Major (Res.) Ravid Alfasi serves as the command commander of the 162nd Division (Steel Formation) Brigadier General Itzik Cohen. Since the outbreak of the war, he has hardly left home and lives on the line-in-exit to and from Gaza, sometimes for a few hours and sometimes for several days. In a conversation to the "Hear a Story" podcast from Israel Hayom, he describes an unusual and unusual event that happened in recent days, and which has not yet been published.
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"The Deputy Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Amir Baram, entered Gaza to deliver a call to the fighters of the Gefen Battalion from Bahad 1. It was a very impressive event, he came with two security guards and joined the Gefen Battalion that way. The conversation with them as deputy chief of staff in a room lit by red lanterns was very important in order to explain to them where they were going, but the deputy chief of staff was not satisfied with this and the brigade commander was not satisfied with this.
"When we finished, we went to a group of orders and went on the attack with Geffen cadets, the deputy chief of staff and the 261st brigade commander, Col. Yehuda Vach, who went on the attack shoulder to shoulder with the cadets, we were there with them. I lead a spearhead of lion guys with me, we went on the offensive in Darj Tufah. In this attack, there was an encounter with between three and six terrorists inside a building. There were wounded members of the team next to us, and we conducted fire to rescue the wounded and treat the wounded.
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"One of the moments I will never forget from this incident," Alfasi excitedly describes, "is Deputy Chief of Staff Amir Baram, who is a security personality by definition, with two security guards, telling my Hod team Nader and Bracha, 'Move aside,' and entering with his weapon in a slit in the wall, in Daraj Tufah, and conducting a battle and shooting into a house with terrorists. Now, it's a delusional picture, because you say on his face, 'Deputy Chief of Staff, let's wage the war.' And there's also the thought that when the most senior people come in, they come in to give a motivational talk, not a fight."
For one night, one of the most senior commanders in the Israel Defense Forces fought a battle with terrorists, and you will know that from today, whatever decision he makes regarding the forces fighting, he will take it out of deep familiarity with the field, from an eye-to-eye encounter with the fighters and the terrorists
As far as Maj. Alfasi is concerned, Maj. Gen. Baram's move has great significance for the soldiers, despite the risk: "In the Iron Sword War, what has changed here is our perception, as an army and as a state, to stop the nonsense, to stop posing, and to stop with 'technology will win,' and with all that I think. I saw the deputy chief of staff in an encounter shooting at a house with terrorists, putting his life on the brink. Now some will say, 'Yes, that's stupid, because if he gets hurt, the price we'll pay, etc.' But whoever saw him there – the brigade commander who saw him, and the battalion commanders and commanders, they will always tell – the deputy chief of staff risked his life shoulder to shoulder with us, in order to be an integral part, an active and integral part of this war. So yes, he was there for an hour, and after two hours we were already outside, and after three hours he returned to the Kirya, and continued to make decisions from within the Kirya.
Maj. Gen. Baram in conversation with Bahad 1 cadets in the heart of Gaza, photo: None
"But for one night, one of the most senior commanders in the Israel Defense Forces fought a battle with terrorists, and you will know that from today, whatever decision he makes regarding the forces that are fighting, he will take it out of deep familiarity with the field, out of eye to eye encounter with the fighters and with the terrorists. He understands the smell, he understands the color of the houses, he understands the problem of height, he understands how he fired at our hands for rescue less than 200 meters, he shoots and it doesn't hurt us because we are behind cover, and he can give permits to the air force to work at closer ranges, he understands how the tanks that secured us, the terrorists tried to sneak between them and other forces covered them.
There were complex incidents, doors being broken down with explosives and scanning in the wet, and we discovered an IED scene and all sorts of other things that I can't elaborate. It's not a show fight, it's a fight where I was in suspense on the edge. That's one of the things I won't forget about this war
"The deputy chief of staff for one night understood the battle picture in the most transparent and clean way possible, and I'm proud to have been part of this," Alfasi says, "because if we weren't such a high-quality and special force surrounding him, he wouldn't feel comfortable, neither the brigade commander to bring him forward nor the deputy chief of staff, to stay there in this area during the fighting. And there were complex incidents, breaking down doors with explosives and scanning the wet, and we discovered an IED scene and all sorts of other things that I can't elaborate. It's not a show fight, it's a battle in which I was tense on the edge, and on the other hand, at any given stage, I felt that the person, the brigade commander and the lieutenant were in a safe place that completely reflected reality, to the point where he took an active part in the battle and carried out fire himself. That's one of the things I won't forget about this war.
Major Ravid Alfasi overlooks the Gaza coast, photo: courtesy of the subject
"I got to know Amir Baram in the Mapim course. He spoke at the time as the head of Northern Command and I was very, very impressed with him as a person. I was happy to discover that he is a person who is also what is called cashing the check that he comes to the field, sees with his eyes, is not afraid, and when necessary he also goes all the way. I am proud that we have such commanders. If there were any questions before the war or during the war about the commanders who brought us this far, I think that night, at least for one of them, I understood that there was someone to rely on."
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