“The closest I got to home in the last year was actually in Lebanon, but that’s why we are here,” says Captain Yonatan, who serves as the commander of a fighters’ company in the Haruv Battalion, the special operations unit contained within the Kfir Brigade, which specializes in urban warfire.
“Being across the border, I could see my settlement which makes you realize how close it is, just a running distance. But it made everything even more meaningful for me,” the officer shares in an interview with the IDF website.
Almost Every House Contains Weapons
As part of their operational role, Yonatan and his soldiers frequently shifted between different fronts of the war, sometimes within days or less; from Lebanon, to Judea and Samaria, to the Gaza Strip and back again, fighting with fortitude and courage. Yonatan himself, a resident of Moshav Metat in the north, has been evacuated along with his family and is literally fighting for his home.
In Lebanon, the Haruv unit dealt with clearing houses from ammunition in villages near the border that posed a threat of anti-tank fire towards northern settlements. According to the fighters’ descriptions, almost every house contained lethal weaponry intended for use against Israeli civilians. A few hours after leaving Lebanon, the unit’s fighters were already deployed in an IDF operation in Jenin, where they engaged in close-quarter combat with terrorists from various factions embedded within the civilian population, in contrast to most Hezbollah militants who fled the battlefield.
“It Was Emotional to Hear Them and Understand They’re Okay”
With all the operational excitement and action, Captain Yonatan notes that the most emotional and significant moment in the war was on October 7th when he and his soldiers fought Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri, using one of the houses as an operational command center. “On that black Saturday, we rushed to Be’eri and stayed there until Tuesday, living in one of the houses,” he shares. “We didn’t know what ended up happening to the family, and 8 months later, they called me.”
“They told me they returned home to take some things and saw the note we left for them. It was emotional to hear them and understand that they’re okay. They cried and asked me why we didn’t take anything from their fridge,” he adds with a smile. “That’s a moment that stays with me to this day; it gives me strength to continue and will probably stay with me for a long time.”
