Courage and Bravery of our Israeli Soldiers – Sons, Fathers, Brothers

 IDF commander: The terrorists arrived with enormous quantities of weapons
Brigadier-General Dan Goldfus sums up the fighting so far: 'The enemy is super-cruel, they murdered men, took women and children into captivity.'

Commander of the Paratroopers Division and elite commando unit 98, Brigadier-General Dan Goldfus, who led his soldiers during the initial battles of the war, on Tuesday morning spoke about the three days of battle thus far.

On Saturday morning an estimated 1,500 Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel via land, air, and sea, masacring Israeli civilians and taking others hostage.

"This morning, the fourth morning of fighting, we succeded in returning the situation in the Gaza border region to its previous condition - relatively speaking," Goldfus said. "There are still isolated clashes with the enemy. We are working to return the towns to their usual state. It will take time."

He noted that it is difficult to say for certainty that there are no terrorists in the Israeli communities around Gaza: "I say in the most realistic way: There was a terrorist who got into a closet in a home and waited. We are doing a lot of searches and cleansing the area, but I will not fly off my chair if there is contact with a cell which hid under a home."

"DIvision 98 was relevant with all its abilities, providing immediate responses from the first moment. We are talking about hundrds of terrorists, dozens of infilatration sites, difficult sights, murder of civilians, homes and command rooms which were burned together with their occupants. This is a super-cruel enemy, they murdered men, took women and children into captivity.

"The soldiers fought with great self-sacrifice in order to chase the terrorists out, to save the civilians, and to put ourselves on the front line. Because of this there are a great many injured and killed - in our division there are 30 dead and 150 injured."

He added, "There was difficult fighting not only in the towns, the main roads were under ambush from antitanks and light weapons. The ability to reach towns and clashes was complicated, it took a long time to reach places. The loss of the commanders was also not simple, even though the chain of command worked well.”

Goldfus also spoke about the soldiers' heroism: "I arrived at Re'im, at the party, at eight in the morning, and I prefer not to describe the scene. I and four others walked around from place to place, from town to town. When I entered Kfar Aza, my intelligence officer took a bullet. We see the enemy and deflect him, without dealing with the bodies of those killed. We are doing everything in order to reach the people who need rescuing. The soldiers are working to save civilians and repel the enemy."

When asked about the failures which led to the war, Goldfus said, "We are very strong, we are prepared to continue. After this, we will nee to ask ourselves very hard questions - myself included. Now we need to lift our heads, not wallow in this. Around us the scenes are very difficult. We had somewhat of a difficulty, and naturally the commanders arrived first - they are mobile, they bring a few people in a car. From this perspective, I say: 'We are hitting their heads and we are honorably representing our country, despite the hard hit to the head which we have received.’"

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/378235