Corporal Ram Alfasi, a soldier from the Golani Brigade's 12th Battalion, left Gaza last night after two weeks of fighting in Khan Yunis. In the battles, he lost some of his fellow fighters, among them Sergeant Maor Cohen Eizenkot from Eilat, who was killed earlier this week by an anti-tank missile in the mosque where the combat team was staying.
It was not yet 12 hours from the moment Ram and his battalion comrades left Gaza until he arrived at the Cohen Eizenkot home for a condolence visit and a hug from Sharon, Maor's mother, and the rest of his family. "Today marks one year in the army, and instead of marking this day, I visit the family of my friend Maor in the battalion," he says. "I spent eight months with Maor every day in the army, we were close until the moment of the incident.
Corporal Ram Alfasi with President Herzog, Photo: Yehuda Ben Yattach
"That morning we received a mission to reach the mosque in Khan Yunis. He had intelligence on him with weapons hidden," he says of the incident that led to the deaths of two of his close friends and the wounding of about ten other fighters.
"We entered with two APCs and a team of fighters. One APC unloaded fighters at the entrance to the mosque and all the fighters entered. Maor and Yonatan were spearheads and they were the first to enter together with the operations officer, followed by the other fighters. We started scanning and mopping up the building. Inside, we found a Kalashnikov rifle and magazines. We stood in the cover and observation and realized that we had probably found a tunnel shaft. We waited for combat engineers to place IEDs to expose the shaft."
Grenades, magazines and various types of weapons were found in the mosque, Photo: IDF Spokesperson
"40 terrorists fired at us"
A few minutes later, a powerful explosion was heard. The force was ambushed in a planned ambush. "We were fired at by anti-tank missiles from the neighboring house. No one saw or was prepared for this. At first we thought that combat engineering had detonated the IEDs ahead of time. A few minutes passed before we realized that an anti-tank had been fired at us. Maor and Nitai, who were very close to the explosion, were very badly hit. I was on the other side, I felt shrapnel hit me in the hand, but I didn't have time to linger.
"We started treating the wounded. There were about ten wounded among Golani fighters and combat engineers. Maor's company commander put a tourniquet on him and we started evacuating the wounded on stretchers to the CIOs, who fortunately weren't hurt. There were about 40 terrorists there who fired at us from all sides. At this stage, additional forces arrived at the scene and also assisted in the fighting."
From the Gaza Strip and sometimes under fire, the Israeli Air Force and Unit 669 evacuate wounded by helicopter, Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Documentation from the field - evacuation of wounded by the Israeli Air Force and 669 // Photo: IDF Spokesperson
After they were rescued from the scene, they joined a helicopter with 669 fighters who evacuated them to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva.
Despite Ram's loss, he is expected to embark on a mech course soon. "We're going to the course without two of our friends. Unfortunately, even without our fellow fighters in Golani's 13th Battalion. We also lost the battalion commander of the battalion, whom we know well."
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