A week and a half after the IDF's ground incursion into the Gaza Strip, we spoke with the intelligence officer of one of the maneuvering brigades, who provides a rare glimpse into the situation on the ground.
Among other things, he describes that "Hamas manages to collect real-time intelligence about our forces," but the morale of the terrorists is very low, and they are killed in high numbers in the tunnels. The officer, a reservist, tells more about the beginning of the erosion of the forces, but demands unequivocally from the political echelon not to stop the forces, because if the work is not completed, "the state is gone."
The officer is Major (Res.), A., the intelligence officer of the 14th Armored Brigade, subordinate to the 252nd Division. A. is a high-tech entrepreneur from Tel Mond, who, like many others, left his job, his wife and two children, and has been in the south for almost a whole month, except for a few refreshments.
The division in which A serves is a reserve division, which in the original plans for a ground incursion into Gaza did not necessarily have to be among the first maneuvering forces, but in light of the operational situation in the north, which causes the IDF to maintain a broad order of battle there, it was decided that the division, which has been training for many years in preparation for fighting in the Gaza Strip, would move in.
Information overload
A., who is in charge of brigade intelligence, candidly shares that Military Intelligence personnel repeatedly explain to him about the various systems they use, and deal too little with intelligence itself.
"Military intelligence became addicted to information systems and technology, and abandoned intelligence itself," he says. "They come to explain to me about a lot of modern systems. At some point, I told them to stop explaining systems to me and start explaining intelligence to me. We became addicted to technology, Military Intelligence became a kind of high-tech company, and I hope that after October 7, things will change."
At the same time, Maj. A also notes that overall "the business is working well" and "there is a lot of real-time intelligence." "I need to refine it. Sometimes there is an information overload, intelligence transmits a lot of data. The problem, to me, is the story. That was the problem on October 7, and I see signs of that even now. There's a lot of information, but the stories aren't good enough. As a brigade commander, I take this data and try to tell my brigade commander the story."
Major A., who sits at the front of the 14th Brigade, also says that what surprised him most about Hamas was the weakness it has shown since the IDF's ground maneuver. "In the operational plans, we glorified the enemy we are fighting," he notes.
Tank on the ground. "Whoever comes out is attacked", Photo: IDF Spokesperson
IDF forces in Gaza, photo: IDF Spokesperson
"In practice, he went out very little to fight. We expected 'oh dear,' but in practice he's very afraid to go outside, and whoever goes out is attacked. We can also say that their morale is very low, and since the ground maneuver they have had almost no successes."
A. also says that the terrorists "die in the tunnels" and cannot get out of the shafts. At the same time, he admits that Hamas' intelligence is "good" and that "they work well."
"They know a lot about us, they know how we work, and they even have real-time intelligence gathering that they use." However, he stresses that eliminating senior figures, especially battalion commanders, significantly harms Hamas' command and control ability in the fighting against the IDF, even though each of them ultimately has a replacement.
Regarding the fighting itself, he says that although at first it was thought that the greatest threat to the forces would be the IEDs, in practice anti-tank missiles are the significant threat facing the fighters.
Stress drop
As a reservist, A. admits that the fact that he and his friends have barely seen the house for a whole month begins to wear them down a bit. "After October 7 and until the maneuver the tension was very high, motivation was sky-high. Until the maneuver, everyone was at the height of poison. Now there is a bit of a drop in tension, we are starting to repeat ourselves and therefore maybe a little more vulnerable.
"But whenever I feel a little burnout, I look at videos from October 7 and realize exactly what I'm doing here. This is a historic event like no other place in the country. I barely sleep three hours a night, we all work hard, and the only thing we ask is give us time. If we don't go all the way and decide, we won't have a state."
In conclusion, he notes: "If there is no clear decision, people will no longer come to the reserves. This is an existential war. If we don't win, Kfar Saba as an example will be next."
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