Tomer Zaban
Former undercover officer
He fought in the undercover unit Shimshon at the beginning of the second intifada. Author of the new book "In the Heart of Gaza" and the bestseller "Deep in Gaza" (Kinneret Publishing, Zamora). Today a diamond dealer
Tomer Zaban, as an undercover officer in the Samson unit that operated in Gaza in the 90s, will certainly not forget your first intervention activity.
"My team's first mission was in Jabaliya refugee camp. Every evening, Israeli trucks were hit by gunfire, mines and roadside bombs, and the operational squad would sneak into the refugee camp, which is a few minutes away from the supply road to the community of Dugit and its adjacent naval post. Our goal was to get them out of hiding. We were sewn in black suits and veils, and we tried to revolt the refugee camp."
How do you mutiny a refugee camp?
"An IDF supply truck staged a malfunction at the entrance to the camp, and our team was supposed to lead the crowd to the broken military vehicle in order to harm the soldiers, assuming that this would expose the wanted persons. The team moved in the center of Jabaliya, and the crowd gathered around us shouting 'Allahu Akbar' as we approached the broken down vehicle. An entire camp followed us, thousands of refugees. Suddenly, we noticed a masked man approaching us, and from him we realized that our wanted men had made an appointment in the evening at one of Jabaliya's schools.
"In the evening we arrived at the same school and noticed nine masked men entering the school plaza, armed with axes and machetes. One of them also had a loaded Kalashnikov. He started talking to the collaborator with us, and suddenly the collaborator was pushed, fell, and the squad leader put the barrel of the rifle into his mouth. All this while masked men surround us."
Edge mode, surely for first action.
"I thought I was in a movie, and soon the director would yell 'Kat.' But that wasn't the case, of course. The head of the terrorist squad shouted at us, 'My Jabalya,' while an order was already being conveyed to us, 'Prepare to act.' A few moments later, the 'act' command roared. We were ten fighters against nine terrorists, we took out pistols, and each fighter shot almost simultaneously at the masked man in front of him. A huge boom sounded in the schoolyard, and almost like magic, all the masked men fell to the ground. It was the first time the fighters on my team had killed a terrorist."
You eliminated several wanted persons there, and in your service you encountered other major terrorist figures, one of them is Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas figure who smuggled weapons from Iran to Gaza. 20 years before he was assassinated in Dubai, you almost killed him yourself, in an event you wrote about in your new book "In the Heart of Gaza" (Kinneret, Zamora Publishing).
"At the beginning of June, 1990, I was assigned to the unit's briefing room. The ISA coordinator of the Rafah sector pasted pictures of Muhammad Nazimi Nasser and Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, members of the squad that murdered soldiers Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadoun, on the magnet board. They were a skilled squad that kept them moving.
"We reached the cell's hiding place in Khirbet al Adas, east of Rafah. The squad members hiding there, Nasser and al-Mabhouh, were armed with rifles and pistols. At midnight that day, a moonless night, we began to move through the olive grove and reached the intended house, a dilapidated two-story building. One force sneaked toward the door, and my force came through the window on the second floor. As soon as I reached the window, I saw in front of me a young man with a frozen and frightened look, dressed in a white tank top and underwear. I told him to stop, but he started running away. In the basement, I caught up with him and pointed a gun at his head.
"Suddenly, a huge explosion of the iron door being breached was heard from the entrance, and the rest of the force entered. A search of the house revealed that the squad had escaped. What we didn't know at the time was that these terrorists were on their way to cross the perimeter fence separating Israeli and Egyptian Rafah, holding some of Ilan Saadoun's personal belongings."
A destroyed house in Gaza, photo: AFP
You are the one who entered the house first. With a slightly different timing, you could have eliminated al-Mabhouh.
"Maybe, but things turned out differently. Either way, 20 years later, when they published pictures of Mabhouh's assassins, I smiled to myself. That day I went to Ilan Saadon's grave and asked for forgiveness for taking us so long to arrive."
In your operations in Gaza, have you encountered tunnel threats?
"I knew Gaza like the back of my hand then, but since then things have changed, of course. Downtown was during my service period at the beginning of its journey. At the time, the tunnels were mainly in the Rafah area, and their function was to smuggle drugs, people, goods and weapons. The tunnels were then similar to shafts, similar to those seen at sites in the lowlands, such as during the time of Judah Maccabee. The more we closed the border, the bigger the tunnels began, but still far from what we see today."
You have to switch mode in a second. Undercover soldiers in the series "Fauda", photo: from Fauda
Five days inside Buidam
In your fieldwork, were you able to understand how they differ from us?
"I will tell you an incident that took place: one of my missions was to eliminate a significant wanted man in Rafah. The Shin Bet could not reach him, and every evening collaborators would be murdered. The Shin Bet recruited a collaborator, an arms dealer, who came to Rafah with weapons and sought to sell them to the intended wanted person. I was sent as a sniper to observe what was happening: I located a two-by-four-meter Widaam and waited five days. In those days I saw the people of the city, I looked at them deeply.
"On the fourth day, I noticed six veils advancing to the building I was in. I was sure they had boarded me, left my sniper rifle, and came out of hiding with a submachine gun and a pistol. Suddenly, I saw terrorists interrogating a collaborator, and in the end stabbing and killing him. What changed my understanding of them was what happened next: they dismembered his body and cut off his legs, hands and genitals. Sadistic pleasure I couldn't understand. This is the first time I realized that they are not like us in any way. I realized that we didn't understand anything very deep about them, so what we saw and heard in the events of October 7, unfortunately, didn't surprise me."
Author Tomer Zaban, former undercover officer, photo: Yehoshua Yosef
The area has been bubbling for years, and on 7 October we saw an eruption of everything that had flare up beneath the surface.
"The people of Israel refused to see the truth. There is a mirror in front of our eyes, and we refuse to look at it. Lately, the token has fallen for me: I was asked, is there no hope after all? This question teaches us that part of the nation is willing to ignore the truth, for the false thought that a future awaits us with these people. We insist on finding something that from my experience I realized doesn't exist. This is not a matter of freedom or state. There is a people here that wants to live in our place. You have to understand that."
You say things with great confidence. Perhaps there is no absolute truth here?
"At the end of the book I write about an encounter I had about ten years ago in Antwerp, with a Jordanian who told me: Today you are strong, you have an American father. But once you are weakened, we will slaughter you all. This is also true of some Israeli Arabs, unfortunately. If Hezbollah had occupied a certain territory here, I believe that some of them would have joined. This is true of Jenin, it is true of Gaza. That's how I see things."
What worries you today?
"I believe that the construction of the tunnels over the years was intended to build a fortified target, waiting for the day when we would go inside. The IDF works right and smart, but it's hard work. As long as we are on the move, we are doing well. Problems will begin when we are stationary, which is why they established the undercover unit. This is also the reason why the Shimshon unit needs to be established again – which knows how to go inside, do what needs to be done and leave secretly."
Is it fundamentally different from cherry?
"No, but our internship in Gaza was unique, unlike cherry work at the time, which was done in Judea and Samaria. In Judea and Samaria you dress up as a school principal, a businessman. In Gaza, you disguise yourself as a simple worker. In Judea and Samaria, the population is more intelligent, and Gaza is the bottom. And as time passes, people with money leave Gaza and there remains another bottom. In Judea and Samaria, perfume is sprayed in the morning. In Gaza, we didn't shower for days to be filthy. Imagine shampooing with a refreshing scent and getting involved. You will immediately become a target.
"The closure of the Samson unit was another step on the way to the depletion of human intelligence in Gaza. It is impossible to compare the number of collaborators before and after we left Gaza. In Judea and Samaria, the Palestinians say that whoever dreams of carrying out an attack at night, gets up in the morning and the Shin Bet arrests him. This is not so in Gaza. We saw evidence of this in the failure of Sayeret Matkal's operation two years ago. It's like entering an enemy country, Syria or Lebanon."
Do you remember your last time in Gaza?
"When I left Gaza, possession of weapons was unique only to very specific squads, very different from what is happening today. Even if we were burned in the field, no submachine guns and RPGs sprang up from every corner. In most cases, it was Fauda with knives, sometimes pistols and rifles. My last memory of Gaza is actually a thought: I'm leaving the place, and I really don't know what its future will bring. I understood that this is a place we have no interest in controlling, and on the other hand, every area we evacuate will create a nest of terror. Gaza will not change. They don't want to build, develop, get out of distress. I find it hard to understand that mindset."
From your deep knowledge of Gaza, what will the near future look like there, even before the day after?
"When people go hungry, more and more terrorists will turn to the Shin Bet and the 504 and provide information to get help. It's already happening. There will be chaos there. For us, this may be an advantage, because it will allow us to collect intelligence in a better way."
Soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip, photo: AFP
And how should you see there the day after?
"For years, wealthy people left Gaza. They paid and went outside. We need to encourage them to get out of there."
Assuming there will be countries that want to absorb them.
"The problem is, and other countries understand this, they have no aspiration to be a prosperous people. In 1970, Black September, they attempted to assassinate the King of Jordan, turned Jordan into a terrorist state, and were expelled after a year of fighting. In Lebanon, a prosperous country became a country with a civil war after they opened Fatahland. In Kuwait, the Emir expelled them to Judea and Samaria. And since their only aspiration is to eliminate us, in Gaza they will always go back to normal."
We are in a period of conflagration in the north. What lessons can be drawn from Gaza about Lebanon?
"The most important thing coming out of Gaza are the pictures. In the Middle East, only power is understood, and the destruction we are creating there reverberates in the Arab world. Even those who want to make peace with us – the Saudis, the Emiratis – want to know that they are forming a defense alliance with a strong country. Therefore, what is happening in Gaza radiates to Lebanon. Nasrallah, unlike Sinwar, loves Lebanon, and the Second Lebanon War left a serious scar on him. He doesn't want Lebanon to be destroyed, and that's leverage for him."
Gaza envelope, photo: uncredited
Do not neglect the fighters
At the end of the first book, "Deep in Gaza", you talk about life after serving in the IDF. Does the service still accompany you today?
"I've closed everything in a box for years, and there are prices for that. On vacations, for example, when you're near a beautiful lake with your family, everything looks good and the soul is released – so it also begins to release the trauma, bit by bit. In one of his interviews, Lior Raz from Fauda said that he forgot a lot of things, and only while speaking and writing did the memory return to him. That was the case for me too.
"I suppressed significant and difficult events from the service, but watching 'Fauda' changed something for me. I looked at the tense and frightened faces of my children as I watched, and realized that I had had unusual, unusual experiences. In some ways, watching Fauda led me to write the first book, which was really an outlet for the soul. Until then, the weights from Gaza were sitting on my shoulders. Beyond that, of course, there are things I'd love to let go of. There are things that are suitable for the army, and it is very undesirable to accompany you in your citizenship."
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This is also relevant for reservists who are currently being discharged.
"The situation of the fighters is delusional: they can fight in Gaza, take a short break and within half an hour be at home. Something about this scenario just doesn't work out. These are powerful experiences, and reality can get confused. These transitions confuse the soul, so people can suddenly weapons in normal reality, because they have maintained operational alertness. This split is also typical of undercover soldiers: one day you are a resident of Gaza, and another day you are an ordinary citizen.
"I remember going out during my military service and stopping to fill up on gas. I saw an Arab refueler holding a refueling nozzle, and in a moment I'm already somewhere else, seeing a terrorist, a refugee camp, thinking someone was coming to kill us. That's when I realized something had gone wrong with me. I was alone with the trauma for years, so to the fighters I say, talk about things, let them go. For families, my message is to pay attention to outbursts of violence, dreams, seclusion. Without attention and attention, this violence then seeps into society. It's important to give people the feeling that they're not alone, and more importantly, to deal with the whole trauma issue at the national level."
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