Israel-Hamas war: Inside the military base where Israeli troops train for expected ground assault on Gaza
A grid of narrow streets, framed by concrete apartment blocks and pro-Palestinian graffiti, is where Israeli troops are training in preparation for an expected ground assault on Gaza.
Sky News was given rare access to what is designed to look like a section of a Palestinian city – but is actually an area jutting out of a sprawling military base in southern Israel, surrounded by farmland.
“We built this so soldiers could be trained at the highest level possible so when the day would come we would need to do something like this, we would be ready,” said Major Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
“We didn’t know a week ago that this would immediately go into action and be a very real training ground with possibly a very real purpose.”
Israel-Gaza latest: Hamas ‘district commander killed’
‘We will eliminate them all’
Street-to-street combat is one of the hardest forms of warfare, with each building a potential booby trap, each alley a possible ambush point and snipers able to hide inside homes.
It makes practising how to operate in an urban environment crucial for soldiers from Israel’s Givati Brigade, who will likely be among the first wave of troops in any ground invasion into the Hamas stronghold of Gaza City.
Standing in front of a white stone wall daubed with a Palestinian flag, one of the commanders in the brigade said he and his soldiers were ready for anything.
Asked if he had a message for Hamas, Olek said: “Let them be ready… Let them know that we are going to reach every terrorist, both who entered Israel’s territory, and also those who did not enter Israel’s territory.
“We will reach everyone. We will eliminate them all. We will restore peace and tranquillity to the State of Israel.”
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‘There is still a smell of death in the air’
Troops ready to move ‘on a dime’
Away from the fake city, Sky News was taken to see elements of the Givati Brigade mobilise in lines of military vehicles across a dusty field, also as part of the training exercise.
The unit, which was previously deployed into Gaza during the last major incursion in 2014, incorporates a combination of tanks, troops and engineers, skilled at defusing bombs.
They are ready to move “on a dime”, Major Spielman said.
“These soldiers are well trained, able to receive orders and implement them immediately.”
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Civilians switched into military mode
Perhaps surprisingly, many of the troops had until a week ago been living ordinary civilian lives as doctors, students, and lawyers.
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But they switched into military mode in response to an unprecedented call-up of reservists in the wake of the 7 October terror attack by Hamas militants against Israel that left more than 1,300 Israeli citizens dead, the majority of them civilians, including women and children.
Dozens more have been kidnapped and taken into Gaza. Their fate will doubtless be playing into plans for the shape and timing of any ground incursion.
Standing next to a Humvee, Neal and Noy, both 23 and reservists, are part of a team of all-female soldiers who help drive military vehicles in the training exercises.
Asked why they wanted to serve, Neal said: “It is the most important job for us.”
Noy added: “We are fighting for our country and all of us need to be a part of it. The men are in the war, they are going to go in, and we are going to do our best, the women, to help [with] training.”
The targeted killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif and four other colleagues by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) late on Sunday silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza.
The IDF wasted no time in releasing a statement claiming it had “eliminated” Al-Sharif, calling him a “terrorist” who “posed” as a journalist for Al Jazeera.
Gaza latest: Follow live updates
The Committee to Protect Journalists warned in July that Al-Sharif was the victim of an Israeli smear campaign and that they feared for his safety.
The IDF had previously released documents which they say proved his involvement with Hamas.
Gazan journalist Anas Al-Sharif leaves behind a wife and two children
No word from them on his colleagues – Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa – who they also killed. We are chasing.
Al-Sharif’s death – and that of his four colleagues – is a chilling message to the journalistic community both on the ground and elsewhere ahead of Israel’s impending push into Gaza City.
There will now be fewer journalists left to cover that story, and – if it is even possible – they will be that bit more fearful.
This is how journalists are silenced. Israel knows this full well.
It has also not allowed international journalists independent access to enter Gaza to report on the war.
Al-Sharif’s death has sent shockwaves across the region, where he was a household name. He was prolific on social media and had a huge following.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Read more from Sky News:
Journalists demand access to Gaza
Sky News on Israel’s ‘war on truth’
Reporters issue demand to Israel
I was watching horrifying footage of the immediate aftermath of the strike in the taxi on my way into the bureau, and the driver told me how he and his family had all cried for Anas when the news came in.
His little daughter cried because of Al-Sharif’s little daughter, Sham, who she knew from social media.
“They call everyone Hamas,” my taxi driver said. “Men, women, children”.
Last month, Al-Sharif wrote this post: “I haven’t stopped covering [the crisis] for a moment in 21 months, and today I say it outright… and with indescribable pain.
“I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment… Gaza is dying. And we die with it.”
This is what journalists in Gaza are facing, every single day.
Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.
He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.
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Rare aerial footage shows scale of destruction in Gaza
This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.
Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.
If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?
Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.
He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.
“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.
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‘We suffer greatly’: Life in Gaza gets harder
I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.
Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.
The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.
“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”
Read more:
Israeli soldier dies by suicide
The danger of aid airdrops revealed
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Gaza: Aid drops ‘killing our children’
This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.
It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.
This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.
World
Defiant Netanyahu sets out plan for military escalation in Gaza – and describes photographs of starving babies as ‘fake news’
Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.
He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Rare aerial footage shows scale of destruction in Gaza
This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.
Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.
If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?
Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.
He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.
“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘We suffer greatly’: Life in Gaza gets harder
I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.
Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.
The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.
“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”
Read more:
Israeli soldier dies by suicide
The danger of aid airdrops revealed
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Gaza: Aid drops ‘killing our children’
This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.
It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.
This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.
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