Lt. Col. Tomer Greenberg, commander of the Golani Brigade's 13th Battalion, fell in battle in the Gaza Strip yesterday. In October he was interviewed for a special interview with Israel Hayom, in which he spoke about that black morning on the seventh of October when he lost 41 of his soldiers and discovered that all the outposts in his area had fallen, terrorists had infiltrated all the communities in it. Tomer left behind a wife and child.
Arbel, the daughter of Lt. Col. Tomer Greenberg, sends him a message with the cover of Israel Hayom with his picture in front of her
On Black Saturday, Greenberg was at his home in Kibbutz Almog on the Dead Sea. "At 6:<> a.m., I received a call that a rocket and mortar attack had begun. I got dressed and left. I called my battalion sergeant to understand what was going on, and he told me there were terrorists everywhere."
He drove quickly to the sector. On the way, he was informed that his battalion sergeant had been killed (in retrospect it turned out that he had been severely wounded), and that one of the company commanders had also been killed. At 09:00 A.M., he reached the sector, joined other forces and began a campaign of clashes. "In the village of Gaza, we reached a house where there are no terrorists. I ask what's there, and he says it's a house with two babies whose parents were killed."
Lt. Col. Tomer Greenberg, Photo: Oren Cohen
"We got there, we broke in, I see the mother shot in the living room, I get to the children's room, I see the father lying with a bullet to the head. I recognize the father, he's a former Golani officer, I also got to work with him, and I see two sweet babies, blue eyes, maybe two years old, just sitting quietly in the playpen. Before we left, I went in to wash my hands in the bathroom, but the truth is that I wanted to wash the tear that had fallen on me."
The interview with him took place before the ground maneuver, and in the interview he described what he considered a victory: "To hit as many terrorists as possible and to make sure that in the Gaza envelope they live quietly. These twins we saved - terrorists will no longer enter their homes. These twins are my motivation. This is a campaign we have been preparing for for 15 years. Now let's see who prepared better. It's clear to all of us what we're fighting for, and we shouldn't tell the fighters too much. In the Golani, it's harder to get people out of school than for war. The desire to go in and fight is greater than ever. This is not revenge. It's the twins, they didn't even cry when we took them out at the CIO. I thought about my daughter, who is 3 and a half years old. It's for them."
"Abush": the heartbreaking message he received from his daughter
"Abush": Watch the commander of Golani's 13th Battalion receive a moving message from his daughter \\ Photo: Oren Cohen
During the ground maneuver, Lt. Col. Tomer Greenberg accompanied our correspondent Yoav Limor inside the Gaza Strip. On his journey deep into the Gaza Strip with the soldiers of the brigade. During the conversation between the two, when the subject of longing for the family left behind came up, Limor surprised him and showed him a video in which his three-year-old daughter watches a picture of her father on the cover of the Israel Hayom newspaper and excitedly says the word "Abush."
Tomer left behind a wife and a three-year-old girl. He then says that he tries not to disconnect and not think about them too much, so as not to distract from the task. He inserted small plastic glasses belonging to his daughter into his glasses, which accompany him with a constant reminder.
Watching the video, he admitted he missed it, but said: "We have more work to do. Soon I have a command group for the night. Let's finish the interview so I can move on."
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