Finding the right targets
After two years focusing on Gaza as the head of the Targets Branch of the IDF’s Southern Command, Lt.-Col. R. assesses the tenuous situation in the South
It’s been a busy two years for Lt.Col. R., the outgoing head of the Targets Branch of the IDF’s Southern Command. R. (whose full name can’t be published) started his position just days before the first round of violence with Hamas in September 2018, and spoke to The Jerusalem Post shortly before he moves on to his next post as an intelligence officer in the West Bank.
The past two years saw the most serious peak of violence between Israel and its enemies in the Gaza Strip since Operation Protective Edge in 2014, with 1,295 rockets fired in 2019 – the majority (93%) having been fired during the 12 violent rounds of confrontation between Israel and terrorist groups in the Strip.
During those rounds of violence, eight Israeli civilians were killed by rocket fire and a Kornet anti-tank missile, the highest number of civilian casualties in the six years since Israel’s last military operation in the Hamas-run coastal enclave.
Lt.-Col. R., who has been deployed to southern Israel several times, including after Protective Edge, has seen it all. And he’s seen the changes in the area over the past six years, both by the IDF and its enemies.
“Both sides are learning and growing following each round,” he said. “We are always trying to make sure that our knowledge is better and that we have the right technology to keep ahead of the other side.”
Like a game of chess, both sides are trying to be one step ahead of the other.
Since the appointment of IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi in January of last year, there has been “significant” work done toward gathering intelligence on targets and closing the circle on terrorists in a more efficient and faster way.
The IDF’s Momentum multiyear program, initiated and implemented under Kochavi, aims to make the military more lethal in scope and accuracy and improve the IDF’s combat abilities against the “disappearing enemy” on the battlefield.
And in the densely populated Gaza Strip, it’s even easier for Hamas operatives or those belonging to other terrorist groups to hide.
For the past two years, Lt.-Col. R. has been on almost constant alert, helping gather targets for the air force to strike during complex days of combat.
During the numerous rounds of conflict over the past two years that R. participated in, hundreds of rockets were fired toward southern Israel. But one round, after Israel killed Baha Abu al-Ata, the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, was different.
Launching Operation Black Belt, Israel’s military took out Ata, a man it accused of destabilizing the Gaza Strip, and dealt a heavy blow to the Iranian-backed terrorist group. PIJ, meanwhile, was able to shut down half of the country for hours after firing rockets toward Tel Aviv and close to 400 rockets toward Israel’s home front over the course of 50 hours.
Black Belt was the “peak” of R.’s career, he told the Post. Dozens of targets were struck, and the IAF put considerable effort into striking rocket-launching squads shortly after they fired rockets toward Israel. It was a change in tactics by the military, which in the past had focused its strikes on infrastructure rather than fighters.
R. was in charge of presenting a wide range of targets to allow the military to move forward with the operation.
“We provide targets which are the most important for the enemy, so that if they are destroyed the group will realize that continuing the fighting is not worth it and they would stop,” he said.
But the change in tactics led to a higher Palestinian death toll, with Israel saying 25 terrorists were killed, and human rights officials saying 18 members of terrorist groups were killed and another 16 civilians were killed.
One strike, targeting a tin shack in the central Gazan city of Deir el-Balah, killed a family of eight. The military initially said it had been targeting a PIJ commander in the group’s rocket unit, but later said it was targeting PIJ infrastructure that was located there and did not expect civilians to be harmed as a result of the strike.
“We had no intention to hit innocent civilians,” said R. “We carried out the right in-depth investigation when we marked it as a target, but it wasn’t as closed as we thought it was,” and civilians were in the location when the strike occurred.
Following the end of Black Belt, a tense calm was felt, as both sides claimed victory in the latest round of violence.
But it didn’t take long for more rockets to be fired from the Hamas-run enclave. In response, Israel struck back, and turned again to its usual targets of Hamas observation posts or fields. To hit such targets may seem like a waste of costly ammunition and shells. But Lt.Col. R. said, “Sometimes it might look like a military post, an empty field, or what have you, but it’s what’s behind or underneath. Not every military post is a military post.”
Two years after entering the position, he said, “there are a lot more people in Military Intelligence who are dealing with targets, and the cooperation with different divisions is more accurate and in-depth. We aren’t in the same situation as when I started,” he said.
Next week Lt.-Col. R. will be moving on, to the West Bank, a challenging arena where he hopes he won’t have to use his past experience should the annexation of the West Bank and Jordan Valley take place.
“I’m going to a totally different arena, and I will take my experience with me, of course, which will bring another perspective and a better understanding of the field,” he said.
“We will have to deal with it [annexation], and if cooperation stops – and I hope it doesn’t, because it’s good for both sides – we will know how to deal with it. I hope, though, that I won’t have to bring my experience of the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.”
And with talk of annexation waning due to the continued coronavirus pandemic, R. might just get his wish.
But his replacement will likely have the same amount of work as he did, as the pressure cooker that is the Gaza Strip has not calmed down, even with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“The other side is learning to deal with corona, and we see that. I expect my replacement to have the same amount of work that I’ve had, maybe less at the beginning,” he said. “Every year or two we have another round of violence with them.”
And in the next war, Lt.-Col. R. said, “there will be intelligence surprises for sure. But we are prepared.