"Hunt – so you don't become the hunted": Senior officer's recordings revealed
A few days before the Peace Council announced the historic agreement with Hamas, the commander of the Northern Brigade in Gaza spoke in a closed conversation with members of Kibbutz Mefalsim. The senior officer explains why the yellow line is critical for security and warns against returning to the situation of October 6.
The recordings of the senior commander in the field are revealed: after eight months of political stalemate, eyes are on Gaza again. According to the plan published by the Peace Council, Israel will withdraw in stages from the yellow line in exchange for the demilitarization of Hamas. The IDF, which until now was forward, will have to reduce the security zone.
Yesterday, Wednesday, we revealed in the main edition the recordings of the Northern Brigade commander, Colonel Omri Mashiach, which show the great war achievements in Gaza that are liable to go down the drain.
A few days before the historic announcement of the Peace Council about an agreement with Hamas, which led the IDF to cease fire in the Strip, the Northern Brigade commander arrived to talk with members of Kibbutz Mefalsim in the Gaza envelope. He spoke with them in a closed conversation about the yellow line and about the IDF's freedom of action in the Strip, two great achievements of the war.
"I will tell you things I will not say in a television report," Mashiach began to detail the current IDF activity in the Strip. "The first thing we do is clear the space, destroy every military infrastructure that Hamas has built since the disengagement, and there are unfortunately hundreds of thousands of such."
Colonel Mashiach explains to the residents why the yellow line is so important, and how much security it provides to the fence-adjacent settlements:
"The yellow line passes here. We have outposts, in every such outpost there are significant forces – tanks, engineering, infantry. In fact, the forces operate from within these spaces very systematically all the time to clear and organize the space up to the yellow line. To pursue even beyond the yellow line. There is no 100 percent, as I said, but if we look at a wide raid, in masses, etc., there is currently a very, very significant defense array."
"If we don't pursue our enemies – they will pursue us." According to the Peace Council's plan, Israel is supposed to withdraw from the yellow line in stages, each time from a different area. The IDF is supposed to clear the area, leave the place, and then the international stabilization force enters while Hamas at this stage remains armed beyond the fence.
"The defense concept is lethality. If someone comes to kill you – rise early to kill him. We try to live this as a commandment," Northern Brigade commander Omri Mashiach. "This has value and moral importance – not just operational."
The senior officer explains in numbers to the residents how significant the IDF's hold in the depth of the territory is: "From Kibbutz Mefalsim to the yellow line there is 6.5 km; this is not just a result of the agreement reality that we are in today, but it is a commandment, how to maintain the defense. On the yellow line we have today one continuous obstacle, there is our main defense array. Behind it we have outposts that are in the second line."
"Our commandment is hunt – so you don't become the hunted," explains Mashiach. Having lost nine of his fighters, including his personal driver in the battle for the conquest of the security zone, he knows well that this territory, which constitutes a real buffer between the terrorists and the residents, must not be given up. Without a yellow line, and when Hamas is still there beyond the fence, the threat will return to be exactly as it was on October 6.
