Just One Family's Lives in the Midst of War

Reprinted from Grandma's Army

My oldest daughter, Simcha, has four sons in the Reserves, plus her son-in-law:

Her oldest son, Nir, is a Major in the Givati commandos. He was on his way to volunteer at 11:00 a.m. on October 7th, before his call-up papers arrived. His present service is connected to Intelligence activities and is not for  the public ear.

Omer, from the Givati Battalion, also went straight to his army base on the 7th of October, before his call-up papers arrived two days later. Givati forces are in charge of combatting terrorism in the Gaza Strip area His first assignment was as Deputy Commander of the Forward Command Squad. Because of chronic back problems, he was transferred to the Battalion’s War Room where he is part of a small team. He monitors orders between the Battalions and Brigades, deals with problems of the ground forces in his command, and records the day’s military activities.

Assaf wrote: “At 6 a.m. on Saturday, October 7th, my wife Deni left for her work as a nurse in the Assuta hospital in Ashdod. The massive missile attack caught her on the way while, at the same time, I quickly pulled up my three children from their beds and we ran to the safety room, where we were stuck for the whole morning. In the middle of the day I spoke to my commander friends (we have a what’s-app. group of commanders) and we arranged to travel to the south to our recruitment base at night - after everyone organized their equipment, etc. We had not yet received our call-up, but we knew it would come, and decided not to wait. Instead, we would get to our base and deal with all the necessary arrangements, in order to make it easier and quicker to receive the ground forces.

Deni arrived home at 6 p.m., instead of 4 p.m., looked at me and understood immediately. I finished getting my equipment together, helped to get the kids to bed and to part from them. Our group travelled to the south where only security people were on the roads. Going in the opposite direction the roads were jammed with people living down south, who were escaping to the north. After the rest of our Givati forces arrived, we left for assignments in the settlements in the “Gaza Envelope”. After a few days of army exercises, we received the order to enter Gaza. Since I am from a bereaved family, I was exempt. Instead, I volunteered to serve in a War Room from where the war is essentially conducted. After a short leave, I am returning to the Ramallah area as a battle commander.

Simcha’s youngest son, is a captain in the Maglan elite commando Brigade. He was amongst the first Reservist to be called up on October 7th. He is unable to disclose where he is located at the present time. During the course of the war he set up a War room for his  squadron which he supervised. At the same time he conducted various maneuvers together with his ground forces. Most of the time he was in the area of Gaza. So far, the Maglan Brigade forces have eliminated dozens of terrorists at close quarters, (by sniper and aerial strikes), and enemy observation posts.

Simcha’s son-in-law, Adiel, is an officer in the engineering branch of the Reserves. He is at present in the Northern command, serving in the combat operation’s branch of  the engineering Corps.  

We are fighting an implacable enemy, living in the same world, but with a completely different mindset. The world needs to listen to the threats being made in Arabic and understand, not only the words, but the way of thinking that goes with them.