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Driving out darkness with the 36th Division in Sajaiya
“What you can see before you is the destruction of Hamas infrastructure,” Col. Oded Adani tells us as we look toward a row of ruined buildings. “Every building that received fire is one in which we located terrorists. It’s hard fighting, but we’re here and we’re going to destroy them. That’s the mission.” Adani is the deputy commander of the IDF’s 188 Armored Brigade, which is part of the 36th Division. The division is currently tasked with the conquest of the Sajaiya neighborhood, one of the centers of support for Hamas in the strip, and a vital node in the mission of destroying Hamas authority in Gaza. This week, I spent an afternoon in the company of the 36th Division’s fighters in Sajaiya, as they continued the slow, methodical work of clearing out the Islamist gunmen and their infrastructure from the neighborhood. As we speak to Adani, a line of the division’s M109 Howitzers next to us is laying down fire at buildings about two hundred meters away. We shelter behind a ruined house. Between the loud thumps of the 155 mm cannons, the commander describes a hard, grueling fight against a dug-in, well-prepared and resourceful enemy.
Not the first time around
The 36th Division and the 188 Brigade have a long history in Israel’s wars. It was this division which stopped the Syrian advance on the Golan Heights in 1973. Now, 50 years on, it is fighting a very different war, at a similar moment of crisis for Israel.
I have something of a long history of my own with these units. I served with the 188 Brigade and the 36th Division as a young immigrant lone soldier 30 years ago, in Hebron, Lebanon, and northern Gaza. Now here we are again in the Gaza Strip. still facing the same enemies. The destruction in Sajaiya is immense. The troops and tanks of the division are fighting their way across a largely ruined landscape. With the Hamas military capacities tightly woven into the civil infrastructure, it has become impossible to cleanly divide the two. Further into Sajaiya, over the rubble, we enter a warren of alleyways and half demolished buildings. Here, the infantry and armored elements of the 36th are carrying out their painstaking work of cleansing the area of Hamas presence. It is a tricky and dangerous task.“Most of Hamas’s infrastructure is based on schools, mosques, hospitals, international structures of various kinds,” says Lt.-Col. Tal Turjeman, commander of the 906th Infantry Battalion.
“We find ammunition boxes hidden under the beds of children, rocket launchers placed outside of kindergartens. 95 % of the buildings we’ve entered contain military materiel of one kind or another – 95%! You see this and you understand that you’re fighting an enemy on a very low level, whose only objective is to strike at you at any price, including sacrificing his own people, firing from kindergartens and mosques.” Tourjeman fought in Sajaiya ten years ago, in Operation Protective Edge, with the Golani Reconaissance company. Now he is back, moving through the same rubble-filled alleyways, this time commanding a battalion from the Infantry Commanders School, attached to the 188.The process he describes is one of methodical pace, careful targeting, and then the application of concentrated, massive force. “We’re destroying terrorist infrastructures, taking apart the structures that threatened Nahal Oz, Alumim, and Kfar Aza. So that when we’ve left here, not a single terrorist will be able to reach those communities and the civilians that live there.
“We use air power, tanks, drones, all available means, and set out and conquer ground. As a battalion commander, my job is that the soldiers should step over corpses, not to go down to the level of the enemy.’ So, as an old Gaza veteran, has anything surprised Tourjeman about the current iteration of the enemy? The battalion commander replies, with an expression of genuine bewilderment, to the apparent indifference of the Hamas fighters to the lives of their own civilian population. “They didn’t come to defend the ground, or to preserve a framework of normal life after the fighting is finished. They came to get achievements against us as much as possible, and at any price. The enemy doesn’t hold life sacred. He holds death sacred.” Earlier this week, the 53rd battalion of the 188 brigade lost three soldiers in northern Gaza – Tuval Sasnani, Eitan Fisch, and Yakir Shinkolevsky. One of our colleagues asked Adani, the 188’s deputy commander, about the losses. I expected the kind of brief, dutiful response that one might get from a commander in the field, weighed down with immediate tasks and responsibilities. Instead, Adani was silent for a few long seconds. “It’s difficult,” he said. “We’re in touch with the families…” Then he waved his hand and ended the interview. “In the end, we came to drive out darkness,” Tourjeman told us, by way of conclusion. “Soon, we’ll be marking that. Well, we’re marking it here, too. Physically.” We left as night was falling, to the inimitable screech and din of armored tracks on the move. The fight for Sajaiya continues.
The United States is deferring the removal of certain Lebanese citizens from the country, President Joe Biden said on Friday, citing humanitarian conditions in southern Lebanon amid tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
The deferred designation, which lasts 18 months, allows Lebanese citizens to remain in the country with the right to work, according to a memorandum Biden sent to the Department of Homeland Security.
“Humanitarian conditions in southern Lebanon have significantly deteriorated due to tensions between Hezbollah and Israel,” Biden said in the memo.
“While I remain focused on de-escalating the situation and improving humanitarian conditions, many civilians remain in danger; therefore, I am directing the deferral of removal of certain Lebanese nationals who are present in the United States.”Increased attacks since Oct.7
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since Hezbollah announced a “support front” with Palestinians shortly after its ally Hamas attacked southern Israeli border communities on Oct. 7, triggering Israel’s military assault in Gaza.
The fighting in Lebanon has killed more than 100 civilians and more than 300 Hezbollah fighters, according to a Reuters tally, and led to levels of destruction in Lebanese border towns and villages not seen since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.
On the Israeli side, 10 Israeli civilians, a foreign agricultural worker and 20 Israeli soldiers have been killed. Tens of thousands have been evacuated from both sides of the border.
Hezbollah is an Iran-backed terrorist group and the most powerful military and political force in Lebanon.
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Preparing for war: Haifa mayor describes city’s infrastructure changes tensions in North escalate
Haifa mayor Yona Yahav spoke this past Monday with Lior Rosenfeld on Radio North 104.5FM about the escalation of the war in the North and his entry into political office amidst the security situation.
Yahav began, “I cannot speak on behalf of the North as I don’t know exactly what’s happening there. No one updates me, as if we are not the largest and most important city in the North. Tomorrow, the Home Front Command is coming to see us for the first time, and we will see what they have to say. We are doing everything to ensure that the city itself and our residents are safe and know what to do in case, God forbid, missiles fall on us. They are more accurate than those in 2006.”
Yahav also discussed the city’s preparations for a war in the North.
“We are now changing the entire method of building public structures,” Yahav said. “We are preparing them for prolonged stays. The minimum will be four consecutive days in shelters and such buildings, which require preparation. For example, installing toilets, which we don’t have today, and we have given instructions to build them in places close to where new houses are being built. This has been fully understood, and developers have begun to understand that the talk about evacuation and reconstruction has undergone drastic changes in light of the security situation. For example, road width needs to be maintained for the sake of evacuating residents on these roads. These are things that were not considered until now and must now be taken into account.”
Yahav’s plans for the success of Haifa’s future
Yahav then discussed his appeal to the transportation minister to stop the Highway 23 Carmel Tunnels’ toll charge.
“We called on the transportation minister to stop the discrimination. Haifa and the North are always discriminated against compared to central Israel, and there’s no reason for this. There are huge tunnels dug in Jerusalem that do not cost residents any money to pass through. There’s no reason why the tunnels dug in Haifa should include a toll. I speak on behalf of Haifa residents, and we are preparing to petition if we do not receive an answer.”
Regarding his entry into his mayoral role about three months ago, Yahav said, “I found a completely ruined city. They destroyed the municipality, and it’s very difficult to move things around. I don’t understand how residents sat idly by and kept quiet. We are trying to go to government offices to fix relations, to get funds, to move projects to bring in fees – and we are doing all this in a short time.
“The ministers are acting openly and with the goodwill to help. I am now waiting for the money on the table. The casino building in Bat Galim will be a luxurious hotel on the Bat Galim seashore. This neighborhood will undergo a complete transformation and will be the most beautiful neighborhood in the country. It will also be the only neighborhood facing a recognized beach. We came to make a change, and we will succeed.”
In conclusion, he touched on the issue of wild boars: “You won’t be able to follow them because soon you won’t see them anymore.”
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‘Psychological operation’: Turkey condemns FM Katz social media post depicting toddler Erdogan
Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Ministry released a statement on Sunday condemning a social media post made by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, in which Katz presented Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan as a toddler on the lap of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Katz, in a Sunday post on X, wrote “Erdogan @RTErdogan finances and arms terrorist organizations of Hamas to carry out attacks and murder against Israelis. The General Security Service captured a squad of students from Bir Zeit who were employed by the Hamas headquarters in Turkey to carry out murder attacks in Israel, through training and weapons and tens of thousands of dollars provided to them.
“Erdogan turned Turkey into a state that supports terrorism and subjects Turkey to the Iranian axis of evil in the name of extreme ideology and blatant anti-Semitism.”
Katz’s comments were made in reference to a recently thwarted terror attack planned by the student Hamas cell in Bir Zeit University, north of Ramallah. The attempted attack, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said, was directed by Hamas’s base in Turkey.ארדואן @RTErdogan מממן ומחמש ארגוני טרור של החמאס לביצוע פיגועים ורצח נגד ישראלים. שירות הביטחון הכללי לכד חוליית סטודנטים מביר זית שהופעלו ע”י מפקדת החמאס בטורקיה לביצוע פיגועי רצח בישראל, באמצעות אימונים ונשק ועשרות אלפי דולרים שסופקו להם.ארדואן הפך את טורקיה למדינה תומכת טרור… pic.twitter.com/R0SCjYdngN
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) July 21, 2024
Turkey condemns the social media post
The Turkish ministry responded “The Israeli Foreign Minister is trying to hide Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians behind a series of lies, slander and disrespect.
“Israel’s dirty propaganda targeting Türkiye and President Erdoğan, and psychological operation attempts will not bear fruit.
“The members of the Netanyahu Government, who have killed nearly forty thousand Palestinians in Gaza and are now trying to start a regional war in order to stay in power, will be tried in international courts and held accountable for their crimes.
“Türkiye will continue to speak the truth and defend the right of the Palestinian people to live in justice and peace.”
The ministry cited data provided by the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Additionally, Turkey has repeatedly asserted that it does not categorize Hamas as a terrorist organization – despite its western allies acknowledging it as such and its proven attacks on Israeli civilians.
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