaza alongside the fighters; a psychiatrist by profession. On his shoulder was an unusual patch depicting a smiling face. When I asked about it, he replied, "Morale is high it's amazing. I wish everyone had the level of courage and the will to win like these fighters."
In other areas of the Gaza Strip, there were cases where the forces nearly encountered terrorists, but here the fighting is face-to-face. The terrorists themselves do not shy away from any means. In one of the buildings, a terrorist used his family members as human shields. The fighters identified a woman and two children raising their hands, with the barrel of the terrorist's gun behind them. The forces managed to eliminate the terrorist, with the woman only lightly injured. "The terrorists are making horrific use of their families here," says Lt. Col. M.
In another case, the fighters were on the third floor, while on the fourth floor, terrorists were standing with an RPG launcher. Forces in a nearby building identified the threat and eliminated it. In a third case, the fighters set a vehicle on fire and drove it into the building to force the terrorists to come out, allowing them to be captured.
Behind the buildings stands the Hamad Mosque. This is an impressive structure, but it was hit during the fighting. The terrorists may have used the underground facilities there as a platform to descend into a tunnel – a cynical use of yet another building constructed by Qatar, one of many. "The working assumption is that anywhere in Gaza there is fighting above and below ground," clarifies Col. Cohen.
One of the most important things for the commanders is to express condolences to the families of the fallen and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded. For five months now, they have been fighting almost nonstop in some of the toughest arenas, from the Kfar Aza area to the Hamad neighborhood, and they haven't had time to reach all the wounded and bereaved families.
Last Saturday, Major Amishar Ben David, who was the battalion commander's command and control officer, fell in the neighborhood, just dozens of meters from where we are standing with Col. Cohen. "He was a hero of Israel," says the commander of the commando unit. "Unfortunately, I still haven't had a chance to meet the parents. I extend my condolences to all the bereaved families that I haven't been able to reach yet due to the intensity of the war. My heart is with them."
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