ToI in GazaIDF-held central zone now covers 13% of total Gaza territory
TIMES OF ISRAEL | Published December 28, 2024
The army has vastly expanded zone it controls bisecting the Strip, from where it launches raids against Hamas; everything can be taken down quickly, but there’s no sign that will happen
NETZARIM CORRIDOR, Gaza Strip — Everything the Israel Defense Forces has established in the Netzarim Corridor is temporary, military officials have said. But the reality on the ground in this zone bisecting the Gaza Strip indicates that the IDF will remain here for the foreseeable future.
The army does not know when it will leave the corridor, which according to some officials is intended to serve as a bargaining chip in a hostage deal with Hamas. As the months have passed, and the prospect of an agreement with the terror group to release the remaining 100 hostages it holds grows and then recedes, the military has been steadily expanding its presence in the corridor.
The corridor — which is now known internally by the military as the Be’eri Corridor, after the Israeli border community that was attacked on October 7, rather than after the former Netzarim settlement in the Gaza Strip — is currently controlled by the 99th Division’s Harel Reserve Armored Brigade and the 551st Reserve Paratroopers Brigade.
The Harel Brigade is responsible for the southern portion of the corridor and the entire road, while the 551st Brigade is tasked with the northern section.
This week, The Times of Israel was given exclusive access to the corridor during an escorted visit by the military.
At the start of Israel’s ground offensive against Hamas in late October 2023, the corridor was just the tracks left behind by IDF tanks and armored personnel carriers, as the military’s 36th Division pushed into Gaza from the east and reached the coast, south of Gaza City.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.timesofisrael.com
RELATED: Armed for survival: How Oct 7 Hamas massacre transformed gun culture in Israel
‘I hope I’ll never need to use it, but I’m prepared if I have to,’ new gun owner says
A civil emergency team practices shooting in the city of Kiryat Shmona, which is within the range of rocket barrages fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon, March 4, 2024. (Erez Ben Simon/TPS-IL)
FOX NEWS | Published December 28, 2024
In the delivery room of a hospital in Jerusalem, as the contractions intensified and the midwife tried to help the laboring woman shift to a more comfortable position, the mother felt something strange.
“She told me something was hurting her,” recalled Erga Froman, the midwife. “Then I realized it was my gun, which was holstered on a rotating belt and had shifted forward, touching her.” After the baby was born, Froman’s colleagues at the hospital took a photo of her standing next to the newborn, still wearing the gun. “It’s a picture of contrasts,” she said.
Before Oct. 7, Froman, a mother of five now living in the Golan Heights in northern Israel, had never considered obtaining a gun license. Having opted to do non-military national service instead of military service in the IDF, she had never fired a gun in her life. The change came swiftly after Hamas’ unprecedented terrorist attack on Israeli communities on Oct. 7, leaving over 1,200 dead and shattering a sense of security that many Israelis had long relied upon.
“On the evening of Oct. 7, my husband and I realized that because I travel alone at night on dangerous roads to my job – bringing life into the world – I needed protection,” Froman told Fox News Digital. “By the next morning, I had submitted my application for a gun license. Now I hope I’ll never need to use it, but I’m prepared if I have to.”
For decades, firearm ownership in Israel was uncommon. Although military service ensured that many Israelis were trained with weapons, personal firearms were seen as more of a liability than a necessity. The strict licensing process deterred many, and Israelis trusted the state and its defense forces to protect them from terror threats, which took precedence over Israel’s low crime rates.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.foxnews.com
Be the first to comment