The mission: blow up! Dozens of shafts, buildings and tunnels have been blown up so far by Captain (res.) Shahar and his men. By special measures, details about which it is forbidden to publish, the reconnaissance platoon of the 8173rd Engineer Battalion of the Etzioni Brigade (Gadahan 6) is destroying Hamas' underground capabilities with huge explosions that save lives.
Fighters of the 188th Brigade took over and destroyed the headquarters of the S'gaiya Battalion of the Hamas terrorist organization // IDF Spokesperson
"We are working around the clock, as a divisional team, to destroy enemy infrastructure underground and on the ground," Shahar explains without detailing their critical mission. "After the brigades finish their attacks and expose the infrastructure, we deal with them by various means. It should be said that there are places where the army did not expect to find shafts, and they are not easy to find, but it saves lives, unequivocally. We exposed shafts near military forces that had positioned themselves. So far, the division has located hundreds of shafts, many of which were later published in the media."
As is well known, the underground threat is the most dangerous threat in the Gaza Strip – hidden cities beneath destroyed neighborhoods, where terrorists hide and from which they launch attacks that cost the lives of Israeli fighters. To this end, the special team, operating under the 36th Division in the central Gaza Strip and the neighborhood of Sajaiya, was assigned one task – to eradicate Hamas' capabilities. Among other things, the censors allowed publication, the surgical team destroyed a factory for the production of parts of tunnels, shafts and tunnels in various locations, including the tunnels under Shifa Hospital.
"Every day we reinvent ourselves and build our combat doctrine from scratch,"
The small crew consists of only 20 fighters. Staff Sgt. Idan (21) is the youngest. He was discharged only four months ago from service in the Corps of Combat Engineers, and was almost immediately called back to the war mission. "We stopped counting how many times we entered Gaza. We have special measures that regular departments do not have. Through them, we reach shafts, buildings or tunnels, and destroy them."
The footage we received shows a huge explosion carried out by the department in the Gaza Strip. These are unimaginable quantities of explosives and means that enable the activity to destroy Hamas' capabilities. Shahar says that he came to command the department about three years ago, and he leads it in activities with the various brigades. "There's nowhere the division went and we didn't," he says.
"Acting with a tremendous sense of mission"
Staff Sgt. (res.) Gil, the platoon sergeant, serves as a business development manager at a high-tech company on a daily basis. "We feel a tremendous sense of mission. There is an amazing dedication of all the guys here. We received a very severe blow on 7 October, and as far as we are concerned, we are here until the day the war ends. We must not get to the point where they do the same thing to us again."
Gil shares that he is closing a long-standing family circle in the fighting. "I was very excited the first time I entered because I am the grandson of Holocaust survivors and my grandfather participated in all of Israel's wars. Even now, it's a war for home."
The mission: blow up! The reconnaissance platoon of the 8173rd Engineer Battalion in the Etzioni Brigade in action, photo: IDF Spokesperson
Shahar, a construction engineer, said that even though he knew in advance that Hamas was hiding weapons in schools and hospitals, he was still amazed at the scope. "It's extraordinarily cynical, delusional. Ordinary infrastructure is used for terrorism. We found weapons in schools, near public buildings, everywhere. You see a neighborhood, and you can imagine a completely normative life in it, and then you discover shafts. Who thinks of putting terror infrastructure in hospitals? Who lets their children go to school when underneath there is a shaft of terrorists with weapons? We found weapons toys that children play with, toffee boxes with weapons and wooden Kalashnikov rifles."
Every explosion carried out by the department is dedicated to one of the fallen, and many times the documentation is passed on to the family of the fallen, in order to prove that the IDF has not forgotten its heroes. Idan says that he himself dedicated one of the explosions to his good friend, Gil Mishalouf, a fighter and commander in Givati, who was killed by an RPG missile. "We left a 48-hour activity, and then I was called aside by the RSP, who broke the news to me. My twin brother asked me to call him, and together we broke up on the phone. I promised the family that I would do everything I could so that this wouldn't happen to anyone else."
At the end of the conversation, Gil asks to convey a message to the citizens of Israel. "I would like people at home to know that we are doing the maximum possible and pulling ourselves beyond the limit, in order to keep the country and our friends safe. Every day we reinvent ourselves and build our martial doctrine from scratch in order to think outside the box. Our entire team is doing everything possible to protect ourselves and our friend, and to correct as much of the pure evil that is here."
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