The road leading into Huwara was outwardly quiet late in the evening, but it was only imaginary quiet. I knew that seconds earlier, Palestinians had thrown rocks at Israeli vehicles, so I raced through the houses with the gun at hand. Moments after I left, I discovered the other side of the equation. A few young men with large kippahs quickly hung up signs with a picture of Harel Massoud, one of the victims of the attack at the gas station near Ali, and blood-red inscription - "Revenge."
At the nearby bus stop, several other young Israelis quarreled with a policeman and some fighters. A Palestinian truck with a shattered windshield stopped in the middle of the road, with an Israeli vehicle in front of it that had known better days. "He crashed into us," he argued, and the Palestinian driver accused Israelis of throwing stones at him. Who did it? Officers at the scene were unable to find out, although another young man was taken away in handcuffs.
Large forces began to gather at the scene, while my phone started beeping nonstop: for the first time since the second intifada, terrorists were eliminated from the air in the Jenin sector, the neighboring sector. At the same time, reports continued to circulate of hundreds of young Israelis rioting in the nearby village of Urif, in retaliation for the serious attack. Later it turned out that a school had burned down and a mosque had been vandalized in the village. A nightmare in the hottest area in Judea and Samaria. Welcome to northern Samaria.
At the Samaria Regional Brigade base, only a few hundred meters from the site of the riot, fighters from the Givati Patrol and the Yael Patrol of the Yahalam Unit were preparing for an operation to demolish the home of Kamel Guri, the terrorist who shot and murdered their comrade, Staff Sergeant Ido Baruch, about eight months ago. Well trained, after the destruction of 14 terrorists' homes in Judea and Samaria over the past year and a half, the fighters of the elite engineering unit prepared the
The IEDs for the demolition of the house in the heart of Nablus. Another activity we were supposed to go to in another neighborhood of the city was cancelled at the last minute, because the forces were directed to a riot by the hilltop boys in the village of Urif. In an unusual move, we were allowed to join the demolition of the house, enter Nablus, one of the worst terror centers of the past year, and tell the Israeli public how the IDF operates night after night deep inside the Palestinian Authority.
The demolition of the house in Nablus is, as of the closing of the issue, one of the highlights of an extraordinary week even in the crazy reality of Judea and Samaria, which included unusual activity in Jenin, a serious attack near Ali and revenge by hundreds of Israelis in Palestinian villages. This is the second demolition of a home in the area in the past week, after many years in which no homes were demolished in the city. A new phase in the war on terror in Nablus.
Warm welcome
At around one o'clock in the morning, we set off in the Tiger, the IDF's newest armored vehicles, a convoy of four vehicles in total, on the way to one of the southern neighborhoods of the big city. "Unless it's chasing terrorists after an attack, there's no such thing as a vehicle going in alone," says the vehicle commander as we rush in. Two hours earlier, dozens of military vehicles had broken into the neighborhood – panthers, tigers, boilers, shuffles and trucks carrying a lot of equipment. This is the second house of a terrorist destroyed in just a week, two out of nine terrorists' homes in the area in total.
We were greeted by Palestinians throwing huge rocks from rooftops, and gunfire could be heard near the vehicles. A force near us reported IEDs being thrown at it, and it was still considered a relatively calm area. "I will tell the terrorists that we are disappointed by the lukewarm reception," laughed the vehicle commander wryly, noticing that I expected more. Nonetheless, this is what an ordinary citizen imagines in an activity in the heart of Nablus. Last May, the Samaria Brigade forces, led by Brigade Commander Colonel Shimon Sisu, carried out no less than 106 operations inside Nablus, some deep inside the Kasbah and in the refugee camps, and although this is still an extremely dangerous area infested with terrorists, there is no doubt that deterrence worked.
A small table, a flag with a soul candle on it, at the entrance to Hummus Eliyahu at the gas station near Ali, photo: Jonathan Zindel, Flash 90
We unload in a crowded residential neighborhood, with high-rise houses dominating above us, and enter an apartment on the second floor, noticing a family being evacuated as we go inside. Demolishing the house is indeed a very precise task, but this does not mean that there is no risk to homes in the area, and the IDF does not take risks. On the second floor, Yael Patrol fighters are engaged in drilling using large drills. The smiles that stared at me in the regional division disappeared in the heart of Nablus, and the professionals are engaged in the intensive work. Hundreds of holes are expected to be drilled in the coming hours in preparation for the house explosion.
"There are hundreds of IEDs in each such structure, and a mistake in one of them may end in lack of success and even injury to uninvolved civilians," says Major T., commander of the Yael Patrol. This is the commando unit of the Yahalam unit, established in 1982, which specializes in clandestine and highly classified activity. Alongside operations for which publication is strictly prohibited, its fighters map and demolish the houses of terrorists in Judea and Samaria.
The special commando unit specializes in survival in difficult terrain. Over the past year, they raided and destroyed a Syrian position in the Golan Heights, an operation that was permitted for publication. "The activity we do here is a little different from the DNA of the Yael Patrol. Destroying the houses of terrorists is just a speck of what we do," he hints, but says that this is a real mission for him: "We have a lot of experience and these are very skilled fighters. The sense of mission is very high. We know that as a result of these actions, attacks are prevented, and that motivates us."
Dozens of fighters work in perfect synergy inside the building. Drill, measure, mark and prepare the house for explosion. The terrorist's family left messages on the walls. The name of the terrorist, Kamel Guri, was written on the wall in Hebrew alongside a declaration "liberate Palestine" in English. On one of the walls there are quite a few Arabic inscriptions, and the fighters drill between them the holes intended for the explosive devices. In the adjacent apartment, which was evacuated, a compound was set up where the soldiers' weapons were placed, as well as a coffee and tea corner, which also had flasks of flat bagels, and even bags of chocolate milk. A warrior walks around handing out watermelon to his comrades.
"It's hard and physical work, which has to be very precise, so we make sure there is food," explains Lt. Col. G., the combat engineering officer of the Judea and Samaria Division, who supervises the fighters' operations. He is personally present in every mapping and destruction of a terrorist's house, quite a few operations that took place in Judea and Samaria over the past year. Thus, the night before, he was engaged in mapping the two houses of the terrorists who carried out the attack at the gas station near Ali in the village of 'Urif, which is not far from where we stand.
He leads me into the work site, which until a few days ago was the home of the terrorist and his family, and explains that the challenge they face is not simple. This is a multi-storey building. The terrorist's apartment is on the second floor along with two other apartments, and therefore the explosion must be carried out so that it does not damage the other houses or cause the building to collapse, since the other residents are not involved in terrorism. For this reason, the apartment is covered with markings, according to which the fighters work. A large X stands on some of the walls, as they are supporting pillars. In one of the rooms, a large black sheet covers the window. "Against snipers," he explains, reminds us that this is not sterile terrain, but rather a city where quite a few armed terrorists roam.
"Demolishing terrorists' homes is a very important tool in the basket of deterrent tools," he says. "The destruction of a terrorist's house deterred and prevented attacks, and we know this for sure. At the same time, we have to take into account the fact that there are uninvolved people in the building, and therefore the hundreds of IEDs deployed here are designed to explode within milliseconds so as not to create one concentrated explosion, so that we will control safety and uninvolved persons."
In the end, the house is supposed to be uninhabitable, but I raise the obvious question – how do we know that the family, with the backing of the terrorist organizations and the Palestinian Authority, will not rush to rebuild the house? Lt. Col. G. replies that they take this into account. "We're not letting that happen. Every six months we check what's going on with the house. If a house is rebuilt, we demolish it again."
Rescue under fire
The fact that this will not be a standard week became clear on Monday, when a huge IED exploded under a bulletproof Panther vehicle in Jenin, injuring seven fighters. The fighters in the neighboring Samaria sector did not hesitate for a moment, jumped into the armored vehicles and strove for contact. "Within a short time, we were inside the area and immediately encountered it," says a senior military source who was on the ground. "The fact that there were IEDs there didn't surprise us, but the intensity was exceptional. There were areas there that were controlled and fired, so we worked to draw the fire so that they wouldn't fire at the forces and strove for contact with the terrorists." Several terrorists were killed in battle on the ground, and dozens more were wounded in IDF activity.
"We were partners in the rescue under fire, while eliminating terrorists," says the deputy commander of the Givati patrol battalion, Major Danny Lushkovitz, as we stood in the heart of the Mahfia neighborhood in Nablus, towering high-rises above us, and fighters working from all sides to secure the area and demolish the apartment where the terrorist lived with his family. "Vigilance increases after an event like this. We understand that there is a desire to copy the IED incident that the Panther boarded to Nablus as well, and we are working using various methods so that this does not happen. It should be said that at the entrance to Nablus there is an inherent risk. Every time we enter, we take into account that there is going to be an encounter, that there is going to be a charge."
The fact that the fighters of the Givati Patrol are the ones providing the operational response to the demolition of the house is a real closure. The house that is about to be demolished is the house of the terrorist who murdered Ido Baruch, their comrade in the force. A week ago, the house of the second terrorist was also demolished. "We are sending a message to the terrorists and their families that apart from putting our hands on each of them, whether they are arrested or killed, their home, their safe place, will no longer be safe. Today we finally closed the account, as much as we can, with this attack."
A day after the bomb in Jenin, when it was already clear that the events in northern Samaria were only getting worse, in light of the wave of severe attacks and the determination of the terrorists to attack fighters in villages and cities, the massacre arrived at the gas station near the community of Ali. Four Israelis were murdered in the attack, one of the worst in recent years in Judea and Samaria. The prime minister and defense minister promised an appropriate response, but made it clear that a broad operation in northern Samaria would not be carried out from the gut.
The attack clearly demonstrated how tense the entire region is. The terrorists arrived from the village of Urif in northern Samaria in a vehicle with Israeli license plates and began a massacre at the gas station. The security guard from the community of Ali strove for contact and killed one of them, while the other fled in a motorized vehicle that was there, crossing into the neighboring sector - the Samaria Brigade.
"They sent us the escape route of the vehicle in real time, and we realized that we couldn't wait for additional forces because it was in the area," the military source recounts. Samaria Brigade Commander Shimon Siso ordered four David's vehicles to board and began a hot pursuit of the terrorist, contacting the Jordan Valley brigade commander and asking him to close the circle from the east. "We flew into Nablus and from there to Tubas. We wouldn't have done it in our lives if it wasn't so urgent," said the source who participated in the chase.
In Tubas, deep in territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority, the terrorist abandoned the vehicle and got into a taxi. "They dismantled our shape there, four military vehicles in the middle of nowhere," he adds, describing the moments of drama. "We managed to locate the stolen vehicle with the rifle inside, and we realized it was unarmed. We stopped the vehicles from reaching the scene, and in the meantime, SWAT fighters flanked the taxi he was riding in and neutralized him. It was a very quick closure." Within two hours, the two terrorists were eliminated.
Requirement: Wide Operation
A few hours after the horrific attack at the gas station, residents were allowed to return to the compound, and they began to pour in, rubbing their eyes in amazement at the terrible sights. The place, which has an active convenience store and a Hummus Eliyahu restaurant, was packed with officers and soldiers, police officers and medical personnel, including civilians who were used to shopping and spending time there and found themselves at the scene of the serious attack.
Vehicles began to enter the gas station, and it is likely that only some of them were aware of what had happened there a short time earlier. Where a van was parked was a vehicle hit by the terrorists' bullets, and a private vehicle was located where an Israeli's motor car was used by one of the terrorists to flee the scene. A huge hole stood in the window of Sonol's convenience store, from which sprouted an Israeli flag that hung randomly between the shelves, wordlessly recounting what happened, the battle between the dead and the objects of life.
IDF Spokesperson
At the end of the compound, the restaurant's employees were cleaning the place, pouring quantities of water on the floor stained with the blood of the murdered and wounded. A small table with a flag on it stood by the door and on it was a soul candle, which also silently told the story of the four murdered. The workers continued to shovel the water, but one was missing. Elisha Antman, only 18, had finished twelfth grade the day before the attack and worked in a restaurant as a waiter. His place of work also became the place of his murder.
"My son works in this restaurant, by a miracle he was on vacation today," said Eliana, an employee of the Binyamin Council, about the moments of terror. After the attack, documentation was published of many young people who had spent time in the restaurant minutes before the attack. The picture also shows two of the victims. "What would have happened if the terrorists had been ten minutes early?" many asked. The answer is chilling.
The attack stretched the patience of the settlers to the limit – and beyond. Two of the murdered, Harel Massoud and Nachman Mordoff, lived in Givat Ahuvia near Kochav Hashahar, one of the hills in the Binyamin area. Shortly after the funeral of 17-year-old Nachman, more than <> young Israelis stormed the nearby village of Turmus Aya. It has nothing to do with the attack, even though terrorists have come out of it in the past. Revenge was the goal, and the question of whether the target was relevant to the attack remained insignificant. Dozens of cars and houses went up in flames.
The heads of the regional councils demanded a broad operation in northern Samaria to stop terrorism. "We demand to launch a military offensive against the enemy and eradicate the nests of terror with a crushing blow," said the head of the Binyamin Regional Council, Israel Gantz. "Our security is no man's land. I call on the government to act courageously against the incessant attacks and prevent the next bereavement," added Beit El Council head Shai Alon.
A senior IDF source said in response that the activity in the Nablus area is already very intensive. "Sometimes people think that because there was an attack, everything has to be shaken, but they don't think about the fact that 200 similar attacks were prevented. It's a heartbreaking murderous attack, but there could have been ten more. A year ago there were 30 activities here every month, now within half a month we are doing 50 activities. No one stops us from doing what we want, on the contrary – they spur us on. True, there is a desire to carry out attacks, and unlike Jenin, here the communities are very close and the Israelis travel along the route, but we must also remember who is in front of us. The Balata Brigades are three men with weapons. Terminology empowers the enemy. People don't understand. There are 300,400 inhabitants here. If there was no deterrence, there would be <> attacks a day."
Today, he responds to criticism, there are barriers around Nablus, even though they are not hermetic. One of the initiatives being examined is the creation of vehicle screening stations, which will enable a much more significant inspection of the vehicles leaving Nablus, both at the level of physical inspection and in the number of vehicles that can be tested. "Everyone forgets that a few months ago there were 40 attacks a month here. It's a miracle that there weren't 40 dead here. We work very hard to prevent terrorist attacks, and sometimes people don't realize how much. We are offensive, no one should urge us to do offensive activities."
The acts of revenge led by dozens of young Israelis after the attack in the village of Urif, where the terrorists lived, the military source said, only created operational damage. "Those who think they will save the world don't realize they're doing the opposite. Instead of going in and carrying out offensive activity in Nablus, we are busy chasing them. Let us deal with the enemy, dismantle him. There was no nationalist attack in May, and more than 100 operations could have been carried out in Nablus. We believe that after knocking someone down, you have to keep punching them, so they don't recover. Every time they draw attention, they prevent us from attacking. We don't need you, we're offensive enough. They waste our time. Why should we mess with this? We were supposed to carry out an important operation in Nablus, and instead we chased children who were going to make a price tag instead of going to a class."
"We are the landlords"
The activity inside Nablus lasted all night. The fighters worked meticulously and meticulously, deploying the delay cables that connected the charges inside the walls. Although this is the heart of Nablus, the feeling was almost sterile, and Major Lushkowitz explained that this was not by chance. "There are forces around us operating hundreds of meters away from us. As far as we're concerned, we're in an engineering project as if it's in the heart of Tel Aviv. Make no mistake - neither quiet nor calm tonight. The forces encounter gunfire and IEDs, and there are significant disturbances in the area. The fact that you feel safe means that we are fulfilling our mission successfully."
"Do they want to create a kind of Gaza here?" I ask, and he replies in the affirmative: "Yes, but we won't allow it. We are the owners here, and I know the alleys in Nablus no less than those who live here. Nablus will not be a city of refuge."
On our way to the armored vehicles, a burst of gunfire was suddenly heard nearby, and the fighters hurried to aim their weapons at the threat. We got on the "tiger" and started driving. The Palestinians' farewell was more significant than the reception, and many rocks landed on the heavily armored vehicle. More gunfire was heard near us, and the brigade commander ordered another force to move into Nablus and literally draw the fire to it.
In the early hours of the morning, the fighters blew up the apartment. "Two were blown up, seven more are on the way," one commander put it. Nine houses of terrorists who murdered Israelis. Each of them is a whole world. Another night of eradication of terror in Nablus, another night of war in Judea and Samaria.
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