Defying the Normalcy of Routine

Weapons in children's rooms, Sinwar's hideout and new IAF wings

Humans have a remarkable capability to get used to anything. As a matter of fact, someone on my team recently showed me research that scientists stuck in Antarctica - an environment so hard and unforgiving that it's used to train for space - get used to it and retain the same level of happiness over the sunny winter.

This is why, 85 days into this horrific war, it's important for me not to normalize the situation that we are in. To emphasize what we're up against and where things stand.

There's no better way to do this than with the three stories below:

1. What the Kfir Combat Team discovered in a child's bedroom in Gaza

2. A massive tunnel network destroyed late last week

3. The most recent Israeli Air Force cadet graduation

Let's start with Khan Yunis.

Last week the soldiers of the Kfir Brigade Combat Team, together with forces from the 98th Division, fought deep in the Khan Yunis area, a Hamas hub in central Gaza. The soldiers eliminated numerous terrorist cells that they encountered, frequently relying on cooperation with artillery, air and armored forces which has proven to be so effective in the war so far. Acting on precise intelligence, the soldiers conducted operational activity in the residences of dozens of Hamas operatives, where they discovered explosives that were ready to be used.

Like other areas in Gaza, many weapons and tunnel shafts were also located, as was a doll dressed in an olive green one-piece snowsuit - most likely an attempt to lure IDF soldiers into an ambush.

Speaking of which, the soldiers also located weapons in a child’s bedroom in a house, including a grenade discovered in a furry pink children's bag, as well as vests, other weapons, cartridges and material that the IDF intelligence will find quite useful.

During the searches, the soldiers also located an explosives laboratory.

We've grown used to this. We're blase when it comes to explosives laboratories in residential areas, weapons in children's bedrooms, and dolls used to lure soldiers into ambushes. But it's a grim reminder of who we are up against.

Which brings us to the tunnels.

Hamas tunnels have proven to be an enormously expansive engineering project, with many excavated under sensitive civilian sites throughout Gaza. So again, it was unfortunately not surprising when the IDF revealed another massive tunnel in the middle of Gaza.

While operating in Gaza City, the 14th Reserve Brigade Combat Team located and destroyed a hideout apartment used by Hamas's leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar.

In addition to the intelligence troves discovered, soldiers from the Yahalom Unit, the combat engineering corps that has run point on contending with the tunnel challenge, carefully examined the apartment using some of the capabilities at their disposal.

And that's where they found a strategic tunnel shaft in the basement. Check this out.

Sinwar's hideaway apartment was connected to a 218-meter-long tunnel of reinforced concrete, dug some 20 meters underground. Like the other strategic tunnels, the tunnel had an electrical network, ventilation and sewage infrastructure, as well as prayer rooms and resting rooms. It had bathrooms with ceramic tiles. It had an elevator. And it had access to other tunnels. This was not a tunnel used for laying low for a day or two - it was built to stay in and fight from for extended periods of time.

You really need to see the tunnels to understand how serious they are:

The tunnel system is no more. Following careful examination, the tunnel system was destroyed by Yahalom soldiers. Here’s what that looked like:

And that brings us to the last part of today’s post:

The Israeli Air Force Pilot Graduation Ceremony

We’re in the routine of a war…but that doesn’t mean that we have the luxury to hold off on planning for what the future of Israel’s defense requires. So after three years, the Israeli Air Forces’ 187th Pilot Cadet Course came to an end, with 36 cadets officially receiving their wings in a ceremony attended by the Israeli Air Force Commander, Major General Tomer Bar, and the Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi.

A number of accommodations were made to mark the strange times in which this ceremony took place. The ceremony itself was smaller than usual and included a moment of silence for the war’s fallen soldiers, pierced by the sounds of aircraft doing a flyover tribute to them.

As Maj. Gen. Bar said:

Now is a time of war. You are here, on the ceremony grounds having finished your course during a historic time, in the midst of battle. We are standing here while brave soldiers are fighting in Gaza, door-to-door and alley-to-alley; while helicopters, UAVs, cargo planes and fighter jets are providing support from above and our helicopters and soldiers from 669 are evacuating wounded soldiers from the field ...your generation is one that will now shape the State of Israel’s security concept for the years to come.

It is on us to not normalize these events. To make sure that we recognize the evil of hiding weapons in children’s rooms, that we don’t normalize Hamas’ reprehensible tactics of defending themselves by using the civilians they claim to be there to defend, and that we don’t forget - for even one second - that while we wage a war of defense today, we must continue to prepare to defend Israel for the generations to come.

Here’s to a much, much better 2024.

Lt. Col. Richard

Operational update

• IDF soldiers continue to operate in northern and central Gaza, including Shati, Khan Yunis, Beit Lahia, Shejaiya and more.

• Following ongoing attacks from Hezbollah, including rocket fire, IAF fighter jets targeted Hezbollah terror infrastructure in the area of Kfarkela in southern Lebanon, in a series of two extensive strikes on numerous targets on Saturday. Hezbollah has used infrastructure in the area for terror purposes, exploiting civilians as human shields for its activities. Since the beginning of the war, Hezbollah carried out a large number of launches from Kfarkela toward Israeli territory.

• The IDF officially updated the families of two IDF soldiers that their loved ones were killed in action, Sergeant Major (res.) Eliraz Gabai and Sergeant First Class (res.) Liav Seada, bringing the total number of IDF killed in action to 506 this war.