"There is no doubt that HAMAS was being prepared for attack by Russian side," - reservist of Israel Defense Forces
On the 33rd day of the war with HAMAS, the Israel Defense Forces reached the center of Gaza. Currently, the main goal of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is the complete destruction of this Islamist Palestinian organization, whose militants invaded the territory of Israel on October 7, shot and took hostage a large number of civilians.
The IDF called up almost its entire reserve for a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Censor.NET correspondent Iryna Sampan visited the southern kibbutzim on the border with the Gaza Strip and spoke with an Israeli army reservist, First Sergeant of the IDF parachute division with the call sign Beaver, who took part in the cleansing of the country from HAMAS.
- Tell us about your morning on October 7. Where were you and how did you find out about the Hamas invasion of Israel?
- It was Saturday morning. Saturday is the only day when you can sleep. But it was interrupted at about 6:30 a.m. by a massive rocket attack on the entire country. Missiles were also flying in the direction of my city, just one after another, there had never been so many missiles before; even the Iron Dome (missile defense system, - ed.) could not cope with such a flow. We all read the telegram channels and understood that these attacks were going absolutely all over the south from the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip to the center of the country. About ten minutes later it became clear that this was part of some big war, but no one could guess which one. The attack began on Saturday morning and on a date that coincided with the start of the Doomsday War, so it was clear that this was the beginning of something symbolic.
There were the first reports that there were terrorists in the villages bordering Gaza. They broke through the border, the so-called "security fence", and they walked around the kibbutz and killed everyone they saw - children, women, even dogs - this did not stop them at all. A very close friend of mine, who I went to school with, messaged us in a group of school friends that he and his four children had locked themselves in the house and were sitting in the security room. He sent pictures of how they tightly shut there. He had a gun, they sat all this time and just waited, they heard the shooting and prayed that such trouble would not come to their house. For about 7 hours they sat there in crazy stress and waiting to die. Now we can already say that everything is fine with him and his family, the terrorists did not come to them.
- Tell us about your participation in operations to destroy terrorists. What kibbutzim have you been to?
When we appreciated the scale of what was happening, all the guys, the reservists, realized that they had to get to their bases. Of course, all the groups became more lively, some correspondence and calls began. Such messages appeared in the reserve group of my unit. Someone said that he was already leaving for the base and waiting there for instructions. I talked to the commanders and said that I, like everyone else, was ready to come to the base. But since there was a lot of chaos going on, I didn't want to just come and disturb the other units, get into their hair, so I said I would wait for the call. However, literally an hour after my conversation with the commanders, we were all told that we had to come immediately and that it was definitely war. That's why I was at the base around 12:30 p.m.
Maneuvers took place both in the south of the country and in the north. From the first hours of the invasion, there was great fear that the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon would join HAMAS Therefore, in Israel, all reservists were actively called up to bring the fight to the northern borders if necessary. After arriving at the base, we quickly prepared everything. And already in the evening, when we realized that Hezbollah would not join at this stage, we drove towards the direction of the southern settlements in the Gaza Strip. At that time, there were already fierce battles in almost every settlement adjacent to the Sector.
Our reserve unit, the so-called Deep Parachute Division, must carry out large-scale operations in the event of major Israeli wars. But in practice, it turned out differently. Rapid Response Forces were already on the scene, many special forces were already fighting fiercely. When they went there, they did not even understand the scale of the disaster and the scale of the war with HAMAS. We are used to the fact that it can be a dozen or even several dozen terrorists. We thought that they would be quickly neutralized and everyone would go home. But there were no such large-scale incursions. They were in big pickup trucks with machine guns, they had a lot of weapons. HAMAS planned to conduct military operations for at least 3-4 days, to capture bases and populated areas. That is why we, with a very high command, joined in clearing the villages of Saad, Alumim, Beiri, Kfar Aza, Nahal Oz, Kfar Maimon, Nir Yitzhak, Nir Am, Reim, where there was a large party. We mopped up all these settlements from terrorists.
- What war crimes committed by HAMAS against the civilian population did you see with your own eyes?
Everything you have seen and heard in telegram channels or in the news is absolutely true. I saw all this with my own eyes. Hundreds of soldiers, like me, were in total shock. Because not a single combat soldier, not a single law enforcement officer, security officer, or policeman in Israel has ever seen such a catastrophe for the civilian population. I'm not going to tell you the scary details, because it's all there, and it's very frustrating. But in short, that's a lot of burnt bodies in houses. People whom HAMAS failed to break through were simply burned alive. People who sat hugging their children also hugged and burned. For terrorists, there was absolutely no difference between a person's gender or age. Many people, children were shot in the head, and not just one. People ran away, terrorists shot them in the back, parents covered their children with their bodies, grenades were thrown at those who did not want to come out. The terrorists had a lot of grenades with them. They shot from rocket-propelled grenades, shot directly at cars from a very close distance, seized intersections, entrances to populated areas, and waited there for the arrival or departure of civilian vehicles, and then killed with great hatred, without thinking or doubting. There were various traps left in the houses, there were grenades under the bodies of the killed people.
There were pictures of cruel treatment, I don't want to go into details. HAMAS understood that the Israeli army had not yet arrived, and they were free to commit all these heinous crimes. These are people with an extreme hatred for those they have come to kill. This level of fanatic bigotry is just insane. It cannot be cured, it must be eradicated as brutally and harshly as possible, just as they do.
- Why, in your opinion, was the Israel Defense Forces not prepared for an invasion of this scale?
-One of the main reasons, in my opinion, is the great confidence of the Israeli army, society and politicians that we greatly surpass the enemy in terms of military intelligence, technology, numbers, etc. This confidence eventually dulls the sense of danger.
Secondly, there have never been such large-scale attacks on our territory from the Gaza Strip in history. Therefore, to our great regret and surprise, we simply did not assume such a development of events. We were ready for some small groups because it was always like that. Israel has absolutely all the resources – human, technological, and moral – to be ready for such events. It feels like an attack of this magnitude was never even considered. This is probably my main conclusion.
Perhaps also a false sense of control, that we are a big country, we control the situation. We expected this development from Hezbollah in the North because they are more trained, this is a real army that participates in the battles in Syria, trained by Russian units or PMK Wagner, it doesn't matter who, by the Russian side. No one hides it, everyone knows it. That's where we prepared to repel such attacks. But not from HAMAS from the Gaza Strip.
Plus, it was a holiday, Saturday. In the Israeli army, they are trying to give permission to leave the maximum number of soldiers to celebrate Shabbat at home with their parents. And there are always a few soldiers remaining at the bases, it's not a secret, everyone knows that. It was probably based on the fact that we have observation points, technologies that monitor the approach of the enemy and that send us messages.
Kibbutz Sderot
Kibbutz Sderot
-In your opinion, how long did HAMAS prepare for this operation, which indicates that they were assisted in their preparation from the outside and armed with serious weapons?
- Such operations, as carried out by HAMAS, are prepared for at least a year or two. Also, I am absolutely sure for a million percent that they were prepared by other "experts", "experts" in assaults and murders. Today, Wagner's most popular group, which is known precisely for the fact that they are located in various hot spots in Syria and Ukraine, are famous for their brutality. The people there, for the most part, were from special forces who could not find themselves in civilian life and continued to get paid for what they do best. Such people train others all over the world, but not the civilized world. I am absolutely sure that they were prepared by such people.
- And Iran?
- This is not Iran. If you take history and look at the statistics of what the secret services of Iran have done in their history... Many different terrorist attacks, but there is no such scale and such precision, such synchronization. It's not their style, they can't do that. Again, this is just my opinion. Here is a clean handwriting of the planning and assault of the Russian special services and the Russian format. They used strike and reconnaissance drones to disable Israeli surveillance systems, cameras, sensors, and fire-control systems. Fire-control system (FCS) is a system that sees armed people in a certain square and opens fire on the target, such a weapon is installed on a "security fence". All of this was disabled in advance with the help of drones. Today, there are only two countries in the world that actively use drones in war - Ukraine and Russia. Of course, it is not in the interests of Ukraine to prepare HAMAS for an attack. And this whole story was beneficial for the Russian Federation. There was a Russian trail here, beyond doubt.
It should be noted that this was a maximally synchronized attack. If I am not mistaken, several thousand terrorists raided at the same time. They had intelligence on all Israeli bases, all outposts on the border, they knew where and how the part was located, they knew where to go. And this once again emphasizes that it was not without the intervention of professional attack aircraft and special services that can plan such an operation.
Kibbutz Beiri after the Hamas attack
- In your opinion, was a ground operation in the Gaza Strip necessary? After all, is an offensive always about a large number of losses, right?
-A ground operation in Gaza is necessary. Without this, it is impossible to mop up this enclave of terrorists and their infrastructure. What the Air Force and Artillery, the Navy did from the sea was all preparation. These strikes were very necessary to destroy their missiles (HAMAS missiles, - ed.), headquarters, control rooms, warehouses with ammunition, which are ready to launch these missiles.
Israel has almost always conducted military ground operations when there has been a strong escalation. This is an unprecedented terrorist attack with such a huge number of dead civilians and soldiers. The 360,000 reservists who were called up is an unprecedented number, and it has never been seen before. We needed time to train, resupply and prepare for this ground operation. That it could lead to great losses, yes, of course, there will be losses, we understand that there will be. That is why Israel has been conducting massive air strikes for several weeks in order to minimize the losses of ground forces.
- Why did Israel postpone the offensive for some time and not immediately set out to Gaza? Did the IDF lose the initiative in this way?
- Perhaps, no one postponed it, and this is part of the plan, preparation for a major ground operation. There are many hostages in Gaza who are citizens of other countries. These countries wanted to free their hostages before a major operation began, because it was very likely that they would not survive. Probably, this was one of the main reasons. The same applies to the Israeli hostages, who have only Israeli citizenship. Of course, we want to release them. And in parallel, negotiations were going on through Qatar, Egypt and other services. Sources also said that Israel was giving time to the international coalition, American forces, which are increasingly present in the region, in the Middle East.
At the same time, the IDF did not lose any initiative. You saw in all the headlines about the massive bombing of the Gaza Strip. It's not that HAMAS can't stick its head out there, they can't get out of their dungeons. As everyone knows, there is just the Gaza Strip, and the Gaza Strip is also underground, where HAMAS lives.
A ground operation was about to happen. Otherwise, there may be no Israel.
Kibbutz Beiri after the Hamas attack
- What, in your opinion, should this operation for the complete destruction of HAMAS be?
- This is a very methodical operation, slow-slow progress. First, of course, with heavy equipment, accompanied by heavy fire, all suspicious buildings are destroyed. Asphalt is raised by large army excavators so that they cannot lay mines. This is part of the strategy. This will not be another quick lightning operation, as it was before. This time the goal is to completely destroy Hamas's military capabilities, so it won't happen in days or weeks, most likely it will take months. First, to reduce losses, and secondly, methodically, slowly advancing and mopping up the territory of this enclave from terrorists and their weapons.
- There is an opinion that on October 7, the greatness and authority of the Israel Defense Forces as an example of an exemplary army was undermined. What do the military themselves say in the middle of the army, what is their current mood and motivation, do they feel guilty before their people that the army missed the attack?
- It is necessary to face the truth. I think we really relaxed. The army of Israel relaxed. Very big bets are placed on modern technologies, on intelligence about eavesdropping, we are sure that the enemy is afraid of us. For many years we have been so strong and formidable and truly an exemplary army, a fighting army in the world. But, probably, everything in life happens in some waves, we cannot be steadfast, the most powerful, the strongest for tens or hundreds of years. People relax, people are overconfident. And, in my opinion, discipline in the army has decreased. The age of technology has somehow relaxed the general training, not the physical or tactical training of the soldiers, but the approach to many disciplines in the middle of the army. Also, do not forget that in Israel the army is a certain springboard in life, and there is its own internal politics of the high command, which also has its own internal political games in order to advance further in the service. It's a separate ecosystem that also has a lot of internal politics. Apparently, somewhere in all this politics, in the era of technology, without global, big wars, plus the social fluctuations that Israel is experiencing at this time, the political and social instability in the country also affects the army, because the army is the people, the people are the army, left vs. right, right vs. left, religious vs. non-religious, and so on. The euphoria and self-confidence that existed after 1967, for several years, which relaxed us then, in 1973, when we were also taken by surprise, is now very much repeated. Therefore, authority is undermined.
Now, of course, all the people have united, volunteers help a lot. It is very similar to Ukraine, especially in the first months of the war. And there is full agreement and understanding that now we will all win together, and then we will specifically deal with it and the heads of those who were directly responsible for this failure will receive punishment.
Of course, there are those who feel this guilt and say that we overslept, we were not ready, and it is our responsibility. And there are officers and people who do not consider themselves guilty, referring to the fact that Israel has become the victim of a terrible attack, a terrorist attack, for which it was impossible to be prepared. There are also such thoughts in the army.
Kibbutz Beiri after the Hamas attack
- There was information that Israel was not ready for mobilization of such a scale, there was not enough uniform for everyone. How is the army's supply situation now, does everyone have body armor vests, helmets, uniforms, first aid kits, has the situation improved?
- Israel was really not ready for such a big draft. These are almost all reservists in the army. But here it should be noted that the panic with helmets, body armor vests and equipment is partly the fault of the soldiers themselves and their families. Therefore, against the background of general chaos and the expectation of some big all-out war, people began to panic that they had no body armor in their unit, only vests. Of course, you can't fight in these vests, because it's dangerous. There are vests that protect against shrapnel and stab wounds, but they do not protect against bullets. There were enough of them in the army. But the general chaos affected the fact that such an impression was formed. It is necessary to understand that not everyone will go on the attack, not everyone will directly participate in combat operations, and many will not need such life-saving bulletproof vests at all. And people immediately began to panic that we were already near Gaza, and there was still no protection.
We were told all the time that we had everything, that it would be given out as needed and properly distributed. If your unit is not planning to participate in a ground operation in Gaza, but is already deployed and is close to the Sector, then from a soldier's point of view, of course, they want to be safe and secure. He does not know what will happen tomorrow, whether he will be sent to attack or not, he wants to be in a bulletproof vest. From the point of view of the army, it is not quite so. The army knows better who and where will enter, where to go and so on.
Today, all reservists whom I know, my entire circle, all have enough. Those who directly participate in the operation or are under fire, also all have everything. Although there is nothing in military stores anymore, some people are still looking for some small uniforms, but this is an echo of the times when everyone wants to look good and be modern with various weapon attachments, modern helmets, and body armor. Of course, the army does not have that much modern stuff, most of the war outfit is not new. That's why people want to buy the best for their loved ones.
Here, again, a parallel can be drawn with Ukraine. Even an ordinary infantryman in your trench looks like the American Delta Force, special forces of the narrowest profile. At the soldier level, I can say that it adds confidence and self-sufficiency to you as a soldier, that you have everything, you have good quality uniforms, it increases the feeling of readiness for battle.
- Can you say that Ukraine and Israel have a common enemy (Iran, Russia and the terrorists they support)? Are these wars completely different?
- This is the axis of evil, as some call them. Undoubtedly, it can be said that Iran, Russia and terrorists in the form of Hamas, Hezbollah are all one side.
Today, Israel and Ukraine are even more than before on the side of the light forces fighting evil. Neither we nor Ukraine attacked our neighbors. Neither we nor Ukraine wanted war and did not want all this. You can delve a little into history and understand that Iran always, everywhere tries to impose its policy, it is an international sponsor of terrorism, it is a sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah, which are recognized by all civilized countries as terrorist organizations. Iran was preparing a bunch of terrorist attacks and committed them against Israel, against America. These are people with an aggressive ideology, and I am not talking about Islam now, Islam is also moderate. We have a great attitude towards Azerbaijan, for example. Azerbaijan is an Islamic country, Muslim, and they absolutely support us. And this only proves that the entire Islamic world cannot be accused of being some kind of terrorist and aggressor. But there are some countries in the world that use religion as a zombification in order to carry out terror and kill people.
Evacuation in Sderot
Therefore, we clearly have a common enemy, because throughout history Hamas has been received in Moscow with the highest honors. Even shortly before the start of this attack on October 7, they were in Moscow. the Kremlin loves terrorists very much, the Taliban still loves to host. Russia is clearly on the side of evil. Everywhere they were present - Abkhazia, Georgia, Syria, the Central African Republic, Ukraine - this is devastation and death, these are negative economic consequences. Just like Iran, which hangs its own citizens, where the death penalty is the norm. Religion shows people how to live, how to dress. Therefore, Iran and Russia are one axis of evil, and we are with Ukraine. We were always on the same side, but unfortunately, the political leadership of Israel did not want to accept either side, trying to vary and maneuver between, but this is very bad, in my opinion. History will judge us very much for this because when such a brutal war begins, which Russia unleashed against Ukraine, it is impossible to sit on two chairs and say that not everything is so clear, that, they say, we have some Jews left in Russia, which must be protected. These people could have left the aggressor country a long time ago. They have the right to repatriate to Israel or at least go to other countries. Therefore, if these people remain there, they will face an even greater wave of anti-Semitism, when the Kremlin will have to blame someone for its troubles, for the failures of the operations of the so-called special military operation.
Russia and Iran are two terrorist states that help each other a lot. They are not just friends or have similar policies, they also help each other a lot. Therefore, in my opinion, it is necessary to unite more with Ukraine, take a specific side, accept Ukraine in this war and put the things right.
Iryna Sampan from Israel for Censor.NET
