Sergeant Major Ben Kerido shares real time, first person updates from the front lines of Gaza during Operation Swords of Iron.
Our convoy of Israel Defense Force hummers approached the torn-open security fence. All of Gaza spread out before us. Dust swirled around us as we pushed forward. Gaza was a wasteland of bombed out buildings and the drifting stench of dead bodies. On a good day the infrastructure of Gaza rarely exceeded the status of a third world country – except of course, for the luxurious homes and even mansions of Hamas officers who grifted off of humanitarian aid money with impunity. But all of that had been reduced to utter desolation.
As the so called “Zionist war machine” pushed forward, our IDF special forces battalion had been tasked to secure key areas of conquered territory in [censored for security/Gaza] and my mobile infantry and reconnaissance company likewise did so and otherwise supported the efforts. Hamas snipers, mortar crews, and RPG teams still abounded in Gaza, and their ability to move through their tunnel system to other areas increased the threat level.
Our platoon set up temporary defensive positions and an additional operational outpost in a half-destroyed home once inhabited by a Hamas officer and his family. It’s hard to describe the inside of these Hamas residences that double as operation compounds. By the time the Israel jets, tanks, and first wave of ground troops get through with them, the damage is severe. The house is seemingly a normal residence, but then we find the weapons alongside normal life items:
Bullets and baby bottles.
Kalishnakov rifles and cribs.
Bombs and baby diapers.
It’s a funny thing to go into a war. It’s an even funnier thing to go further into a war after having been in a war for over a month. What should we think? How should we feel? Is this merely the same thing as before? Is this something new? All in all spirits are high. When I was younger, the attitude amongst the troops was more one of testosterone-induced enthusiasm. But I think a different feeling pervades us in this conflict. First and foremost, there is a clear since of duty that exceeds even previous displays thereof in my fifteen years or so of IDF service (mostly in the reserves). Here in the Israel Defense Force, we always feel that we are protecting our homes and loved ones directly. After the horrific atrocities of October 7th, 2023, that feeling is stronger and more tangible than ever.
It seems to me that there is another feeling that is eminent among the IDF ground forces. It’s a burning, consuming feeling. I think the only way I can describe it is a unique combination of fury and lust for revenge. And I don’t mean the type of revenge that you might see in a Quentin Tarantino movie. I mean the type of emotion that drives you, that takes over your soul, that brings you to a place to mercilessly destroy your enemy not because of what they might do to you and your family, but because of what they already did to your extended family – the Jewish people. And make no mistake. Hamas has emphasized publicly more than once that they will continue indefinitely to perpetrate one unspeakable, genocidal atrocity after another against us after another – both in Israel and beyond – until every last one of those murderous monsters is destroyed.
I think the hardest part for me is leaving my wife behind at home. When we are involved in deeper operations we don’t always have the ability to communicate with our loved ones – at least, not nearly as often as we would like. She gets anxious and worries. (How can we blame her?) But under normal circumstances I like to check in every so often, even if only by sending her a simple heart emoji to let her know that all is fine and that I will talk with her more later when I am available. It may sound funny to say, but this is my first war as a “married man.” In my previous service during major operations I was single.
I had the motto that I was “immortal until I die” and “invincible until I get shot.” It’s a different matter when you have a wife anxiously waiting for you to return, when you have a home and family to build when all is said and done. A popular mantra of radical Moslem extremists – especially the shahid who embarks on a suicide mission of so-called “martyrdom” – is “We love death the way that you love death.” Perhaps in one sentence that is the difference between the Jewish people (especially in Israel) and the Palestinian Arabs (especially Hamas and other terror organizations). We prioritize life – even theirs (I dare say to a fault sometimes, perhaps). They prioritize death. Or, perhaps more accurately, the elites prioritize the deaths of the brainwashed peons while they skim off of international aid money and hide like cowards underground, or even flee gleefully to Qatar or wherever else while the “commoners” die.
General George S. Patton delivered a famous speech to the United States Third Army in 1944 immediately prior the allied counter-invasion of France. He famously declared: “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” I think that’s my new mantra. We are not going to win this war by dying for our country. Instead, we are going to make those poor dumb Hamas bastards die for their pretend country that doesn’t even exist… and their radical theocratic fascist ideology. And then I’m going to go back home to my beautiful wife and live the wonderful life that the Most High has blessed me with… while the enemies that I encountered vainly search the afterlife for their promised seventy virgins. With the help of the Almighty… may it be so. Lock and load.
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