From the first night's exchange of fire to the cargo in the Axis • 20 years into Lebanon's withdrawal, Col. Ibrahim, who served as a force commander stationed in Beaufort, restores sights and battles

The 20th Anniversary of the IDF Withdrawal from Lebanon, marked Sunday (Sunday), recalls in recent weeks and months many memories of officers and fighters who served in the Security Strip from the First Lebanon War to the IDF withdrawal, on May 24, 2000. One of them is the 460th Brigade Commander Of the armor, Major General Hisham Ibrahim, who was also honored to light a beacon on Independence Day. "Every day we went back to war," he recalls. "It was a significant baptism of fire."

Ofer Freiman / Frames productions

Col. Ibrahim (43), enlisted in the Army's 7th Brigade in 1996, doing all his service, from soldier to commander. He first met Lebanon as a young department commander in 1999, about a year before the retreat.

"I will not forget the first immigration to Lebanon. We went north by helicopter and it was quite scary," Ibrahim describes. "We landed in Kiryat Shmona during a dark night. A minute after we went in, the bombers started to fire us. You are put in a pumpkin post, there are bombs on every side, firing on the post. In the morning you wake up to the bombs and if you do not go into ambush - you also go to sleep with them. We understood the importance of the event and the heavy responsibility. I was a 21-20 year old boy. It really entertains you. "

While stationed in Beaufort, Col. Ibrahim's force encountered a squad that the IDF had long been searching for, the "Fog Squad." The squad would reappear every time he was in the fog and place cargoes on the access route to Beaufort, in the "bend of the J".

"Every time we got up in the morning after fog, there were loads," Ibrahim recalls. "We would have discovered them by opening a pivot, and if not, we or the SLA would have come on board. This squad caused quite a few injuries and fatalities.

"One Friday, when I was having dinner, we heard there was an activation. We realized there were suspicious movements, and there was a link. I moved forward with my tank. "Two days. Every time we got close to the bodies - they shot. Every time they got close to the bodies - we shot. In the end, we ended our victory, and we cleared the bodies for us. It was a very significant fire baptism event."

More on:

• "Combat service still in the heart of the community"

• In a revealing Facebook post: Fighters revealed the nightmare daily

• Amazing documentation: 20 years after - the famous post has frozen in time

According to Col. Ibrahim, "Hezbollah is a serious and learned organization that has challenged the IDF in a very serious way. Fortunately, we have had quite a few successes."

Later in his military service, Col. Ibrahim was appointed deputy commander of the Galilee designation, which controls the Lebanese border. Even today, he says, "Hezbollah is an army in every respect. It has a powerhouse. He fights on Syrian soil and engages in military activity. On the other hand, the IDF is better than it - and in the next confrontation we will win it without blinking. "