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IDF TESTIMONY: Back to the first 12 hours of the 10/7 battle at the Nahal Oz

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“I see the terrorist trying to enter, what separates us is a wall.”

Three weeks before the war, when Sergeant Oral arrived at Nahal Oz, he did not imagine for a moment that on 7.10 he would be part of the first line of defense between the terrorists and the outpost.

In a chain of encounters, his squad, together with Golani fighters, killed dozens of terrorists. Now he recreates for us the dramatic hours in the base that became a dangerous battlefield, and tells about the long gunfights, the feelings in the critical moments and the spirit of the fighters that Saturday

Hello, I’m Ural, from Be’er Sheva, serving in a paratrooper patrol. My story from the war begins in Nahal Oz.

Tell me when you got there

In the three weeks before the war, we were, along with other units, reinforcing the PSADs (disorders), right on the fence. I arrive on Hol HaMoed, a week before 7.10, with my young squad that finished the course a few days before. It was a normal week.

6.10, I’m in the room, I’m told there’s talk about the PSAD that should take place at noon. We’re getting organized, the equipment is ready. Area 14:00 We head out towards the fence, a good atmosphere inside the vehicle, nothing develops, so we return to the base in the area at half past eight in the evening.

And Saturday morning?

06:20, we get up to the color red. We run towards the shelter, which is inside the center of the company of Golani’s 13th battalion. At first, especially as a southerner, I’m not very excited. We are there for a good few more minutes, about 50, 60 fighters in it. After a few minutes one of the platoon commander arrives luckily with a vest, he also had contact. He puts in the headset and a report comes up that there are many terrorists on the fence.

We decide to make our way towards the rooms, get on the equipment properly while the alarms sound, go out blue, come back, get on B. A last link came to put on a uniform but not enough. The HMM stops them and says “Listen, we are in a serious incident, there is an infiltration of terrorists into Israeli territory and the observations report that there are terrorists in the 60 area on their way to the outpost.”

I grab my squad, report to them about the incident, while digesting what is happening. After a few minutes, we hear gunfire in our direction. The terrorists arrive in the direction of the outpost, make a kind of detour, form a crown around the base, and start shooting from the outside to the inside. Two platoon commanders decide to go out with two platoon, some to HQ, some to gate, and tell me “Stay here, we’ll catch up.”

What’s going on with you in the meantime?

I’m still in the shield, left with about 30 more fighters. When the forces go out I hear bangs, and try to understand what is happening there. I decide to go out with my squad, you can’t stay inside and just wait. We advance two buildings forward, to get a picture of the situation at the base. Continue towards the toilets, the last line of buildings in the outpost. I look towards the fence and catch terrorists running towards the gate.

I saw terrorists with my own eyes a few times during the service, but it was not something usual. We saw the evil in their eyes. They came with one goal in mind, and they didn’t care who was standing in front of them.

I catch the first terrorist, identify him, shoot him, see that he has fallen and verify a kill from a distance. Another fighter kneels down, fires another bullet, hitting him from a distance of about 200 meters. Another terrorist falls. After he hits him, they open intense fire on us. We barricade ourselves inside, there is an exchange of fire between us and between them for a good few minutes.

At this point are they already inside the outpost?

Not yet. not everyone. They begin to approach the Sheg. I hear someone calling my name from the shield, “Come here, we need you.” I yell back at them to give us backup fire and start jumping towards them in pairs.

In the shield there are two seriously wounded fighters. I’m sending two of my squad to help with the treatment. At this point I start talking to the force I am with in the migonit, most of them from Golani. Explains to them what is happening outside, so that they will connect to the event as well.

What were you thinking at that moment?

Thoughts of “I’ll get out of here alive”. I told myself there was no way I was going to die here today. I also thought there was no way I was losing any of my warriors.

I decide to take command with my guys, along with Golani. They’re on my mind, there’s a psychic fighting spirit in the air. There is an exchange of fire. One of my squad and one of Golani spot two terrorists coming from the south. They are getting closer, we can already hear voices in Arabic. The terrorists come out of their Zig 4 meters away from them, and we open fire on them. One terrorist was killed. The other was hit in the hand, manages to escape and we hear him calling for more terrorists.

One of the soldiers recognizes through a slit the terrorists advancing towards the center of the company and signals to me with his hand how many. He counts one, two, three, in the end he reaches seven, eight terrorists. One of my fighters replaces him, he opens a zig, surprises them and gives a few bundles. Takes down two terrorists. Suddenly they stop the fire and I feel something strange in the air. I look up, suddenly see a grenade being thrown. The grenade falls right behind me, I shout “grenade!” and ran back. I’m not that far enough away, so I accept that it’s going to explode, and wait for the boom. It had fallen, not exploded.

I’m trying to contact forces to come to us, and the observers just acted like machines. We gave full reports and updates and helped us understand where the terrorists are. I am reporting on the seriously injured, their condition is starting to deteriorate.

Right now we just keep shooting. I turn around for a moment and hear someone else shouting “grenade”. The second grenade was thrown, he went a little further into the shelter, stopped at the entrance. Everyone enters the room and waits for the boom. does not explode.

And the others, how do they react?

I grab one of my squad, tell him, “We’re getting out of here, we’re getting everyone out of here. There’s no such thing as us dying here now.” In the background the exchange of fire continues, we are already leaving the two Zigs. One terrorist tries to enter, I see his weapon go into the safe and shoot, and suddenly he had a stop. I run straight to his wall, and now what separates me from him is a wall. I just insert the weapon, give a few bullets and hit him. He tries to run away but I shoot him again and he falls.

Were you scared?

I don’t think I had time to be afraid. I’m just following what I’ve learned, and in my feeling, when you’re commanding soldiers in combat, you can’t afford to be afraid. There are soldiers here, you’ll have to take them out eventually, so grab yourself and take command.

How long did the silence last?

For another half hour, and he was interrupted by another thrown grenade. This grenade… falls in the center of the force. He was close, so we all stuck to the left corner of the room, some of my guys to his right. After 4 seconds the grenade exploded.

It was full of dust, I don’t understand what is happening to me. I fell on the floor from the top. I got up, I hear that I have wounded people from Golani with me. My squad detects a terrorist trying to enter, they shoot him and he goes backwards. We leave the shelter and move to a nearby building. We identify four terrorists and kill them.

It’s already 12 o’clock, I’m walking from the building to Migonit. We have two dead and six more seriously wounded, from the grenade. We divide responsibilities between us – some with the wounded and some with the Zigs. I call on my personal phone and try to get outside power.

I go out with the squad and another fighter to bring water and ammunition. Outside I recognize a force trying to enter, which is the IDF. They recognize us and we join each other. We rescued the wounded together, including the female observers who were saved. We go through and eliminate the terrorists who remained in the base, make sure that not one remains and scan the entire outpost.

What time are we talking about?

area 3:30 p.m. We take out everyone we could, including Golani’s guys. I lead them out and make sure everyone is okay. I will spare you the sights that were there, there is nothing more difficult than that. I tried to avoid looking. Even now that I understand what is happening in Israel as a whole – we don’t have time to mourn.

How long did you stay there?

For another night and a half with troops from Battalion 890 and several commanders, mainly from the patrol. A few more terrorists are trying to reach the fence, some to return to it. eliminate them.

How did you feel at the end of the day?

We have not experienced a voltage drop, until now there is none. I’m still in the same head, we just functioned. All that happened is what we learned all along our route. We acted, that’s what I had in mind. The best feeling is that we saved whoever was possible.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Newsrael column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Islamic State ‘poses significant and lethal threat’ to the U.S.

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On the morning of President Obama’s final State of the Union (SOTUS) Address, January 12, 2016, the House Armed Services Committee, chaired by Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) held the latest in a series of hearing on Combating ISIS. Testimony was heard from a panel of witnesses who are former Obama Administration Intelligence and Diplomatic officials: Former Deputy and Acting Director Michael Morrell, former Defense Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Dr. Michael Vickers and former U.S. Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford.

Morell’s bottom line: “ISIS poses a significant strategic and lethal threat to the United States of America.”

Morell presented the case that the U.S. could be subject to multiple direct attacks organized and planned from the Caliphate of the Islamic State in Raqaa Syria. He distinguished between direct and indicate attacks such as lone wolf attacks, the latter causing few fatalities as distinct of large mass casualties as in the November 13th Paris massacres that killed over 130. He noted that the San Bernardino attack produced the largest fatalities second only to 9/11. He suggested that simply taking out the leadership of ISIS would not remove the safe haven of the self-declared caliphate that had attracted more than 30,000 foreign fighters and homesteaders from 100 countries He considers ISIS a source of instability in the Middle East threatening allies Israeli and the Gulf Sunni states, the latter he deemed a bulwark against the hegemonic objectives of Iran.

He consider ISIS as fulfilling all of the basic functions of a state with its own executive, Sharia law courts, a virtual army, providing social services to its inhabitants and taxing them. He indicated that ISIS collected tens of millions monthly in taxes outpacing oil sales revenues. Morell indicated that ISIS has outpaced expansion of Al Qaeda from whence it sprang in Iraq. It has attracted the allegiances of extremist Islamist groups in 20 countries. He pointed out the directed attack in Paris that took the lives of 130 innocent civilians and the comments from UK domestic intelligence that they expected multiple direct attacks producing fatalities in excess of the 2005 London bus and underground attacks.

He cautioned to listen to ISIS when it says that it will conduct direct attacks in the U.S. In the near term he predicted that ISIS in Libya may unleash a similar blitzkrieg like the one in Iraq that could result in seizure of vast swaths of that North African country providing another safe haven attracting foreign fighters from Europe. Simply elimination of the leadership of the Islamic state is not enough. A complex military operation would have to be launched to destroy the safe haven of the Caliphate. Ultimately it would require a comprehensive political settlement in Syria dealing with the regime of President Assad and empowering of the disenfranchised Sunni majority.

The contrast between these comments by Morell before the House Armed Service on Combating ISIS with that of President Obama was stark.CNN noted that Obama “underplayed the threat from radical Islamist groups such as ISIS. He mocked the contention that fighters on “on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages” represented an existential threat to America.”

Meanwhile Iran announced that the release today of the 10 U.S. sailors seized along with their patrol boats in the Persian Gulf and taken to Iran’s Farsi Island was “speculation”.  So much for the representations by Foreign Minister Zarif to Secretary Kerry that they would be released within a few hours.

WATCH this C-Span video clip of Morell’s testimony at yesterday’s House Armed Forces Committee hearing on Combating ISIS:

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EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

Iranian Nuke Deal a House of Cards?

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Tony Blinken Source AP

Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Source: AP

Newly designated Deputy Secretary of State, former Deputy National Security Adviser, Antony “Tony” Blinken testified yesterday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee chaired by California Republican Congressman, Edward Royce. Royce and Ranking Democratic Member, Elliot Engel of New York, were trying to determine the status of the Administration’s P5+1 negotiations on an agreement to rein in Iran’s nuclear program. Blinken’s boss, Secretary of State Kerry, with the assistance of Energy Secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz are huddling in Lausanne, Switzerland with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif and nuclear program head, Ali Akbar Salehi, to reach a political agreement by a self-imposed deadline of March 31st.  Moniz and Salehi share an Alma Mater, MIT, where they both earned doctorates, one in physics and the other in nuclear engineering back in the 1970’s. Moniz was an Assistant professor at MIT, while Salehi was in the nuclear engineering program.

 The latest press leak indicates that Iran might be given 40% of nuclear fuel enrichment capacity which translates to 6,000 centrifuges. That may be more than ample, Israeli PM Netanyahu, fresh from his Knesset elections victory on March 17th, contends will enable Iran to become a nuclear threshold state, although there are those who contend it may already have achieve that status.  There is debate whether any final Memorandum of Understanding will have a 10 or 25 year sunset term, and whether, Iran’s nuclear program is susceptible to so-called verifiable inspections, given evidence to the contrary compiled by the IAEA inspectors.

It was against this background that Tony Blinken provided testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He roused the skepticism of the house panel with comments that the deal would bar Iran from achieving a nuclear capability in perpetuity. An AFP report on yesterday’s hearing noted this exchange:

The Obama administration insisted before skeptical lawmakers Thursday that any deal with Iran would ensure for “perpetuity” that it could not develop nuclear weapons.

A comprehensive accord would also see “phased, proportionate” relief from tough sanctions that have severely constrained Iran’s economy, but such relief could be swiftly reversed should the Islamic republic violate any final deal, said Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Several members of Congress and other critics have warned that the ongoing negotiations between world powers and Tehran would lead to a deal that would sunset after 10 years.

Once the deal ends, critics fear the Islamic republic could once again freely crank up its nuclear program and develop a bomb.

“That is simply not true,” Blinken told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“To the contrary, Iran would be prohibited from developing a nuclear weapon in perpetuity — and we would have a much greater ability to detect any effort by Iran to do so.”

He said that while some constraints would be lifted after a “significant period,” others would last “indefinitely, including a stringent and intrusive monitoring and inspections regime” by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency.

And should Iran violate the agreement and begin a rush to a bomb, a process described as “breakout,” Blinken stressed that restrictions on centrifuges and uranium mills would prevent Iran from completing a nuclear bomb for at least a year.

“That would provide us more than enough time to detect and act on any Iranian transgression,” he said.

Blinken said Iran would be indefinitely barred under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty from developing or acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Democrats and Republicans alike scoffed at the suggestion that such NPT restrictions would hold back Iran; with committee Chairman Ed Royce warning that Iranians “have been violating those commitments for years.”

Lawmakers also pointed to the need to include restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile program in any nuclear deal, as reinforcement against the country using such a delivery system for an atomic bomb.

“The critical question of the possible military dimension of Iran’s program… would have to be part of any agreement,” Blinken acknowledged.

Blinken’s colleague at State, Deputy Undersecretary Wendy Sherman, who has been actively engaged in the P5+1 negotiations, has some relevant experience in dismissing Blinken’s assertion that the deal under consideration would bar Iranian’ nuclear breakout. Ms. Sherman was part of the Clinton Administration team that put together the executive agreement in 1994 with North Korea that was also supposed to stop the DPRK’s nuclear program by substituting light water reactors. That agreement was subject to a Congressional hearing.  By 2006, North Korea successfully evaded IAEA inspections, produced a nuclear fuel stockpile and tested a device resulting in collapse of the agreement. The Bush Administration stopped fuel oil deliveries to the DPRK.

Last time I looked at Blinker’s bio, he had a Columbia Law School degree, not in physics, like Energy Secretary Moniz or Iran negotiator, Salehi, both MIT alumni.

Washington Post columnist, Al Kamen, drew attention to Blinker’s obvious qualification enabling to make his perpetuity comment about a deal to stop Iran’s nuclear program. Blinken was apparently a consultant to the HBO series, “House of Cards”.   Kamen revealed:

Sometimes it’s good not to fast-forward through the credits roll. You never know what you’ll find.

So the other evening, when the credits came up for episode nine of this season’s “House of Cards,” this popped up: “Consultant: TONY BLINKEN.”

Whoa! As in the deputy secretary of state and former White House deputy national security adviser? That’s some pretty heavy-duty consulting power. Is Blinken moonlighting for Kevin Spacey?

Well, not exactly.

Blinken, a modest sort, said in an e-mail that “‘consultant’ vastly overstated” his role, which amounted to a “few phone calls” perhaps nine months to a year ago. That would have been when he was working in the White House. The calls came from head series writer Beau Willimon and some other writers for the show who wanted to “test the veracity or not of some foreign policy story lines.”

“At this point, I don’t remember the details or the issues” involved, Blinken said. And, no, he wasn’t paid for the advice. Probably a good thing, because the episode — one of the “Putin segments” — for which he got the credit line involves, even for the “House of Cards,” a wildly implausible shootout in the Jordan River Valley. (We’re not going to say more.)

And, yes, Blinken and wife Evan Ryan, the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, are binge-watchers.

Watch this C-Span video clip of Deputy Secretary of State Blinken being questioned at the March 19, 2015 House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Iran nuclear negotiations:

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The photo shopped featured image is courtesy of the House of Cards TV series.