IDF launches massive strike against Gaza
| By Arieh O'Sullivan and Margot Dudkevitch | March, 07 2002 |
>JERUSALEM (March 7) - The IDF launched its most massive assault yet on the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip and struck in the West Bank by air yesterday in actions that cost the lives of two soldiers.
At least 13 Palestinians were also reported killed, including two bombers stopped at separate roadblocks and two terrorists trying to place a bomb on the main road to Gush Katif.
The soldiers killed in separate incidents in Gaza were identified as Lt. Pinhas Cohen, 23, of Jerusalem, and Cpl. (res.) Alexander Nastarenko, 37, of Netanya. The army is investigating the possibility that Cohen was shot mistakenly by IDF troops.
Nastarenko will be buried at 3:30 p.m. today in Netanya's military cemetery.
The end goal is to force the Palestinians into diplomatic negotiations through unrelenting military pressure, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said during a visit with troops in the territories.
"This is a long campaign," Sharon said. "This will be an aggressive and continuous campaign from which [Israel] will not recoil until the other side understands it can't achieve anything through terror, [making] it easier to enter negotiations."
Sharon said Israel would do "whatever it takes to win the war against the Palestinians."
Speaking after a tour of the Tarkumiya roadblock west of Hebron, Sharon called on the nation to stand firmly behind the IDF.
Helicopter gunships last night fired half a dozen rockets into a Tanzim command center in Halhoul, near Hebron, and also a "security building" in Rafah.
The ground action in the Gaza Strip came on orders from Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, issued after the Kassam-2 rocket attack on Sderot Tuesday night, which wounded a 16-month-old child.
It involved a five-pronged assault in the north, center, south, and on the coastal strip, as well as a naval commando raid on the Gaza City port area. That attack reportedly killed one Palestinian Naval Police officer and three policemen.
Senior security sources said the attacks were the steps approved by the security cabinet earlier this week to pressure the Palestinian Authority into seeking a cease-fire.
Cohen, an officer in the Givati Brigade, was killed by gunfire as troops operated in Abasan el-Kabir village, east of Khan Yunis. He was buried in the military section at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem yesterday evening.
Nastarenko was killed when Palestinian gunmen crossed the border fence and ambushed an army jeep patrol on routine duty in the southern Gaza Strip, not far from the Sufa crossing. Details of his funeral have yet to be released.
The IDF has launched an investigation to determine whether Cohen was killed by friendly fire. There were fierce gun battles in the area in which he was deployed, as soldiers searched for fugitives and destroyed a terrorist's home. It is possible other IDF forces operating nearby hit him in the crossfire. The incident occurred at 2:30 a.m.
Close to 4 a.m., two Palestinians crossed the border fence and, after cutting metal rods sunk into the ground and crawling through a water pipe, opened fire and threw grenades at an IDF jeep. Nastarenko was hit first and died shortly afterward; three other soldiers were wounded.
Despite their wounds, the soldiers returned fire and attempted to pursue their attackers, who fled to the nearby PA-controlled area. The wounded were taken to Beersheba's Soroka Hospital, where their wounds were described as light.
OC Gaza Brig.-Gen. Yisrael Ziv told reporters the border fence is not 100 percent secure, and numerous attempts are made by Palestinians to cross the border. The majority are foiled by soldiers, he said. That the soldiers came across the Palestinians despite their having crossed the fence proves that the system is operating properly, he said.
Before dawn yesterday, IDF forces backed by armor and bulldozers moved into the Khan Yunis area.The army said its forces arrested a number of Palestinians suspected of being involved in terror attacks and have blockaded the entire area. Engineers demolished three structures belonging to Palestinian terrorists, the army said. The entire operation took place under heavy gunfire.
Palestinian reports said the IDF arrested 27 Palestinians during the sweep, and one of the houses belonged to a wanted member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine who was behind the raid on the IDF's Marganit outpost.
In the northern Gaza Strip, IDF forces took over areas in the vicinity of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lehiya from which the Kassam rockets were fired on Sderot.
"We will not restrict ourselves either by time or by the way we operate on the ground to reduce the threats," Ziv said.
A senior officer said the IDF would not hesitate to do the same in other areas where the rockets may be fired from in the future, including in the West Bank.
Along the Egyptian border, the elite Egoz unit went into action around Rafah and uncovered and destroyed a tunnel used to smuggle weapons.
Last night, a patrol spotted a three-man terrorist squad trying to plant a bomb on the Netzarim-Karni road and opened fire. The soldiers found the bodies of two of them, and the third either succeeded in fleeing or his body was yet to be located, military sources said. Sappers neutralized the bomb.
But then came a report of a completely different kind
For the Givati Brigade, the fighting in Gaza is a chance to develop a tradition as a fighting force, but it's also a test of mettle that not all the soldiers can pass. Amos Harel spends the night at Givati headquarters as the soldiers go on a mission - and one of them is killed
Tuesday night looked promising for the IDF - until it all went wrong in one minute in the early hours of yesterday morning. The operation planned by the Southern Command was one of the most extensive so far in the Gaza Strip. Six forces would operate simultaneously in separate missions throughout the territory. In the north, the Givati Brigade's forces would take an area south of the settlement of Dugit. In Khan Yunis, Givati and Golani soldiers, along with Border Patrol camouflage units would arrest suspected terrorists. In Rafah, the Egoz regiment would uncover tunnels used to smuggle arms. And from the sea, seaborne commandos would strike along the Gaza coast.
Shorty after midnight, there was cautious satisfaction in the headquarters of Givati Brigade commander Col. Imad Fares. Everything was going according to plan. The mission was to arrest 10 men in the two villages east of Khan Yunis, known as the Abasan. Givati has a score to settle with the most senior of them, Isam Abu Daka. He commanded the attack on the Marganit outpost last August, where three Givati soldiers were killed. The planners of the operation had no illusions that they would find Abu Daka at home on such a night, but the assumption was that the soldiers would arrest as many as possible, creating panic and uncertainty among the others. Abu Daka's house would be demolished.
Until 2:20 A.M., some four hours after the operations began, the company commander from the Tzabar regiment had managed to kill one armed wanted man. The reconnaissance soldiers arrested two others. Under the tent of the headquarters, the officers followed the action through reports on the communications network.
But then came a report of a completely different kind: an officer from the reconnaissance unit, one of the sub-force commanders, was fatally wounded at the entrance to one of the houses, apparently by friendly fire from an IDF tank. A doctor with the unit was trying to stabilize his condition. A helicopter was urgently needed to evacuate him.
The change in mood inside the tent was immediate. All efforts were now focused on the speedy evacuation of the wounded man, under fire. This is an extremely complicated business, requiring coordination at all levels, but the commanders seemed totally briefed on what to do. Nobody lost their cool. The conversations between Col. Fares and the commander in the field, Lt. Col. Tal, were totally calm. During them, Fares made two important decisions. The operation would go on as planned and, until the evacuation, there would be no discussion of the circumstances of how the officer was wounded. There would be plenty of time for that in the morning. The worried commander of the reconnaissance unit, on his mission in the neighboring village, tried to find out which of his men had fallen. He was brusquely told to get back to his mission. The details would be made known later. Nonetheless, there were some pale faces in the tent.
The wounded officer was Lt. Pinchas Cohen, a squad leader in the reconnaissance group, from the settlement of Ofra. The experienced officers had no difficulty understanding from the brief report that there was little chance he would survive. Someone in the tent splutters that the whole operation was pointless now. True, some terrorists were captured, but go explain to Pinny Cohen's mother that it was worth the death of her son. The tension on the commander of the armored battalion was evident. If the initial reports are true, the responsibility for the mistake would fall on his soldiers. But none of the Givati officers said a word about it. There were no accusations and no angry exchanges.
Meanwhile, the reports continued to flow into the headquarters. At 2:40 A.M., another wanted man is arrested. At 3:00 the wounded soldier is taken out of the house where he was wounded. At 3:10, a helicopter takes off carrying him to Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva. By 3:25 A.M., the wounded officer is at the hospital. And at 3:45 A.M., Pinny Cohen is declared dead.
A few minutes after he was wounded, Brig. Gen. Yisrael Ziv, commander of the IDF in Gaza, comes into the tent headquarters. He was overseeing six operations but the complications at Abasan brought him to the Givati command post. He did not get to stay very long. Almost immediately after Cohen was wounded, a report arrives from another venue. Two kilometers south of the command post, Palestinians opened fire on an IDF patrol along the fence. The vehicle was not armored and was hit. The driver, 37-year-old Alexander Nestrenko, a reserve corporal from Netanya, was killed. A scout was lightly wounded. Ziv sped that way. When he arrived he heard the details. Two terrorists managed to get through the fence - without setting off an alarm - and into Israel proper. They waited in ambush for a patrol on the Israeli side. The soldiers responded with fire, but did not manage to hit their assailants, who made it back into Gaza unharmed. Two dead in 10 minutes.
Rising number of mistakes
It is still too soon to say with all certainty what caused the death of Lt. Cohen. The army's inquiry is in its initial stages and there is a possibility he was shot by a Palestinian sniper. But the officers in the field are convinced that Cohen, wounded in the chest and shoulder, was hit by shrapnel from a tank machine gun. The assumption is that, despite the orders by the Givati regiment's deputy commander, the tank fired outside the area it was assigned.
It's not difficult to understand how that could happen. The tank commander in this case only took up the job a week ago. The scope of activities expected from the conscript units, as a result of the hostilities, has totally disrupted the routine coordination that used to exist between training the force to integrating new commanders into its ranks. The armored battalions are particularly suffering because they have been dispersed into different sectors. And when a unit doesn't train enough and the scope of fighting is so broad, the number of mistakes rises. The operation that began so perfectly, ended badly and painfully, in a manner that characterizes the IDF in recent weeks, with a series of failures that can not be dismissed as bad luck.
It's impossible to miss what it's doing to the commanders in the field. Despite the large volume of operations, many of which are successful, there are signs of a certain depression and exhaustion - especially on nights like this - as the casualties mount and the inquiries proliferate. The burden on the commanders and the local Shin Bet officers is enormous and no less is the personal price they pay. Col. Shlomo Dagan, who commands the southern brigade in the strip, had a baby boy born this week. He got home for a few hours one night this week until he was called back. Nobody even talked about him being present at the birth.
And then there's Givati's story. There are four main infantry brigades in the IDF. Two are veteran brigades with long histories and the status of years of tradition: The paratroopers and Golani. The other two are younger: Nahal and Givati. In the last five years, the Nahal Brigade has made great strides to the front. In Givati, everything seems to be harder. The climb to the top is slower and more difficult, on the way to building a tradition. Col. Fares is a very stubborn man. Under him, Givati is holding more regimental-level exercises than any other brigade, it will prepare its cadets for officers courses better than any other brigade, and it will graduate as many outstanding cadets in the various courses.
But it's a tough climb with many ups and downs, sometimes in the same battalion and during the same period. Thus, along with the incident in which a battalion commander sacrificed his life to save civilians at the Kissufim corridor, soldiers from his own battalion cut contact and retreated in the face of terrorists who killed one of their comrades only 10 days earlier. In the Marganit incident, the deputy commander of the battalion and a medic charged to save the wounded and were killed, while the soldiers from the same battalion hesitated to fight. Meanwhile, Givati is paying a heavy price. No brigade in the army has seen so many soldiers killed since the start of the hostilities: 11 dead in 17 months, including the deputy commander of the battalion; and dozens of casualties, including the Orev regiment commander, who was seriously wounded. That is partially the result of a particularly heavy burden: Givati regiments have done most of the fighting in the strip, with the brigade command taking responsibility for the center of Gaza, a challenge no other infantry brigade has taken on itself. In the last two weeks, the brigade's officers have been going from funeral to funeral: Four dead in three incidents in Gaza, let alone a trainee killed by his buddies at a training base.
At the end of the night and the operation, the commanders tried to talk about the half full glass. Seven Palestinians, most wanted or armed, were killed. Some wanted men were arrested. On the Egyptian border, the Egoz regiment uncovered a tunnel used for smuggling arms. At Abasan, Abu Daka's house was demolished, though the terrorist commander was not captured. With the forces back inside Israel, Fares faced the most difficult mission of the long night. Among the soldiers in Abasan was Pinny Cohen's youngest brother, a soldier in a separate team. Fares and the reconnaissance regiment's commander, Maj. Ofer, went to the younger Cohen to break the news about his brother.