Ahmed Musa, a company commander in Nukhba, had been targeted by the IDF since October 7. He is considered a key figure in Hamas' elite unit and the person who led the raid to the Zikim base, the kibbutz and the nearby beach. Seven men and women fell in battle against the terrorists, and 19 civilians were murdered on the beach. Since then, Musa has traveled between Gaza's tunnels and hiding places in the city of Jabaliya. He was so pleased with himself that he felt immune enough to order his terrorists how to harm IDF fighters advancing into the northern Gaza Strip.
"He was considered a high-quality target," says Lt. Col. (res.) Y., a former fighter helicopter pilot and fire officer in the operations room of the 215th Brigade, which belongs to the Artillery Corps. "His ability to harm our forces is high. His elimination would cause damage to the use of terrorists, command and control, and cause confusion among his subordinates. For such a purpose, we are prepared to deal with the exceptional risk that the shelling may be close to our forces or take into account that uninvolved civilians will also be harmed.
Documentation: Terrorists leave a building in the northern Gaza Strip with an anti-tank launching post and were eliminated // Photo: IDF Spokesperson
"We debated how to act so he wouldn't be able to get away. I recommended shooting, with a timing of a few seconds and with different armaments. These are calculations and adjustments, taking into account time and distances.
"Last Friday night we carried out the liquidation. As we decided, ground forces fired at the Tammuz anti-tank missile, which has an electro-optical system and is considered one of the most advanced in the world. The missile entered through the window and destroyed one of the rooms. The terrorist was in another room at the time. From the drone above, we saw that he had managed to leave the house with two other people. They ran away, but he acted exactly as we assumed and ran to another building, apparently to get down to the tunnel from there. As soon as he disappeared in the doorway, in perfect synchronization, a bomb from a fighter plane was dropped on the house and killed him."
The two who were with him were also killed at the same time?
"We didn't know if they were terrorists or non-involved civilians, so we didn't do anything. I have no doubt that with our super caution, we are causing more terrorists to move around our forces because of purity of arms. It is not a derogatory word and it pays homage to those who use weapons. This is what sets us apart from them. It's not always easy for us with our emotions, but when I'm in the war room with headphones and maps, I maintain my military professionalism."
What if these two hurt our fighters?
"It goes through my mind all the time, because we in the operations room make sure to shell the area before the ground maneuver begins, sometimes provide a rolling screen of fire in front of the fighters, always lift a UAV (remotely manned aircraft) over them, but I also know that our fighters know how to deal with the enemy. They are not hooligans attacking civilians, but skilled soldiers equipped with weapons and tanks."
Do security agencies prevent you from bombing certain buildings for fear that there are abductees in them?
"It's part of the process," Y. says, "in some places I have to get a special permit, and sometimes we are asked about the type of armament, the direction of fire, and even the floor of the building. I have no idea what the security agencies know or don't know about the abductees, but sometimes I get a ban on shooting at a certain place and an order to shoot only nearby."
Know every hill and water tower
The base where the brigade's fire room is located is closed on routine days and opens only in times of war, mainly for reserve forces. It is unclear who decided to place it near one of the cemeteries in southern Israel and cause a slightly morbid atmosphere, heightened by the echoes of incessant shelling from Gaza.
The way in passes between containers and shelters, and in front of some of them hang pictures of abductees. At the entrance to the armored war room, known to everyone as a "trailer," hangs a poster of a Hamas member with a green ribbon adorning his forehead, stating that it is forbidden to talk to unauthorized parties about classified information.
, Photo: AP
Two reserve teams, each referred to as an attack complex, sit in front of dozens of computers and large screens, some of which can be seen in the northern Gaza Strip – the sector under their responsibility, broadcast live from Zik UAV cameras. The view of Gaza from above manages to surprise.
Alongside the destruction known from the photos, some of the buildings in the Shati refugee camp, considered one of the most crowded in the world, are seen intact and standing. Computer monitors in the brigade's operations room show Gaza from another angle: attack videos, the location of the brigade's forces, and recent aerial photographs, some of which are surrounded by an orange frame warning that these are sensitive places such as various educational institutions, hospitals, mosques, water towers and UNRWA offices.
The surrounding commotion is silent in a second, with an overhead view of Jabaliya conveyed from one of the screens. One of the intelligence officers, wearing a Madonna headset, is quietly talking to the drone operator. A green cross dances on the screen and stops at one of the buildings, which was supposed to be evacuated and is near Post 17, Hamas' military stronghold, which was shot down after a ten-hour battle.
A slight hiss indicates that the aircraft has released an air-to-ground missile. In the war room, they wait tensely for 30 seconds until they are hit. Then a bright flash of light and thick black smoke envelops the drone. "As we thought," says one intelligence officer, just before his eyes return to the computer monitor. "There was a confidential cache of ammunition underneath the building."
Around one of the tables behind him gathers the commander of one of the teams, Lt. Col. (res.) A., and with him Y. and Sergeant (res.) M., the security officer. At the tables next to them, called cells, are target officers, who are responsible for gathering intelligence that assists the team in operating the firepower.
"The role of the attack complex – which creates synergy between intelligence, the air force and artillery – is to prepare the area for ground maneuver forces according to types of scenarios," A. explains. "We study the topography of the area to the point of recognizing every small hill or water tower, examine where the enemy is deployed, where he can surprise from, analyze the mission and decide whether to attack the enemy with Zeke, fighter planes, navy or artillery. An aircraft is not attacked only because the squadron sent it, but according to the design of assembly teams and the suitability of the armament to the nature of the target. Even though we are outside Gaza, our job is sometimes to be the front, the back, and the eyes of the fighters from above."
So far, the team has planned an average of about 16 strikes per day, ranging from flattening the ground on the outskirts of Gaza, building a rolling curtain of fire in front of the fighters, shelling buildings, blowing up Hamas weapons depots, to targeted assassinations of senior terrorists. Sometimes tasks are planned for long minutes or even days, sometimes they are immediate, quick and on point.
A. (50), a married father of three, owns an information systems consulting firm. In the regular army he served in the artillery and dealt with precision-guided munitions, such as the Tammuz missile. "Until the ground raids on 26 October, we collected intelligence assessments and up-to-date field photographs. We prepared the area in front of Beit Hanoun, shelled Hamas ambushes, weapons depots and anti-tank positions that could have delayed the ground maneuver. Since then, we have been responsible for hundreds of attacks inside Gaza."
Direct coordination with the hospital
M., 27, who works as a developer in a website building company, recalls one of the first operations involving the transfer of weapons from a building in Khan Yunis. "We wanted to catch them red-handed and put a firecracker in the air. We saw two terrorists enter the building and take things out. There was a dilemma when to attack because we wanted a significant achievement, and suddenly a horse with a cart arrived. It was surreal because the terrorists loaded crates with weapons onto the wagon. We fired a relatively small Zik missile at them, and the back of the wagon was destroyed.
, Photo: Reuters
"The two terrorists were lying on the ground. Because of the accuracy of the missile, the horse was not injured and remained tied to part of the wagon. We noticed people coming around. They loaded the bodies or wounded onto what was left of the wagon and followed them until they reached the school and found shelter inside. We didn't fire at the place because there were a lot of Gazan refugees there."
Why didn't you shoot while the bodies of the terrorists were loaded onto the wagon?
"We wanted to make a killing confession for terrorists, but it wasn't clear whether the people around were terrorists or civilians."
How did what you did contribute to the forces on the ground?
"We disrupted a Hamas operation intended to harm our forces. We hit them with weapons and two main terrorists. What they wanted to do was no longer implemented."
These days, the brigade's forces are inside the Shati refugee camp, one of the most prominent symbols of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and affiliated with the family of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the organization's political bureau. Hundreds of terrorists are infested in the refugee camp, most of them hiding in shafts and tunnels or in schools, clinics and offices of international aid organizations. According to intelligence assessments, four Nukhba commando companies were stationed there, two of which were completely wiped out by the IDF.
Y., 56, a doctor and deputy director of one of the largest hospitals, volunteered for reserve duty on 7 October and was sent to the fire room as an Air Force representative. He is married with three children, one of whom is currently on pilot training.
"I'm not relaxed, because Shetty is one of the most stressful places in Gaza," Y. says. "It's not just a huge number of terrorists, but highly qualified terrorists. Because of the crowding in Shati, the fighters enter the alleys on foot and it's harder for me to protect them. I don't sleep well at night when I know they're there. I treat them like my children. We now accompany them by looking down from above, warning when necessary, but if someone opens fire, I can't drop a bomb on him because I might hurt the fighters. In such an urban scenario, fragments of buildings would prevent them from advancing, and of course also because of the civilian population that has not yet evacuated or is threatened by Hamas to remain there.
"We operated in the camp before the IDF entered, while most of the civilians, about 50,<>, came out with white flags. Intelligence target officers discovered that in a five-story building, which serves as an observation post and covers a wide area, several terrorists had barricaded themselves with anti-tank missiles. We asked the intelligence to be precise and give us a precise location because there are four apartments on each floor. The terrorists were on the fifth floor and we decided to use combat helicopters with a small smart bomb. The Zeke continued to convey the sights and we saw that the floors below were not damaged. Even the windows weren't broken."
Looking at the fighters from above is enough?
A.: "Right now our part in Shati is, literally, to guard the fighters' backs so that terrorists don't surprise them by exiting hidden shafts behind them. Until the fighters finish the battles there, I don't sleep, and I'm afraid of Jenin-style scenes in Operation Defensive Shield. Then the fighters were trapped in a bathtub of fire, which was fired at them from crowded buildings surrounding them."
Did you also operate around hospitals where terrorists were hiding?
M.: "Ten days ago we wanted to evacuate the Qatari Sheikh Hamed Hospital, which is located near the beach. Hamas operatives barricaded themselves there. We decided to fire artillery about 500m around it and used fighter planes as well. The goal was to tell them we were close and let them out."
What did you do when doctors and patients couldn't evacuate because Hamas used them as human shields?
A.: "We didn't attack them with shells and the ground forces went inside, fought the terrorists and exposed terror tunnels."
M.: "This week we also acted vis-à-vis Rantisi Hospital, where a large quantity of ammunition was found in the tunnel beneath it and testimonies that Israeli abductees were transported there. Hamas held a thousand hospitalized patients hostage there, because they knew we wouldn't shoot at them."
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Not only did the team succeed in getting the place to evacuate, but also an unusual call made by a senior officer from the Gaza Liaison Office to the hospital director, who feared that the IDF would hit ambulances evacuating the wounded. Here's how the conversation went:
Officer: "Don't worry, I'm near the army and everything will be fine."
Manager: "How will the patients get out? They should, for example, wave a white flag and exit the main entrance. Which direction will we take?"
Officer: "Move east to Issam Sartawi Street, from there to Amin Al Husseini Street to Al Jalaa Street and from there go south. You can start moving from 11:20."
Moderator: "Okay, I'll keep in touch with you."
Officer: "I have a very important comment. It is important that the patients have something white so that it is clear that they do not have weapons. You are aware of the sensitivities on the ground."
Moderator: "Everyone will come out with their hands raised."
The smoke turned into a fire mushroom
Despite the caution against harming civilians, demonstrations against Israel around the world are increasing, claiming that the IDF is committing genocide. "I will not state unequivocally that we have not killed a civilian in more than a month of fighting," Y. says honestly. "At the same time, we are doing our utmost not to cause damage or harm uninvolved civilians. We know that Hamas is deliberately inside them, but there's no way we saw a child through the Zik camera and decided to shoot. That's not going to happen."
To illustrate their point, M. presents two records of Zik from recent days. The first was filmed in Shetty and shows a routine situation of a man walking alone on the street and entering a residential building that has been evacuated from its residents. The team had information that he was not an innocent civilian, but a Hamas terrorist. In order not to cause huge damage, it was decided not to use a fighter aircraft, but rather the focused and relatively small missiles of the Zik.
Israeli Air Force airstrikes in Gaza City, photo: AP
The crew expected smoke to rise from one of the windows, but instead a huge fire mushroom rose into the sky. "A Zik missile does not cause such a phenomenon," says M. "We had a suspicion that there was indeed a huge cache of ammunition and explosives in the building, and that was proof. We destroyed a huge amount of weapons, which were intended to harm our forces while entering the site."
The second video was filmed in the Al Furqan neighborhood, which also serves as a nest of terror and from which many operations against Israel took place. The brigade attacked more than 100 targets, using dozens of fighter planes. "We operated there before the ground forces entered because we knew there were anti-tank squad formations there," M. says, while the video shows a squad of 15 people marching in a row in a narrow alley between two buildings. "The information referred to two terrorists, and while the missile was in the air, we suddenly saw a swarm of people. The area was evacuated from most of the residents, and chances are they were Hamas terrorists, but we didn't take any chances. The intelligence officer immediately asked the operator to deflect the missile, and it crashed onto the roof of a nearby building."
Are you monitoring the casualties among our forces?
M: "I do, especially if these are incidents that took place in the area where we operated before. It's important to disconnect and continue working, but after my shift I check the names and what happened. It is important for us to prepare as clean an area for the fighters as possible.
"A few days ago, for example, we received information from the Givati Force, which identified suspicious movement in the Beit Hanoun area in the early morning hours. We immediately sent Zeke to check the area and saw a group of people moving down the street gesturing to each other with hand gestures. We followed them as they entered the alley and hid under a tree. Their conduct was not like that of civilians, and they were very close to IDF forces.
"As those who keep a watchful eye on our fighters, we ordered Zik to shoot and hit two of them. The rest fled, took a detour and entered a parallel alley. When they entered the building, the Zeke fired the second missile at them. Again fire and smoke mushroom. This time, too, it was clear that the place served as a weapons storehouse."
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