In the video: The Chief of Staff on the fall of the 21 fighters: "We grieve the loss, we will learn the lessons."
23.01.2024/IDF spokesman
Again, in that unmistakable strangled voice, Yonit Levy opened last night's edition of News 12 with a list of places.
Haifa and Kiryat Arba, Rahat and Karni Shomron, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Pardes Hana and Givatayim, Ramat Gan and Neve Dekalim, Kibbutz Masilot and Alon Shavuot, Rishon Lezion and Eleazar, Rosh Ha'Ein and Herzliya, Mvoo Beitar and Yehud, Yakneam Elit and Zichron Ya'akov.
In each of these settlements, casualty officers knocked in the previous day to announce that the son, father, spouse or brother had fallen in the "21st disaster" in the Gaza Strip, when anti-tank fire from terrorists hit a tank and a mined structure, which exploded and collapsed on the troops inside. From these settlements, a family was shattered into pieces that cannot be gathered together. In every place like this, a heartbreaking cry is heard. And not only there. In the sea of tears, the ripples of grief surely permeate every house that still has tears left to shed.
Levy wanted to present this list of places as a symbol of unity and recognition of a rare shared destiny In Israeli society, which is so polarized on a daily basis. Unity is a high word. It implies something complete, comforting. On this crazy day, the whole feels more fragmented than ever. What are all these high words worth, in front of such a great blackness.
Victims of the disaster in Gaza, News Edition 12, January 23, 2024/screenshot, Keshet 12
True, we know such a big black well and closely, and not even that long ago.
And really, this is the bloodiest day for Israel since October 7, beside which everything seems small.
But the rush, the same terrible rush of more names and more names and more names and more, the succession of obituaries and funerals, brings us back to those terrible days that came at the end of the month of Tishrei, to that feeling of helplessness, of the inability to grasp so much sadness, so much death.
And this, much more than some sense of unity, is also the main feeling that accompanies watching the disaster edition, which filled its entire first hour.
The feeling that it's all just too much.
that the list of names simply refuses to end.
You wrote Liron Zeid's regular Stories of the Fallen, which was so long last night that it was necessary to split it into two parts, is actually the entire news release.
That the quiet voice of Michal, the mother of Nir Binyamin who fell in the disaster, resonates so so strongly.
Shabaruch, the father of Amit Ben Yigal who fell in 2020 and has visited hundreds of bereaved families in recent months, is doing something that I simply cannot grasp.
And sadness really has no end.
Precisely because of this, on a day like this, how clumsy, puzzling and in bad taste was the article by the commentators Ben Caspit and Amit Segal Mahan Younes.
The article, in an atmosphere of laughter, was filmed before the disaster, but its broadcast after it was terribly jarring.
More in Walla!
Yonit received the transmission from Edva Dadon in a choked voice.
We all cried with her at home
To the full article
Tweedledee and Tweedledum in Khan Yunis.
Ben Caspit and Amit Segal return from Gaza/screenshot, Keshet 12
They did not go there as critical journalists nor to tell a story.
In fact, they talk much of the time about themselves.
They are the story, they are - the media personalities, the socio-political image and especially the punch battles and personal urges - the sun around which the war shines.
With branded vests they joke, sting each other, frolic in the blood-soaked and rubble-filled ground to cheerful music.
This is not an article but a clown show, on the worst day of the year, and in the most inappropriate place.
Thus, Kasfit does not stop talking about his military service in the armor, and Segal jokes with him about his service in the IDF. They climb a tank as if it were an amusement park installation, and demonstrate their inability to read Arabic in a classroom. Kasfit stings his friend near the Mossad: "This It looks like the current of your education." Segal replies with humor: "My kingdom is Toruni Yeshuron." Caspit will continue to try to pick her up: "Do you have a combat procedure to stop a colleague from establishing a settlement here?" Gush harvests at the desired pace." Oh, and there is also a low moment: Caspit insists on telling a combat liaison officer that she seems fragile to him, and then of course questions arise about her family situation.
"I came to be strengthened and I left strengthened," Segal concluded the trip. The main thing that came out of it something.
More on the same topic:
Gaza war
War of Iron Swords
yonit Levi
Ben Caspit
Amit Segal