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After Hamas’s massacre, Israel’s Bedouin share their silent trauma
Outside the window of the rectangular corrugated tin shig (traditionally a tent used for hospitality, which in many places has been replaced by a structure), a wind heavy with desert heat blows slightly and in the not-too-far distance, a young camel of the same color stands motionless and almost imperceptible in the tiny unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Bat.
Here the al-Qaran family – now totaling some 20 families – has lived their traditional life since 1952.
Sofas and armchairs line one side of the shig – used to receive guests – and on the other side red, orange, black, and blue striped rugs and pillows bring color to the space.
Saed, one of the al-Qaran brothers, offers coffee from a long-handled copper finjan, his movements slow and measured, his dark eyes unable to disguise the pain he feels. Even in his state of mourning, the Bedouin ritual of hospitality is paramount.Just two weeks ago, on the first day of the war, he and his brothers were sitting in a similar shig with their children, on this little hilltop 4.5 km. north of the Bedouin town of Kuseife, some 65 km. from Gaza, when suddenly they heard a missile fly overhead and land in their animal pens. One of the brothers went out to check on the penned animals, while another went to check on the camel. Saed was just coming into the shig with the coffee finjan in his hand when a second missile landed in front of him, on the tin shig where the children were sitting. The flimsy shig was flattened as if it were literally a tin-can, burying the five boys underneath the rubble.
It took the brothers 15 minutes to dig them out with their bare hands – they didn’t have any tools to use – and another 20 minutes to get them to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. Four of the boys – brothers Malek al-Qaran, 14, and Jawad al-Qaran, 15, and cousins Amin Akal al-Qaran, 16, and Mohammad D’ib al-Qaran, 12 – were already dead by the time they got there. Another cousin, Taleb Mahmoud al-Qaran, 35, was seriously wounded but survived and is being treated in a hospital in the center of the country.
Ibrahim, the father of two of the boys killed in the missile attack, walks in silently, his head wrapped loosely with a scarf. There is nothing to say, and the two men sit silently as one, and then another cousin comes to sit on the rugs, and Saed serves them coffee.
The corrugated tin panels that used to make up the shig where the boys died lie flat in a pile next to a new shig which has been quickly built to replace it.
Here, in this isolated place in the desert, their little village is one of some 35 unrecognized Bedouin villages dotting the Negev desert. Despite numerous requests to the government from the residents, they have no air raid sirens, nor are they allowed to build a safe room or communal bomb shelter, so the boys had no chance.
“We have everything we need here,” Saed, who served in the IDF, said. “We just need bomb shelters.”
So far, no temporary bomb shelters have been set up for the unrecognized villages, although at the entrance of the village the Islamic Movement brought two large cement pipes and placed cement slabs on either side – as if that would protect anyone. According to Saed, the Dead Sea Works potash plant put together a “shelter” with huge industrialized-size bags of dirt but no roof covering. Neither shelter affords protection worth the effort of trying to reach it during a rocket attack.
Some 400,000 Bedouin live in Israel in an area ranging from Beersheba to Arad. This includes 100,000 in the 35 unrecognized villages, such as al-Bat, which have no electricity, running water, paved roads, or school infrastructure; and 300,000 in seven established towns. Thus the Negev Bedouin represent the most vulnerable socioeconomic group in Israel.
According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, at one point there were 46 unrecognized Bedouin villages. Following the state’s recognition of 11 of them, 35 villages in the Negev still remain unrecognized, with some still in the same locations since before the creation of the State of Israel, and others in their current locations following Israel’s transfer of the residents there during the period of military rule.
Since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, at least 26 Bedouin citizens of Israel have been killed – 19 by Hamas terrorists in the kibbutzim where they were working early on that Saturday morning, and seven by Hamas missiles. Osama Abu Asa, a Bedouin guard at the Supernova concert, was killed as he attempted to protect some of the young people hiding in a bomb shelter, believing that Hamas would not kill him because he was a Muslim. Abed Alrahman Ataf Alzeadna, 26, from Rahat, was among those killed by Hamas terrorists on Zikim Beach; and four of his relatives, who were with him, are still missing
Taken hostage
Six Bedouin who were working in the Holit dairy were kidnapped, including four members of the Ziadna family: father Yosef, 53; sons Hamza, 22, and Belal, 19; and daughter Aisha, 17.
In addition, said Jamal Al-Kirnawi, a Bedouin social worker and director of New Dawn – a Rahat-based Bedouin-Jewish coexistence NGO that provides programming for at-risk Bedouin youth – several Bedouin soldiers have been taken hostage, although how many has not been made official.
If the attack had taken place on Sunday, there would have been many more Bedouin victims, as many are agriculture workers at the kibbutzim, he added.
“Bedouins are really suffering,” Al-Kirnawi, 44, said.
“We were all shocked by what happened on October 7. No one knew what was going on. We thought it was rocket attacks like we are used to, and that soon there would be an army response. We were not expecting anything like this. The society has been in shock – especially the Bedouin who worked in the kibbutzim.
“We feel very sorry for this loss and pain. The rockets and Hamas did not differentiate between Jews and Bedouin.”
He lost 20 close Jewish friends from the kibbutzim in the terrorist attack and said he is still living in mourning, as he has spent the weeks since the attack going from funeral to funeral and shiva to shiva.
“If on a daily basis we as Bedouins live in a complex reality, imagine the reality of uncertain chaos that we are living in now,” he said.
“The war makes it much worse in the complexity of the society – how to handle this tragic crisis. No one is able to understand this biggest tragedy that has happened. We feel the suffering of the families, and we can’t contain all the stories of loss. We are not in a normal situation and are processing this loss.”
The economy of Bedouin towns has shut down since October 7, and the many Bedouins who worked in the kibbutzim have lost their employment. But for Al-Kirnawi, the most difficult thing is that as a traditional society, many people in his community are suffering from anxiety and trauma; but, in addition to municipal social welfare services being shut down and the government in general not functioning, the whole concept of counseling is still not widely accepted in Bedouin society, especially in the more traditional sectors.
“People are suffering, whether they speak about it or not,” he said. “But in general, Bedouin society takes what is happening on the outside and keeps it inside, without interpreting how that affects them [on the inside].”
He added: “The concept of therapy is very hard, and usually people come to therapy when they are overwhelmed. So we need to be proactive before people get so overwhelmed that they need major intervention.”
Trauma training for Bedouin mental health workers
New Dawn has begun special trauma training for educators and mental health workers within the Bedouin community, who pay several visits to the families directly affected by the war reaching out with mental health tools to help them cope with the loss, trauma, and anxiety they are feeling, he said.
Initially, they have trained seven men and women who have gone to attend to the most vulnerable in five villages, and there are plans for further training sessions.
“We can’t wait for [government offices]. We, as a civil society, are much more powerful [than the government],” he said.
Manar Abu Gosh, 25, a resident of Rahat and social worker and volunteer at New Dawn who has gone through the training, has begun visiting residents of the unrecognized villages. The children are scared, and many of the parents are in shock and not able to function normally, she said. A missile fell near one of the villages while she was there, she noted.
“We heard the sound of the missile, but we didn’t know where to run. The children were terrified,” she said. “They are in a panic.”
The men, who worked largely in agriculture, are now unemployed, and the children can’t participate in the remote video classes because they have no Internet services nor tablets, Abu Gosh said.
“They are, after all, citizens who want to live in peace and quiet,” she said.
“The men do not want to talk about how they are feeling, but the women and children come and speak about their worries and fears. Honestly, I came home and cried. It was the first time I was ever in an unrecognized village. I was shocked by what is happening to them. They are in a terrible situation. But I will continue to go to speak with them. It is not easy for any of us.”
President Isaac Herzog visited the Bedouin Situation Room in Rahat on October 26, where Jewish and Arab Israelis are working together to provide care packages for the most needy of the area’s residents, and met with community leaders and families of the missing and murdered of the community, including representatives of the Ziadna family.
“We will continue to live together, and it is important for me to tell the entire Arab society in Israel how much I appreciate the responsibility shown across the community in these difficult days,” he told them on October 26.
“We deeply share in their grief. I came to offer my sympathies to the families, and we will meet with them again. We came to offer strength to the local authorities and to hear what is important to them. We came to tell everyone: We will continue to live together and continue to live in peace.
“What we saw on October 7 does not represent Islam. Islam is a religion of respect, sensitivity, brotherhood, and love.”
Quiet vigil for four family members
A few days before the president’s visit, in the Ziadna neighborhood of Rahat – a conglomeration of tin huts and small gardens outside of Rahat – the uncles, brothers, and nephews of Yosef Ziadna, kidnapped along with his three children, sit on white plastic chairs in a large circle in a vigil outside a home. The young men all sport beards and are powerfully built, but in their eyes are broken spirits, waiting to hear about their loved ones. At the time of the visit, all four – including daughter Aisha, who wears the traditional Muslim hijab – were presumed to be held hostage in Gaza.
Yosef’s brother Salem had also been at the Holit dairy on October 7 with his four young children as every Saturday, taking the youngsters on a “fun day” to see the cows. He describes how for 12 harrowing hours he evaded the terrorists by hiding and darting through the dairy with his four terrified children, carrying the two the littlest ones in his arms.
“I heard shooting all the time. My children were so scared, they kept very quiet. Twice they captured us but I was able to escape, but sadly Yosef and his children were captured,” he said. Though an uncle is hesitant about speaking to the press, Salem said he wants the story of his escape to be published in as many media outlets as possible, in the rare possibility that perhaps Yosef or his children will see it and then know that he and his children are safe.
“He is probably worried about us, too. I want to let him know that we are safe and got out.”
Bedouin rescuers save 70 at Supernova
On that Black Saturday morning, as revelers from the Supernova dance festival were frantically trying to escape from the onslaught of the Hamas attack, Hamed Alkarnawi and his family members Rafi, Ismail, and Dahish – all of Rahat – rushed to the scene with their truck when their cousin Hisham, who worked in the dining room of Kibbutz Be’eri, called them to tell them he and kibbutz member Aya Meidan – who had gone out for a bike ride in the early morning – were surrounded by Hamas terrorists.
The rescuers have declined media interviews, but in a powerful video produced by Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? – an initiative promoting Jewish-Arab partnership – Meidan and the Alkarnawis recounted the daring rescue they undertook. Under fire, they first rescued some 40 young people from the Supernova party whom they encountered on their way to Be’eri hiding from the Hamas terrorists, and then made their way to rescue Hisham and Aya.
Minivan driver Yosef El Zaidneh, 47, also of the unrecognized neighborhood of Ziadna, who risked his life to save people from the party, has become an unlikely media hero after one of the people he rescued praised him and posted his phone number on social media to bring him more costumers.
El Zaidneh described himself as a “regular person,” who never served in the army, just someone who goes out every morning to work and comes home in the evening to his wife and children.
That Saturday at 1 a.m., he took a regular customer and eight friends from Omer to the Supernova dance party near Kibbutz Re’im with instructions to return to pick them up later, at 1 p.m. But shortly after 6 a.m., his phone began to ring incessantly and when his customer, Amit, told him there was a red alert of missiles, he told him he would be there in 20 minutes. But as he approached the junction to Kibbutz Sa’ad, he saw cars coming toward him and people motioning him to go back.
“It is the first time in my life I have been afraid,” he said, but he continued through the gunfire and was able to rescue 30 young Israelis as he packed twice the number of passengers allowed into his minivan. He knew the terrain near the kibbutz well and made his way through the fields to safety, forging a way for other cars to follow him.
“There was not one soldier there; I saw wounded police. I knew if we went on the road to Re’im, they would kill us.”
When they eventually reached a roadblock manned by Israeli police, they were directed to Kibbutz Tze’elim. Sadly, his cousin, Abed al-Rahman Alnasarah, 50, also a minivan driver, was killed by the terrorists as he attempted to reach the party to rescue Israelis there.
Since that morning El Zaidneh, the father of seven children, has not been able to sleep, and the horrific scenes of death and destruction keep replaying in his head.
He spends the nights chain smoking and drinking coffee, sitting outside on the swing in his fenced-in yard in front of his corrugated tin hut, praying for the morning to come. He saw things people should never have to see, he said. He has received threatening phone calls originating in Gaza from people claiming to be from Hamas who say they will find him because he rescued Israelis. He has reported the calls to the police, and his phone is under surveillance for any more threatening calls that come in, he said. He has been going to daily therapy sessions to help deal with the trauma.
El Zaidneh has also received many phone calls from people who want to donate money to him or give him presents, he said, but he is not interested in any of that and often does not even answer his phone anymore unless he recognizes the number. He did not do what he did for any sort of recognition, he said.
“I had the chance to turn around. But above all, I am a human being, and I am an Israeli and I knew there were Israeli citizens [in danger]. If I can help, why not? That is how our parents raised us. To do good if we can,” he said. “I hope after this, the mayor of Omer – who does not like us – and the State of Israel will appreciate the Bedouin and stop destroying our houses and see that we are a part of this country.
“We are not Hamas.
“I hope that the country will now think about us; help the Bedouin develop in education, in culture. Maybe we won’t be 100% equal, but at least 70% equal.”
Video of the Supernova rescue: x.com/Horizon_lately/status/1720905755371405633?t=KCzVUClfm7Y2_bsM2V13rA&s=08
An American-Irish citizen who traveled to Lebanon and Syria in an attempt to join the Hezbollah terrorist organization and fulfill his desire to kill Jews was arrested on Monday for making false statements to FBI agents, the Western District of Pennsylvania US Attorney’s Office announced.
Jack Danaher Molloy, 24, had converted to Shia Islam in February and traveled to Lebanon in August. According to an affidavit, Molloy was in contact with several individuals who sought to help him with his quest to join the terrorist organization.
Molloy had difficulty in enlisting with Hezbollah because he didn’t know Arabic, and the terrorist organization wasn’t recruiting foreigners during the October 7 War with Israel in the wake of intelligence failures like the September pager bomb attacks.
Molloy told an associate that he had been “told very politely that Hezb isn’t recruiting anymore” because “They can’t even trust Lebanese at this point” because of “too many security breaches.”
Contact warned him that his attempts to join might “escalate” to the point of him being suspected of being a Mossad agent.
“There are a lot of divisions you can apply for, but right now, they are not recruiting, they’re not accepting anyone, and due to the high number of Mossad agents and moles, appearing inside, sadly, so it’s gonnatake a while,” one contact told Molloy.
Molloy was also advised that boot camps and recruiting had been disrupted and that when the current “circumstances” were over, it would take three to four months before the group was organized enough to reopen to recruits.
Beginning training at a ‘young age’
An associate explained that Hezbollah operatives started with the organization at a “very young age,” going on to train at several different locations before being asked if they wished to become official members in the Shiite group’s military force. Joining Foreign brigades was difficult, requiring current members to vouch for him.
On October 9 Molloy went to Syria to join Hezbollah or another militia, but was told that the dynamics between armed groups in Syria made it “not very ethical” to join some Syrian resistance factions “due to the things that happened in Syria.”
Around this time, he told his mother that he was considering joining the Russian forces fighting against Ukraine in order to earn money, but he answered in the affirmative when his mother asked if his “master plan” was ” to join Hezbollah and kill Jews.”
On October 14, Molloy left Syria to return to the United States, assured by contacts that he would likely be able to join Hezbollah next year. Molloy landed at Pittsburgh International Airport on October 20, where he was questioned by FBI agents and lied about his intentions to join a US State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization.
Molloy told an associate that he had enrolled with the Iran-based online Al-Mustafa Open University, knowing its connection to Iran Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to the affidavit, the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the university in 2020 because its branches facilitate IRGC Quds Force recruitment of international students.
Molloy, who had previously joined the American Reserve Officers’ Training Corps for two months, believed that his Irish background informed his hatred of Zionists and respect for Hezbollah.
The Irish and Hezbollah?
In October, he posted on X that “We Irish love Hezbollah, and personally, they were a major influence in me reverting to Islam and moving to Lebanon.”
“To me, I am continuing the fight my great-grandmother fought against the Zionists, but now Islamically,” he said to someone using Google Translate. “I have a very fierce hatred of these Zionists, and I need to fight…I have thought about this every moment of every day since I was 18, for 7 years now.”
Molloy’s computer and phone contained violent jihadist and Nazi images, including some depicting the execution of Jewish stereotypes. In one image, a character marked with a Nazi swastika shot a Jewish stereotype cartoon, and a similar representation of a Jew on his knees with a red inverted triangle above his head was shot execution-style in the back of his head.
One image on Molloy’s device depicted a Nazi SS soldier and a Jihadi with the slogan “one struggle” in English and Arabic. Another picture displayed Hezbollah fighters performing a Roman salute with the fusion of a Nazi and Lebanese flag in the backdrop. On the anniversary of October 7, Molloy created an email account called “k**ekiller696969” and, in 2019, used the address “glassofjuice88.” The latter phrase is a homophone for “Gas the Jews,” and the number “88” is a reference to a neo-Nazi numerical code for “Heil Hitler.”
The US Attorney’s Office said that Molloy faces the possibility of both a sentence of up to eight years in prison or a $250,000 fine.
On Sunday, I returned to The Jerusalem Post after being drafted as an IDF reservist for almost 80 days for my second tour of duty in Gaza since the October 7 Massacre. My anecdotal experience as an infantryman and perspective as a journalist in civilian life has given me a unique perspective on Gaza war issues, familiar and unexplored alike. These ten takeaways from someone who has been in the mud of the battlefield should be considered by policymakers and citizens in which much of the information about the war is second-hand information and hearsay.
1. The IDF is winning, and needs to be allowed to win
Compared to their operations during my first tour at the end of 2023, a sense that Hamas is collapsing has since developed. The terrorist organization once fielded ambush cells that conducted frequent hit-and-run anti-tank missile attacks and ambushes from a wide network of bunkers and tunnels for a guerilla defense in depth strategy.
Almost a year later, Hamas seems unable to operate on a strategic level, even from areas in which its battalions have remained structurally intact or reconstituted from degraded units. This is exemplified by Hamas’ inability to launch targeted reprisals for the death of military leaders, or even attempt traditional attacks on Jewish holidays or the anniversaries of October 7.
By and large, they do not operate at night or the light of day, clinging even closer to the low visibility of dawn and dusk, whereas their operatives would once more openly operate in daylight hours due to being able to escape underground after an attack. It appears that their tunnel networks have been greatly compromised, as they have had to travel along roads and weave between buildings.
Their legitimate operations focus on IED and lone sniper attacks rather than using heavier munitions, but a greater focus has been filming any engagement so that they can edit the footage so they can claim to foreign supporters and Israeli citizens that they have destroyed Israeli vehicles. Stealing humanitarian aid has apparently not been enough for some Hamas battalions, as in one case they have resorted to sending plainclothes operatives to loot food and supplies from abandoned IDF positions. Their mortar bombs fall far less accurate than they once were, and we did not encounter any enemy drone activity.
The Netzarim security corridor seems relatively safe, with paved roads, and outposts enjoying electricity provided by power lines. While many soldiers left Gaza positive about the IDF’s advancements, the path of victory is long and the journey should not be confused with its destination. Many soldiers have mixed their sense of Hamas’s significant degradation with the feeling that the military is being held back from decisive action, entering and leaving areas to allow Hamas to retain territorial control.
2. Gaza has suffered heavy damage
The extent of the damage to infrastructure hasn’t been completely appreciated by the general public, and Israeli and international leaders will need to develop extensive plans to rebuild the territory. Whole neighborhoods have been leveled during direct combat, the search and destruction of tunnels and booby traps, and the establishment of defensible positions.
If buildings have not been damaged by their proximity to explosives or pocked by suppressive fire, they have had their outer walls shaved away to reveal the possible presence of terrorists. Concrete rubble and trash are strewn along wide fields in the Gaza Strip and will need to be collected and moved before some areas are traversable, let alone livable. The IDF Spokespeople will also need to prepare to explain the extensive damage to civilian infrastructure.
3. Gaza was far from an ‘open-air prison’
One of the great shames about the extensive damage to Gazan infrastructure is that it was not the desolate “open-air prison” that it had been advertised as in anti-Israel propaganda.
While there certainly were residents living in desperate conditions, the houses, apartments, and villas that we cleared and took position had a decent and even opulent quality of life. All the homes we saw had televisions, computers, refrigerators, decorations, and food stores in line with an Israeli suburb. Our impression was not one of squalor, but normal conditions.
In rural areas villas and mansions oversaw sweeping vineyards on one side and a view of the ocean on the other, and in urban areas large schools, restaurants and other facilities. The lost potential and degraded conditions in Gaza make Hamas’s decision to attack Israel and weaponize their territory rather than develop what they held a shame all the greater.
4. Hamas weaponized Gaza
Much has been said about Hamas’s use of civilians as shields to deter IDF operations — A detained civilian told our troops that he was unable to travel from the North to South along humanitarian corridors because he had to bribe Hamas operatives who were bent on keeping civilians around them as cover. Yet the civilians are just one aspect of Hamas turning Gaza into a weapon to try to destroy Israel.
Tunnel networks are not just placed around or under civilian objects, terrorist infrastructure is integrated into civilian infrastructure in a way that makes the two indistinguishable. Civilian homes are turned into lookout and reconnaissance outposts, with members of families hired by terrorist organizations to provide intelligence, as was exemplified by the capture of spotters captured by a neighboring battalion. Armories are hidden within houses, to be accessed by plainclothes terrorists when they have the need to shed the veneer of being civilians.
Tunnel entrances can be found in the first floor of apartment buildings, not just in their backyards. Other homes are booby-trapped, leading to widespread suspicion of each home as being laced with explosives. With Gaza being weaponized in such a fashion, it has led military units to take precautions and actions that damage buildings and homes so that they can stay alive.
5. The IDF is not conducting a genocide
The purpose of our operations were not geared toward the elimination of Gazan civilians. There were never orders to kill civilians wantonly, and there were debates on if we had enough information to use deadly force and when it was legitimate to open fire. Civilians were allowed to pass by our positions along humanitarian corridors unmolested. These elements would not be found among a force that is devoted to mass murder or genocide. Civilian casualties are tragic, and unfortunately, they always occur in war, which is why such conflict should be avoided in the first place.
6. The IDF needs to restore discipline
While IDF soldiers are not engaged in mass war crimes or genocide, there is inappropriate and even criminal behavior. Other soldiers have shared with me stories of when they have seen looting, and I had to stop someone who had been temporarily attached to our battalion from taking a necklace from a house. While my battalion did not bring our cellphones into Gaza until our last week, when we were moved back to a rearguard outpost, we have seen the widespread use of phones by other neighboring units.
This is all the more shocking not just because posting on social media can be used by enemies to geo-locate positions and gather intelligence, but the violent machismo and inappropriate fooling around in videos and photographs discredits the moral legitimacy of the military and creates an overly relaxed and familiar environment that can get people killed. While journalists have to answer to the IDF censor, it felt to many of us that the IDF has done little to crack down on soldiers who are acting as poor spokespeople and even documenting what appear to be crimes.
Even small issues such as unsanctioned edgy uniform patches lead to a breakdown in discipline, which may lead to even greater behavior unbecoming of the IDF’s ethics. IDF leadership seems unwilling to want to deal with the overly involved families and loss of manpower that comes with disciplining inappropriate behavior.
7. Trust has been eroded in military leadership
The failures of the October 7 Massacre have led to a distrust of military brass among many soldiers and reservists that I have spoken to. It has become a common refrain among the ranks to not trust anyone above the rank of a battalion commander.
High-ranking officers are viewed critically as out-of-touch “October 6” officers who care more about the advancement of their careers through checking task boxes on their clipboards rather than actually changing the reality on the ground.
Reservists and mandatory soldiers alike are results-oriented, and if they feel that officers are more focused on satisfying their superiors rather than the realities on the ground, their orders will have less validity. Military brass, like the political leadership, need to prove to their men that their sacrifices for victory will not be in vain.
8. Reservists are frustrated with domestic squabbles
As news broke that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, fierce debate broke out in the company about the legitimacy of the move. While Netanyahu’s camp claimed that there were professional differences over strategy that could not be overcome, and that the prosecution of the war required Gallant’s firing, too much suspicion and bad blood had been developed about political plays within the current government.
Many believe that the move was done to save the coalition because ultra-orthodox parties threatened to leave because of Gallant’s work towards drafting haredi youth. Such suspicions have been informed by some politicians continuing to pursue their prior political interests, such as major judicial reform proponents calling to renew the process.
While Israeli soldiers are fighting and dying, they don’t feel that politicians are with them and take the war seriously. This distrust extends to the opposition as well — with many of the same actors that were involved in the anti-reform camp pushing for hostage deals at varying cost, many soldiers have expressed to me that they can’t help to wonder if they are motivated by the good of the nation or their own political agendas.
9. The IDF needs more soldiers
As the war and debate about who has drafted has continued, reservists have become increasingly frustrated that some demographic groups are benefitting from the blood and toil of reservists while not contributing to the endeavor themselves. My battalion deputy commander and company commander have become involved in movements calling for a more equal draft.
The need for an increased draft comes as current reservists face multiple tours and are pushed off retirement. Our battalion saw a drop off in reenlistment as some reservists had to deal with crumbling families, businesses, and health. Many reservists came despite these challenges — the sacrifices that they have made are beyond just the risk of death and injury.
10. Soldiers deserve victory
The sacrifices that were made by reservists and mandatory soldiers were made under the implicit promise that they would be in exchange for victory. The state has to consider in its policies and strategic decisions not just the feelings of hostage families and residents who have to return home but also those who have willingly given everything for them and the state.
Reservists want resolution to the problems that led to October 7, they don’t want this war to become yet another round in ongoing conflict. While we will continue to fight for Israel, we don’t want to have to come back to Gaza and Lebanon in a few years time — for not just our sake, but also for that of all Israelis and Palestinians.
Three soldiers became the latest targets of anti-Israel organizations seeking to doxx and level legal challenges against Israeli servicemen abroad.
The Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) called for the arrest of three Nahal Brigade soldiers for alleged war crimes after they entered the Netherlands on Thursday. The March 30 Movement branch submitted a complaint the same day, charging that the Granite battalion soldiers had been involved in operations in which Gazan homes were burned and the Rafah crossing was damaged without any military necessity.
The disruption of the Rafah crossing constricted the flow of aid in an act of “weaponized famine,” the group said.
The three soldiers were named on social media, and their pictures were shared by the foundation. The doxxing came days after the group filed a complaint to the International Criminal Court against a soldier and called for his arrest while he was visiting the United Arab Emirates.
Many of the foundation’s accusations do not list specific actions by soldiers but place them within Gaza or the West Bank during operations.
Other allegations and doxxing, such as those against an Israeli reservist officer who had to flee Cyprus in mid-November, are based on video and photographs posted by the soldiers on social media. Ynet reported that the officer coordinated his departure from the country with the Israeli Foreign Ministry after the HRF called on Cypriot officials to arrest him over two videos in which he allegedly burned and called to destroy Gazan civilian objects.
Following the November 21 ICC issuance of arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, the foundation called on the international body to also issue warrants against 1,000 IDF soldiers listed in an October 8 dossier it filed to the ICC.
The HRF claimed that it had gathered 8,000 pieces of documentation detailing the destruction of infrastructure, occupation of civilian homes, looting, participating in a blockade of Gaza, and targeting civilians. The documentation reportedly included soldiers boasting “about their war crimes on social media, sharing photos and videos of their participation in the destruction and occupation of Palestinian homes and properties.”
Some of the soldiers had dual citizenship, including 12 French, 12 American, four Canadian, three British, and two Dutch citizens.
More than one group targeting Israeli soldiers
The HRF is not the only group doxxing IDF soldiers who have participated in the war.
The Israel Genocide Tracker X/Twitter account, which has over 160,000 followers, shares the names and pictures of soldiers who had allegedly been in Gaza. Many of those identified by the account are dual-nationals, such as an American-Israeli Golani Reconnaissance battalion sniper doxxed on Saturday.
“We firmly believe that every soldier who entered Gaza is complicit in the genocide,” the group said in a social media post last Monday, defending their operations from those arguing that the account’s posts interfered in ongoing legal and journalistic investigations.
“We will soon release comprehensive lists of soldiers’ names to support international legal actions. We are already collaborating with various human rights organizations that rely on our data to pursue justice.”
Telegram channels published a file allegedly containing the personal information of several thousand soldiers and security officials last Sunday.
The viability of the legal cases against these soldiers is unclear, according to legal experts, with the main objective being the intimidation of IDF soldiers.
Universal jurisdiction
NGO Monitor legal adviser Anne Herzberg said that it is difficult to know if individual cases are actionable without knowing their specifics, but there was concern that courts in countries with weak judicial systems and inadequate due process could be exploited, and warrants could be issued based on “flimsy evidence” and “no advance notice.”
“Anti-Israel NGOs have pushed universal jurisdiction cases against Israeli military and government officials for years as a complement to their lobbying for ICC proceedings,” said Herzberg.
“The shift by these groups to the targeting of thousands of lower-ranking dual-national Israelis has two purposes. First, these cases are about generating negative PR – to internationally tarnish the IDF by delegitimizing and criminalizing IDF service. The second purpose is to deter dual nationals from serving in the IDF for fear they might be subject to criminal proceedings if they return to their countries of origin.
“This second purpose constitutes a military and national security threat and should be taken very seriously by both Israeli and Western officials. It should come as no surprise that several of these NGOs have links to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, or other terror organizations.”
International Legal Forum CEO Arsen Ostrovsky said that these lawfare campaigns were “entirely without merit and no more than political stunts” but noted that “given the changing political climate and growing hostility against Israel in some parts of Europe, there is no guarantee that some countries will not entertain this charade in the future.”
“As a response to this growing threat, Israel should consider adopting a US-style American Service-Members’ Protection Act, which authorizes the use of all means necessary to secure the release of American soldiers and persons taken captive by, on behalf, or at the request of the International Criminal Court, in this case being equally applicable if IDF soldiers (or former soldiers) were detained on the instructions of the ICC and/or individual countries,” said Ostrovsky.
“The United States, which is currently putting a devastating sanctions framework [together] against the ICC over their issuing of arrest warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, should sanction any country that not only seeks to apply the ICC warrants but takes individual actions to arrest IDF soldiers.
“And lastly, Israel should also make it a priority to sign bilateral immunity agreements with other countries, acknowledging the independence of Israel’s judicial system and undertaking not to arrest any IDF soldiers, whether current or former, thereby allowing Israelis the ability to travel freely, without fear of arrest.”
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