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The Determination of Israel's Reservists

(JNS) Fiamma Nirenstein - I met IDF reserve soldiers at a base just across the border from Gaza during the recent ceasefire. These soldiers are older and more emotional than you would imagine. Their intentions are clear: "Never Again." The Oct. 7 massacre will never be permitted to reoccur. Israel must be freed from the nightmare of Hamas. These soldiers have completed their three-year military service - or two years, if they are women - but they all keep their reserve duffel bag under the bed. If the phone rings, as happened on Oct. 7, they rush to the front, whether they are in Tel Aviv or Japan, whether they are left-wing or right-wing, professors or taxi drivers. Commander A. hasn't been home since Oct. 7. His brigade was sent into Beit Hanoun in Gaza. He said, "We had to quickly learn a lesson.... The terrorists let you enter easily. There's a row of houses, two or three more, and that's where Hamas is waiting for you - where you don't expect it, in civilian structures." "If we decide to destroy a structure and there are civilians inside, we warn the civilian population....There are precise rules for evaluating whether we have to act, whether it's essential because if we don't act, the lives of soldiers or Israeli civilians are in danger. We try to stop Hamas' continuous use of human shields by moving the civilians out completely." Maj. Moshe, a 50-year-old engineer who works in high-tech, said, "An army generally advances on a territory that, once occupied, is the starting point of your next step. But here, through the tunnels under the ground, suddenly you find the enemy shooting at you from behind." First and foremost, however, they are Jews who know exactly what was done to their people on Oct. 7 and will continue their war of justice and survival. One of them tells me, "Yes, I feel when we fight, feel it physically, that our kidnapped citizens are not far away, and I fight for them too with all my heart. This is the most just war of all time." The writer, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, served as vice president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
2023-12-04 00:00:00
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