Aug. 15, 2006 0:49 | Updated Aug. 15, 2006 7:53
All-Druse unit returns without single casualty
By YAAKOV KATZ
They hiked over 40 kilometers, killed close to 20 Hizbullah
guerrillas and spent 32 days in Lebanon without a single casualty.
But on Monday, soldiers from the Herev Battalion emerged from
battle, sweaty, dusty and tired making history twice - as the first
battalion to enter Lebanon and the one to spend the longest amount
of time deep in enemy territory under Operation Change of
Direction.
The battalion, consisting strictly of Druse soldiers from northern
Israel, was on its way to take control of the northern border with
Lebanon on July 12, when Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were
kidnapped in a cross-border Hizbullah attack. Commanded by Lt.-Col.
Wajdi Sahran, the battalion secured the area of the kidnapping and
assisted in the evacuation of the dead soldiers from the scene of
the attack. Little did he know that the kidnapping would change his
battalion forever.
Several days later, OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam decided
to send Sahran and his men into Lebanon, making Herev the first
full battalion to invade Hizbullah strongholds during this
war.
Why did Herev succeed where so many other battalions appeared to
have failed? "We are a strong unit that has always fought in the
North," Abu Faris explained. "While other units went to fight in
the West Bank we stayed in the North and are the battalion with the
most experience and time in Lebanon."
For Herev, the war in Lebanon was not just a war against a fierce
enemy but was a war in defense of their home - not just the State
of Israel, but their homes in the literal sense. All of the
soldiers, without any exception, Abu Faris said, live in northern
Israel and their homes came under the incessant Hizbullah Katyusha
rocket attacks during the past 30 days of fighting.
"There are soldiers here whose homes were hit by Katyusha rockets,"
explained one of the soldiers, St.-Sgt. Eitan Agmi, whose relative
was Wasim Nazil, one of the eight soldiers killed in the July 12
cross-border Hizbullah attack that sparked the war in Lebanon. "A
mother of one of the soldiers was even hospitalized for several
days after she was injured in a rocket attack."
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