The fighters of the Purple Patrol stormed, armed with paintballs, into the houses of the captives. • The commander of the GDSR:
Givati Patrol fighters stormed the abandoned buildings at the Al Furan captivity in the Golan Heights.
Despite the heat that prevailed in the area in early February they did not stop for a moment, running and shooting, shooting and running, breaking into the buildings and fighting from room to room.
Just as will happen if required in the next war.
Photo: Ofer Freeman / Frames Productions
Photo: Ofer Freeman / Frames Productions
In recent months, Givati Patrol fighters have been training in a wide variety of scenarios, in the north and in the south.
Whereas in the past the patrol, and the entire brigade, were aimed almost exclusively at the southern sector, today they are preparing for wartime activity in the north as well.
"The IDF is a fist, no matter what the color of the beret.
When they have to use force in a fast and high-quality manner - it is clear who will be activated first ", the commander of the Givati Regiment, Lt. Gen. Netanel Shmaka (36), is proud of the ability of his fighters.
In the small hours of the night they were flown north and began moving as soon as they landed, while encountering various challenges, in order to accustom them to the uncertainty and frenzy they experience during the war.
"The fighters moved on tigers, some of the best weapons in the world, and encountered various threats along the way - anti-tank weapons, underground, entering a complex and closed area, scanning and firing live fire day and night," explains Lt. Col. Shamka. Challenging, also in terms of the mental resilience and cognitive load that commanders have - to get a lot of data and turn it into field operations.
These are capabilities that bring us to the end and it's good that this is the way we will fight. "
The training center in which the Israel Today team took part was in a war in a built-up area.
In an interview a few weeks ago, an infantry and paratrooper officer, Brigadier General Dan Goldfuss, estimated that the fighting in the future will be door-to-door, with more intensity than we have seen before, and in the training of the Givati Regiment this can be seen in practice.
"The enemy is held in villages, whether in Gaza or in the north, and uses the civilian population as a defense. It tries to attract us to villages, which today are more urban and less rural-classic. In the end if a launcher is hidden inside a neighborhood we must be destroyed."
Although the Givati Reconnaissance is well known for its activities in Gaza, among other things due to the "Black Friday" incident in which Major Banya Sharel and Liel Gideoni were killed, and Hadar Goldin was abducted to the tunnels, Lt. Col. Shamka says they are well prepared for fighting in the north. "In the end, these are terrorists shooting at you.
It is true that there are various elements, such as more tunnels and underground in Gaza and a challenging topography in Lebanon, but it is possible to prepare in a similar way to the two outlines.
We continue to train our fighters non-stop, with the understanding that the learning process does not stop and as we develop so does the enemy, even if our learning curve is much better. "