Combat Vets from Israel Explain Urban Warfare, Drones, Insurgency tactics — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00Guys, I have a cold, so you're going to
- 0:01have to deal with it. But, the show goes
- 0:03on.
- 0:05I don't care
- 0:06what you think about these conflicts.
- 0:09Whether you like them, whether you hate
- 0:11them, whether you support or hate the
- 0:12men who participate in them, it doesn't
- 0:14matter.
- 0:16If you intellectually can't understand
- 0:18the value behind getting real-world
- 0:21combat information that is incredibly
- 0:23valuable because combat, you have to
- 0:25understand, is changing a lot right now.
- 0:28Then I don't know what to tell you. In
- 0:29today's video, we'll be talking about a
- 0:31very complex issue, and that is going to
- 0:34be urban combat. A place that urban
- 0:36combat is taking place in right now is
- 0:38in Gaza. So, with us, we're going to
- 0:40have two Israeli special operations men
- 0:43who, as of 4 days ago, were fighting on
- 0:46the front. So, a lot of you are going to
- 0:48be angry at the way they think about
- 0:50their convictions. Again, I don't care.
- 0:52They're going to be the way they're
- 0:53going to be. We're not going to censor
- 0:54them. This is history. This is what's
- 0:56actually occurring on the ground. This
- 0:57is reality. Separate your emotions from
- 1:00however you feel, and learn some very
- 1:02valuable information. In today's video,
- 1:04they are two professional military
- 1:06members fighting against a terrorist
- 1:08organization.
- 1:09Again, I don't care what you think about
- 1:10that. Here's the thing. This goes both
- 1:13ways, the information that we're
- 1:15learning. Whether you are fighting
- 1:17against an enemy that is entrenched in a
- 1:18city, which is a very plausible
- 1:20situation, or whether you're on the
- 1:22opposite end,
- 1:24this information is highly highly
- 1:27valuable. So, I hope you guys will enjoy
- 1:30as today we talk about urban combat from
- 1:32men who are currently fighting in a
- 1:34complex urban environment.
- 2:06But, before we get into it, we do have
- 2:07to thank the sponsors of this channel.
- 2:10So, the biggest sponsor of the channel
- 2:12is the Sonoran Desert Institute. Charles
- 2:14is actually working, so he can't screw
- 2:16this up. I'm sure he'd say something
- 2:17about Israel, but we are where we are.
- 2:19So, if you're looking to get your start
- 2:21in gunsmithing, they're the people to go
- 2:23to. They support the channel, and the
- 2:24support they gives us allows us to bring
- 2:27you this type of material for free. And
- 2:29who can we not forget?
- 2:30Micah? Primary Arms.
- 2:31Probably combat-proven optics at this
- 2:33point in these conflicts. And where are
- 2:34they made? Not in Israel. No, the
- 2:37mountains back there. And of course,
- 2:38Mantis. If you're trying to get better
- 2:40at shooting, dry fire is the way to go.
- 2:41Mantis is awesome. It will turn your
- 2:43weapon into a dry fire machine with a
- 2:44little laser you can see so you can see
- 2:46where your impacts are. We love them. It
- 2:47also helps you with that trigger reset.
- 2:49Go and check them out. And finally, AAC.
- 2:52All of our ammunition is sponsored
- 2:54through AAC, so we can't thank them
- 2:55enough. With all that being said, guys,
- 2:57um this is a very important topic, so
- 2:58let's get into it. So, if you're not
- 3:00familiar with my background, my name is
- 3:01Michael Jones. I am a former Air Force
- 3:03special warfare member. Served for 9
- 3:04years. Served in survival, and then as a
- 3:06TAC-P. Um this is a topic that I can't
- 3:09speak to. Um this is why we brought on
- 3:11two experts from this local conflict.
- 3:13You have to understand, guys,
- 3:14they were just in the conflict. So,
- 3:18again, separate your feelings from the
- 3:20information that you're going to learn.
- 3:21We do have to give a big shout-out to
- 3:22Agilite. It should be noted that Agilite
- 3:24did uh sponsor them, get them out here
- 3:26and everything. Agilite is a um uh
- 3:28equipment company. They make a lot of
- 3:29good stuff. Um full disclosure, we did
- 3:32have the uh Israeli um public affairs
- 3:35hit us up when the war kicked off,
- 3:36asking if we wanted to do anything. We
- 3:38declined. We try to stay as neutral as
- 3:39possible on this stuff. So, understand,
- 3:42we're not connected at all with any of
- 3:44the public affairs or anything that's
- 3:45going on there. This is merely for
- 3:47combat information. With all that being
- 3:48said, gentlemen, please come on. How's
- 3:50it going? Thanks for coming. Uh
- 3:52gentlemen, please uh introduce
- 3:53yourselves for the audience. Um I
- 3:55understand uh you have to stay a little
- 3:56bit more anonymous, but please go ahead.
- 3:58All right. Well, um I served in uh Egoz,
- 4:01which is a commando unit for 4 years.
- 4:04I've been in a reserve unit right now
- 4:05for the past uh 4 or 5 months in Gaza.
- 4:08I'm Lev. I uh I was in a paratroopers in
- 4:11the 101st Israeli 101st paratrooper uh
- 4:14brigade uh for about 2 and 1/2 years,
- 4:16and now I've been in reserves also in
- 4:17the in the paratroopers for the last 7 8
- 4:20years. And uh I was in Gaza for a little
- 4:23bit less time. I was in for about a
- 4:25month and a half, and before that we
- 4:26were basically up north for a couple
- 4:28months, and before that, right after the
- 4:297th of October, we were clearing houses
- 4:32and clearing Israeli bodies out of uh
- 4:34Kvar Aza. Yep. Um gentlemen, so there's
- 4:36there's a lot to talk about today. I do
- 4:37want to start off by saying that we did
- 4:39talk to um US government to change the
- 4:42weather, so it's really close to Gaza
- 4:43right now for you guys. I'm sure you
- 4:44guys are used to the cold and
- 4:46everything, right? This is perfect
- 4:47weather for what you do. Yeah, that's
- 4:49exactly what we do. It it is what it is,
- 4:50guys. Uh we can't control the weather on
- 4:52that. With that being said, gentlemen,
- 4:54um let's get into it.
- 4:57We're going to kick this thing off with
- 4:59the most intense information, and that's
- 5:00going to be urban combat. There's a lot
- 5:02to it. Um we're not going to make you
- 5:04guys experts in urban combat, but we're
- 5:06going to learn some first-hand
- 5:08experience from the guys who have been
- 5:09there as of recently as a couple days
- 5:11ago. So, gentlemen, uh I know there's a
- 5:13lot here. You guys are the subject
- 5:15matter experts. Please, take it away.
- 5:16Yeah. I would first start by saying that
- 5:18like I I at least feel like I'm by no
- 5:19means an expert in urban combat. I think
- 5:21you'd have to be years in urban combat
- 5:23to become an expert.
- 5:24It's exactly what the Ukrainians said.
- 5:25They're like, "Oh, we're not we're not I
- 5:26don't feel like I don't have enough
- 5:27experience killing people." I'm like,
- 5:28you guys have been doing this for a long
- 5:31time.
- 5:31Yeah. Like I've seen the unit I'm in
- 5:33getting so much better over the period
- 5:34of time, and you kind of develop a sense
- 5:35for it, for sure.
- 5:36Definitely. Definitely. Same by us. And
- 5:38developing a like a spatial awareness
- 5:40of, you know, what what windows are
- 5:42looking at you, where your And also,
- 5:44when you're doing CQB, you probably
- 5:46experienced this when you like do
- 5:47something wrong and keep going, you're
- 5:49like, "Ooh, I feel like I'm slightly
- 5:50more in danger than I should be right
- 5:51now." You know what I mean? So, you have
- 5:53that a lot, and then you're like, "Oh,
- 5:54okay, I can do that better next time."
- 5:55But, like there's definitely a lot of
- 5:56lessons we learned about how Hamas
- 5:58fights, how they set up situations for
- 6:00us to fall into, ambushes, whatever. How
- 6:02they try to draw us in. You want to talk
- 6:03about some of that? We got we got some
- 6:05reports of them basically like using
- 6:07record tape recordings of like baby
- 6:09crying and stuff like that, injuring
- 6:11dogs so that the dog is making like a
- 6:13whining noise. Just things that draw you
- 6:15into to to an area to be like, "Okay,
- 6:17what's that?" And that's where they want
- 6:19to ambush you and hit you with
- 6:20explosives, RPGs, and just lead you into
- 6:23their spot and take you out. There's
- 6:26also the the classic ambush technique,
- 6:27which is where they would, you know,
- 6:28fire fire at us from a position, hoping
- 6:31we would close the distance and move in
- 6:33so that they could hit us with another
- 6:34ambush. Yeah.
- 6:35That's that's all the time. How does
- 6:36that typically look? I mean, it'll look
- 6:38like you you come to like an open area,
- 6:40say like uh like an kind of an open city
- 6:43center or something, or like uh open
- 6:45marketplace or something. You're in a
- 6:46house, and suddenly your tank gets hit
- 6:48by an RPG or something, right? And if
- 6:50they're they're shooting just an RPG-7
- 6:52at a tank, it's not going to do anything
- 6:53to the tank. They're doing that so that
- 6:55you're going to come out and try to try
- 6:57to get over to their building and attack
- 6:58them, and that's exactly the last thing
- 6:59you need to do.
- 7:00Yeah. For sure. Yep. Um cuz you get some
- 7:03hungry predator drones up there in the
- 7:04sky who can help you out with that.
- 7:06you guys are hearing noises now, whether
- 7:08it be whining dogs, crying kids, and
- 7:10stuff, are you sending drones up to
- 7:11investigate beforehand now?
- 7:13Definitely. We're reporting it, and uh
- 7:15in anyways that don't endanger our teams
- 7:18to investigate the sources of these
- 7:20sounds.
- 7:21Yeah. Um it's an indication to more to
- 7:23more uh combat. Um and uh yeah, we have
- 7:26drones for that. We have
- 7:28We have more expendable methods. I mean,
- 7:30anytime we can basically send in a
- 7:32drone, but you can only carry so many
- 7:33drone batteries. And those little DJI
- 7:35Avata batteries, they last like
- 7:3718 minutes or something. How long do
- 7:38those things last? It depends on the
- 7:40drone, but
- 7:40Yeah, the Avata, the one with the
- 7:41closed-off um propellers. Uh yeah, that
- 7:45one that one's a short battery.
- 7:46Yeah, and maybe you carry like nine
- 7:47batteries, 10 batteries, or something.
- 7:49So, obviously, you can't send it
- 7:50everywhere. But, yeah, obviously, if you
- 7:51see something suspicious, if you hear
- 7:53something suspicious, you're going to
- 7:54send that in. Um you said you guys are
- 7:56using the DJI Avatas.
- 7:58Yeah. Why is that? They're super
- 7:59durable, and they're really small,
- 8:00basically.
- 8:01So, if I'm not mistaken, the Avatas have
- 8:03the protection around the propellers.
- 8:04Yeah. Yeah. So, do you guys like how are
- 8:06you how are you implementing them? How
- 8:08are you using them? So, if yeah, if if
- 8:09we're going to go into a house, um and
- 8:11we felt that there was a high chance,
- 8:13either because of uh intelligence
- 8:15reports that we'd got saying that it was
- 8:16a uh a dangerous house, a house that it
- 8:18had known Hamas operatives working out
- 8:20of it or something, or if if someone had
- 8:22seen movement in that house in the like
- 8:24a couple days leading up to that, so
- 8:26when we got there, we might send in the
- 8:27drone, send it in through one of the
- 8:29windows, or through a hole in the wall,
- 8:30or through the door, and and just have
- 8:32that drone go around as much as
- 8:33possible. So, you're actually sending
- 8:36the drone into the building. No
- 8:38And you go you send the drone inside the
- 8:39building, and and and then you have the
- 8:40drone operator, right, who's wearing his
- 8:42VR glasses, and he also has flip-down
- 8:45phone screen connected to the drone. So,
- 8:47he's looking through the glasses, and
- 8:48then the platoon commander is next to
- 8:50him looking at the uh the screen. Maybe
- 8:52also the company commander, depending on
- 8:54uh where he is in the combat. So, that
- 8:56then then the the platoon commander can
- 8:57build a plan for how to how to clear the
- 8:59building cuz he knows the internal
- 9:00layout. And you can look for suspicious
- 9:02stuff. And if you see that there's
- 9:04someone inside the building, you can
- 9:05choose to, you know, deal with him as
- 9:07you please. Uh how do how how are
- 9:09individuals typically So, combatants, uh
- 9:11how are they reacting to these drones
- 9:13flying in their face? So, it kind of
- 9:15depends on the mental and physical state
- 9:17of the combatant. You have some guys
- 9:18that are like their tunnel was air
- 9:20striked or something. They come out, and
- 9:22they haven't eaten or really and they
- 9:23may be injured, and they may be sitting
- 9:24in a house for a couple days waiting for
- 9:26someone to come in so they can throw
- 9:27their last grenade at him. And those
- 9:28guys are just going to kind of just look
- 9:30at it, maybe, right? But, then you have
- 9:32some guys who are are trying to hit it
- 9:34with like brooms or sticks, or like
- 9:36shooting at it, throwing rocks at it, um
- 9:38trying to swat them out of the air. It's
- 9:40hilarious. It's really good. Can they
- 9:41they survive that, being swatted out of
- 9:43the air? I mean, who knows? It doesn't
- 9:45really matter. Like I think a drone is
- 9:46worth the terrorist like uh to most
- 9:49people. But, yeah, they're pretty
- 9:50they're pretty strong. What happens a
- 9:51lot when you send them into a house is
- 9:52that they just eventually lose
- 9:54connection with the operator, so either
- 9:55he sees that he's losing collect
- 9:57connection and pulls out or he just it
- 9:59just he loses connection and just falls
- 10:01on the floor and then what when we clear
- 10:02the house afterwards, we just kick kick
- 10:04it to the side as we're going through
- 10:05and then pick it up after. DJI Avatars,
- 10:07huh?
- 10:07Yeah. That's interesting.
- 10:09Uh you mentioned throwing a grenade at
- 10:10it. Why would they not just shoot it?
- 10:12Why would they throw a grenade at a
- 10:13drone? That makes no sense to me. I
- 10:15mean,
- 10:16it's kind of like a Hamas tactic in
- 10:17general. They realize that because of
- 10:19rules of engagement, if they're out
- 10:21walking with a uniform, a vest, and a
- 10:22weapon, they're going to get shot. Um
- 10:24but if they're, you know, at the other
- 10:26extreme walking around in civilian
- 10:27clothing with nothing visible on them,
- 10:29they're not going to get shot most of
- 10:30the time. So, like uh what a lot of them
- 10:32have started doing is they leave their
- 10:34rifles in a stash somewhere. Um and then
- 10:37they walk around with just grenades in
- 10:38their pockets cuz you can still do
- 10:39something with a grenade. Um and, you
- 10:41know, if if you're looking from a UAV or
- 10:43from a helicopter or from a drone,
- 10:45you're not going to spot a grenade in
- 10:46someone's pocket. So, some of these guys
- 10:48gets in end up in some house and all
- 10:50they have with them is grenades. Yeah.
- 10:52Uh that's throwing the baseball at them,
- 10:53right?
- 10:53Yeah, exactly. Yeah, good times. Now, in
- 10:55terms of your drones, are you guys
- 10:56implementing thermal drones at all?
- 10:58Yeah, yeah, for sure. We have thermal
- 11:00drones.
- 11:01Um
- 11:01Uh I don't think I can say at what at
- 11:03what level and how many and how we use
- 11:05them exactly, but we have thermal
- 11:06everything. I have some interesting
- 11:08stuff after, but um we yeah, we have a
- 11:10lot of thermals. Thermals are one of the
- 11:11big changes in this war, for sure.
- 11:13Implementation for marksmen, for
- 11:15snipers, um and just for general general
- 11:18use. Uh cuz tanks have always had them
- 11:20in the IDF for for a long time. Uh but
- 11:22it's nice to have, you know,
- 11:24being able to cross-identify and have a
- 11:26tank say, "I see something." and look at
- 11:28it with other thermals and you
- 11:29understand what you're talking about. Um
- 11:31and yeah, having being able to look from
- 11:33above with thermals is it's super
- 11:34critical. Now, we've talked a lot about
- 11:36drones on your side. Um
- 11:38what are you guys seeing in terms of
- 11:40drones from the enemy side?
- 11:43I mean, did you see any on the 7th of
- 11:44October? Uh I personally didn't. Yeah, I
- 11:47mean, we there there are videos from 7th
- 11:48of October of them taking out um them
- 11:50taking out uh tanks with uh drone drop
- 11:53munitions that had their open hatches.
- 11:54They weren't They basically ready for
- 11:56it. FPV drones attacking like comms
- 11:58towers and stuff like that. Um Let's
- 12:00slow down for a second. Let's talk both
- 12:01those really quickly. So, there's two
- 12:03types of drones. If you've seen the
- 12:04Ukraine video, you're you're going to be
- 12:06familiar with this, but you have your
- 12:07typical like DJI drone, big old
- 12:09quadcopter copter, and they can have
- 12:10little fishing lure attachments to drop
- 12:13fishing lures. But in this case, it's a
- 12:15grenade or a munition of some type like
- 12:16a mortar round that will impact that
- 12:18will explode on impact. Um
- 12:21then you have the FPVs. Those are
- 12:22basically racing drones. Uh they're
- 12:24flown from the first person. Those are
- 12:26used uh with a munition attached to
- 12:28suicide into something, whether it be a
- 12:29human being or some type of vehicle.
- 12:31Yeah. Sorry about that. I just wanted to
- 12:33make sure they understood.
- 12:33yeah, for sure. And like um and then so
- 12:35there's there's a third type that they
- 12:36use, which is just reconnaissance
- 12:38drones. Hm, okay.
- 12:39Um and those those are those are
- 12:40probably the the ones they use the most,
- 12:42I think. Yeah. Um also because if you
- 12:44see a a drone with something dangling
- 12:45from it, we're not currently doing that
- 12:47really much. So, if you see a drone like
- 12:49that, it's very clear that it's an enemy
- 12:51drone and it's going to get shot down
- 12:52within seconds.
- 12:54Um either by like someone with a smart
- 12:56shooter on his gun or um just some good
- 12:59marksman. We have We do have drone
- 13:00jamming stuff, but we also have like a a
- 13:03bit of a proliferation of uh smart
- 13:05shooters. You know those? I'm not
- 13:06familiar with those. Please tell me
- 13:07about them.
- 13:07It's um it's basically a sight It's a
- 13:10It's a sight called the smart shooter.
- 13:12It's an Israeli startup and it's
- 13:13connected to
- 13:15a unit within the the handle over here
- 13:17and then there's basically something
- 13:19that a pin that blocks the trigger. So,
- 13:20if you have it on uh smart shooter mode,
- 13:22you can use it regularly as a regular
- 13:24AR-15 and or you can make it so that it
- 13:26locks onto a target and then you squeeze
- 13:27the trigger and it lets it fire when
- 13:29it's at optimal
- 13:30am familiar with that. Yeah, so it can
- 13:32track targets.
- 13:32So, those are great for drones. Yeah. It
- 13:34It can track a drone? Yeah. It can track
- 13:35a drone, shoot it out of the sky 100 m
- 13:38easily. Uh farther than that, it gets a
- 13:40little bit sketchy, but it's still
- 13:41doable. And you can shoot out cameras
- 13:42and stuff like that really easily. Now,
- 13:44do you guys have any tactics as far as
- 13:46when you see drones overhead, if you're
- 13:48unsure if they're friendly or or or
- 13:50enemy, what do you what do you typically
- 13:51do?
- 13:52you're going to take cover. Um you're
- 13:53going to take cover, for sure. Uh and
- 13:55you're going to try to figure out You're
- 13:56going to say You're just going to ask
- 13:58like, "What What is that drone?"
- 13:59Uh and then someone someone's going to
- 14:01get on the radio, figure out, say, "Who
- 14:02has a drone up?" Someone's going to say,
- 14:03"I have a drone up." And then you're
- 14:04going to say
- 14:05um "A funtakine." which means uh um good
- 14:08drone, basically. And then everyone's
- 14:10going to yell it and everyone's going to
- 14:11know. Yeah. Although, you know, you
- 14:13don't wait You don't wait around.
- 14:15If they take too long getting that
- 14:16answer back to you, that drone's going
- 14:17down and it's Have you guys ever shot a
- 14:19friendly drone?
- 14:19Oh, yeah.
- 14:20I haven't, but uh someone someone in my
- 14:22uh in my company did. We were We were
- 14:24all so proud of him. He was like No,
- 14:26yeah, he shot a drone that belonged to a
- 14:28different company and we like have a
- 14:29rivalry with them. So, we were like,
- 14:31"Yeah, the Messiah. Yeah, good job.
- 14:33You did it." We like We called him like
- 14:35drone hunter and stuff. This seems to be
- 14:37a problem with the Ukrainians as well,
- 14:39where it's hard to identify whose drones
- 14:41are who. Yeah. There's just not a good
- 14:43method of that currently. So, I can see
- 14:45that's still a problem. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
- 14:48Yeah. It's not worth the risk. Now, are
- 14:50you still seeing those drones this late
- 14:52in the war from the enemy or is it kind
- 14:54of slowed down much? It's a lot fewer.
- 14:56We've did We've denied them a lot of the
- 14:57places where their drone operators can
- 14:59operate a drone from, basically. Um as
- 15:02far as enough good fortified buildings,
- 15:03buildings that are close to their
- 15:04tunnels. And it's kind of a very
- 15:06high-risk, low-reward activity to leave
- 15:08the safety of a tunnel to go and
- 15:10position yourself in a spot where you
- 15:12have a direct air like a direct line of
- 15:14sight to the drone.
- 15:16Which means you're either going to be in
- 15:17a window or you're going to be out in
- 15:17the open just so that you can get
- 15:19reconnaissance on a drone. It would have
- 15:20to be part of a much bigger attack and
- 15:21just does There's not a lot of ROI on
- 15:23it, you know? Now, when it comes to
- 15:25tunnels, you guys have talked about that
- 15:26a few times. We're not talking about the
- 15:28tunnels in New York from those other
- 15:29Jews. I'm just with you.
- 15:31How are you guys dealing with those? How
- 15:32are those typically assaulted? How are
- 15:34those taken care of? What What are you
- 15:36doing with those?
- 15:37I mean, um
- 15:38there's a lot of stuff you can you can
- 15:40do with them like on the immediate level
- 15:41and in the the the dealing with them to
- 15:44a on a deeper level, which we can't talk
- 15:46about for sure. That'll definitely get
- 15:48censored. But on an immediate level,
- 15:50it's basically just adds like when
- 15:51you're in urban combat, you know, you
- 15:52have the stuff that's on your eyesight
- 15:53and then you have all the below. So, now
- 15:55you also have the below, basically.
- 15:56Yeah. So, on one hand, you're you're
- 15:58basically
- 16:00expecting people to pop out not just
- 16:01from behind corners and around doors.
- 16:03People could come out literally from a
- 16:05tunnel cuz they could pop their head up.
- 16:06Um when you're inside a tunnel, I guess
- 16:08it's probably pretty disorienting to
- 16:09know what's going on above you. Sure.
- 16:11So, sometimes people can pop up and not
- 16:13and take a while to orient themselves.
- 16:15Um
- 16:16but basically, you're looking for
- 16:17suspicious things and there's a lot of
- 16:19things that look like tunnels in Gaza.
- 16:21Uh there's really bad sewage
- 16:22infrastructure. So, a lot of them just
- 16:23dig sewage drainage pits outside of
- 16:26their houses and then cover them,
- 16:27obviously, cuz you don't want your kids
- 16:28falling into a pit of of sewage.
- 16:30Yeah. So, they cover them with a piece
- 16:31of wood and then sometimes some trash
- 16:33just cuz they're Arabs and they like
- 16:34making piles of trash.
- 16:35So, then you get to that and you say,
- 16:36"Oh, Is this a tunnel?" You start
- 16:38like You put a take a grappling hook.
- 16:40You start pulling stuff away. You're
- 16:42like, "Oh my god, it's got a wooden
- 16:43cover." You're like, "Oh my god, wooden
- 16:45cover." You get the drone and you like
- 16:47pull that off and you throw in a grenade
- 16:50and then you send in a drone to look and
- 16:51they're like, "Yeah, it's just full of
- 16:52shit." And that's the Sometimes the
- 16:54drone loses connection and falls in the
- 16:56but that's uh So, you are sending
- 16:58drones in the tunnels, then? In a
- 16:59limited sense because um the connection
- 17:02capabilities. And there are drones that
- 17:04are better suited for that. Um but yeah,
- 17:07I'm not sure. In my unit, we don't have
- 17:09much and we probably can't talk about
- 17:10that.
- 17:10Yep. I I I understand fully. As an
- 17:12infantryman, like for us, we're
- 17:14basically just finding the tunnels
- 17:16and making sure no one's coming out of
- 17:18the tunnel. And the most we're going to
- 17:20do is throw a couple grenades down there
- 17:21or something.
- 17:22Um
- 17:23and then we're going to leave it to uh
- 17:24professionals to take care of that.
- 17:26Until until a tunnel is taken care of
- 17:29and and the special forces units that
- 17:31deal with that kind of sensitive thing,
- 17:33infantry's just going to be like we have
- 17:35said, pointing their rifles at the at
- 17:38the threat. Um Maybe taking selfies.
- 17:41Yeah, taking selfies. Let's talk a
- 17:43little bit about how you guys are
- 17:44reacting to contact. What are the
- 17:45typical engagement distances you guys
- 17:47are seeing? How are you putting down
- 17:49fire superiority? How does it work with
- 17:51the IDF or with your teams in
- 17:53particular?
- 17:56Um so, in general, once once contacted,
- 17:59an entire team will search for cover or
- 18:01just get down and return fire.
- 18:03Generally, we're seeing we're getting
- 18:05contacted from pretty far ranges. Uh
- 18:07what would you say like in meters? We're
- 18:09talking
- 18:11talking like
- 18:12100 like above 150 usually is what is
- 18:15what we're dealing with.
- 18:16from shooting from afar, snipers. RPGs,
- 18:19they tend to get pretty close. Those
- 18:21Those Those Those guys like to getting
- 18:23close so that they can be accurate.
- 18:2550 under the hundreds. No, we had an
- 18:27Yeah, I mean, they they do that a lot,
- 18:28which is difficult for tanks to deal
- 18:29with, but like for the trophy system to
- 18:31deal with and stuff for really close
- 18:33shots, but they also they shot at a tank
- 18:35that was right outside of our building,
- 18:37hit it with an RPG from I think like 200
- 18:39m or something. It was like a really far
- 18:40shot and they I think part of that is
- 18:43cuz they realize that once we get up to
- 18:44where they are, there's going to be like
- 18:46an overwhelming amount of fire on them.
- 18:48So, they kind of want to
- 18:50shoot and then get out of there.
- 18:52When you say sniper fire, are you
- 18:53talking from AKMs or or specialized
- 18:56weapon systems? Um when I say sniper
- 18:58fire,
- 18:59they're they're using M24s. Um
- 19:03Interesting. And some Dragonovs, also.
- 19:07generally, it's been M24s what I've
- 19:09seen. Yeah, we haven't had seen a lot of
- 19:11snipers. Um which is strange cuz you'd
- 19:13think that they'd be very prolific in an
- 19:15urban scenario like that, but You really
- 19:17would.
- 19:17Just a lot of just pot shots from from
- 19:19AKs and stuff.
- 19:21Um a lot of the times, if you're engaged
- 19:23from far away, sometimes there's not
- 19:25even anything you will do about it. You
- 19:26kind of get cover. So, then it's kind of
- 19:28like a reminder, "I should probably not
- 19:29be like sticking my head out." Yeah.
- 19:31Like if you're engaged from really far
- 19:33away, if there's just bullets coming
- 19:34over your head, you're going to try to
- 19:35figure out, you know, use the tools you
- 19:37have to figure out if who's shooting
- 19:38you, if it's friendly, if it's not
- 19:40friendly, and then have someone do
- 19:41something about it, but it might not be
- 19:43in your area. Like if I'm being shot at
- 19:45from 300 m away and that's a direction
- 19:48of fire that I'm definitely close to
- 19:50because there's a friendly unit over
- 19:51there. So, we're just going to tell them
- 19:53and they're going to deal with it.
- 19:53They're probably already dealing with
- 19:54it, you know? So, like um
- 19:57but definitely, yeah, get get some
- 19:58cover. Um figure out what's going on.
- 20:00Make sure that all the all your angles
- 20:02are covered. Cuz sometimes they'll try
- 20:03to uh give you some fire to keep you
- 20:05down and then they're going to send out
- 20:06an attack. Uh
- 20:08or they're going to wait for you to come
- 20:09into the attack. So. How has it been for
- 20:10you as far as recognizing when the shots
- 20:12are coming towards you or whether the
- 20:13shots are just the general background of
- 20:16what's going on? Like recognizing the
- 20:18chatter of different weapons, right?
- 20:19So, once you once you've spent some
- 20:21time, like I have to say when I first
- 20:22went into Gaza, I I didn't really know
- 20:25that I I knew that different calibers
- 20:27have different sounds.
- 20:28But uh once you're living it day-to-day
- 20:30and you're hearing the the gunfire of
- 20:32the tanks and
- 20:34uh and the Apaches and uh you you just
- 20:37get to know that every every gun has its
- 20:39own voice. And uh the AK-47 is just it's
- 20:43you can you can spot it in in just a
- 20:45fire of an array of weapons, you'll hear
- 20:47that crack. You'll be like, that's enemy
- 20:49fire. And uh if it's not in your uh
- 20:52quadrant, then you're going to you're
- 20:53going to get on the comms and you're
- 20:55going to you're going to let the
- 20:56relevant uh battalion know. Yeah,
- 20:59although in in urban warfare it can can
- 21:00get really confusing with all the echoes
- 21:02off buildings. Yeah. It's kind of hard
- 21:04to to hear, you know, who's shooting and
- 21:05from where. And very often you're kind
- 21:07of just aware that a firefight or
- 21:09something is happening somewhere. Cuz
- 21:11you hear a lot of fire coming from one
- 21:13area. You try to kind of figure out
- 21:15what's going on and then maybe you might
- 21:16see like the 669 rescue helicopters
- 21:18coming in and then you know we have
- 21:19injured people. Um or you know, you'll
- 21:23just hear something interesting about it
- 21:24on the radio. Then you have um Did you
- 21:26guys have a radio station? We had like
- 21:28Radio Halal. You have that?
- 21:30Yeah, yeah, we were we were hardcore on
- 21:32the
- 21:32shouldn't blur the name of it,
- 21:33basically.
- 21:33Whenever you're on guard duty, you just
- 21:34got this little mini radio next to you.
- 21:36No, no, I'm talking about something
- 21:37else. Talking about We had basically
- 21:39like everyone wants to know what's going
- 21:41on all the time, right? So, we ended up
- 21:42just having a uh
- 21:44once a day at like 8:30 p.m. or 9:00
- 21:46p.m. like uh on one of the radios like
- 21:48on one of the radio bands and with
- 21:50someone just just gave the news for the
- 21:51whole day. Oh, interesting.
- 21:53Like we found these terrorists and
- 21:55killed them, this guy got injured, we
- 21:56found a tunnel here, we found this, we
- 21:58had found this. And everyone's just
- 21:59listening to it, they're like, oh,
- 22:01yeah. Yeah, so we had a guy on the
- 22:02radio. Yeah, Radio Halal. So, we had a
- 22:04guy who would uh who would also give the
- 22:07give the sports news for soccer for all
- 22:09the Israelis. And he would just right
- 22:11after he goes after the day's updates of
- 22:13what actually is relevant, you know,
- 22:15tactically.
- 22:16Um he just starts he starts going he
- 22:18also did like updates on celebrities.
- 22:20Oh, uh what's uh Eden Ben Zaken doing,
- 22:23you know, uh
- 22:24Nobody Nobody cares about soccer.
- 22:27Except for the rest of the world.
- 22:28Yeah, except
- 22:29Except for the rest of the world. Are
- 22:30you into soccer now that you've been in
- 22:31Israel for a while?
- 22:32a about
- 22:33Absolutely not. There we go. Do you guys
- 22:34still like American football? I don't
- 22:36care about American football. I don't
- 22:37really follow sports now.
- 22:38A little bit of MMA or like that stuff.
- 22:40That's fair.
- 22:41That's fair. Cool.
- 22:46Gentlemen, so we have our kit set up on
- 22:47the ground. Right here I have a Crye
- 22:48JPC. This is a pretty close setup to
- 22:51what I ran in the US military.
- 22:52Obviously, my job was way different. My
- 22:54level training was different. Everything
- 22:55was different. Your carriers are
- 22:56different in terms of camouflage, in
- 22:58terms of what you have on it,
- 23:00everything. So, let's talk a little bit
- 23:02about your kit setups. Let's go ahead
- 23:03and start with you and talk about the
- 23:05hows and whys. People want to know why
- 23:07your kit is set up. You've been fighting
- 23:08for a while. You still probably still
- 23:09got dust on that thing.
- 23:11Same here.
- 23:12All right. All right, so I'm running a
- 23:13Agilite K0. Uh running level four armor,
- 23:17side plates.
- 23:18Um
- 23:20As far as ammunition, uh I usually run
- 23:22around uh about six to to eight mags.
- 23:26Um I'll run a double mag in the in the
- 23:28weapon, uh
- 23:29another mag on my battle belt, and three
- 23:31mags here, and then a couple more in my
- 23:33uh my battle pack. Uh medical gear. So,
- 23:35medical gear. Uh I'm running two
- 23:37tourniquets usually, one over here, and
- 23:40I'll usually keep another one either
- 23:41here or in my uh pack.
- 23:43Um and then over here I have a personal
- 23:45bandage.
- 23:47And on my battle belt, so I'm running a
- 23:49personal
- 23:50first aid kit over here. It's got uh
- 23:53combat gauze and uh some basic just
- 23:55basic stuff. And then finally, I got
- 23:57these scissors for cutting through uh
- 23:59uniforms and vests and whatnot. Next,
- 24:01ammunition. Lastly, I have
- 24:03I have two 9 mm mags over here. Okay?
- 24:06And then I have my personal sidearm.
- 24:07What are you typically carrying? Um
- 24:09typically carrying a Glock 19. Nice.
- 24:12All right. Weapon light, optic? Yeah,
- 24:14both.
- 24:14Both times. Mhm. Over here we got
- 24:16multi-tool. It's a must-have. Uh it's an
- 24:19SOG. I use it usually to like cut wires,
- 24:21fences, uh helps me out sometimes when
- 24:24I'm when I'm busting into a building or
- 24:26or uh trying to just get through an
- 24:28area. On that note, as far as breaching
- 24:30and stuff like that, I'm usually running
- 24:31also a cutter in back in my battle pack.
- 24:34Do you mean like a bolt cutter?
- 24:35Yeah, bolt cutter, yeah.
- 24:37Front, we got here
- 24:39we got here red light.
- 24:41Um this is this is mostly stuff that I'm
- 24:42going to use like inside a building once
- 24:44we've once we've uh taken it over. I got
- 24:46some stick lights in here. So, you're
- 24:47going to use them to basically mark
- 24:50hazards or anything that needs to be
- 24:52marked. It's useful also for
- 24:54miscellaneous things like say we have
- 24:56like a detonation cord set up and we
- 24:58don't want guys to step on it. Mhm. Um
- 25:00so, we'll like cut this and we'll just
- 25:02drizzle a little bit of that glowing
- 25:03liquid on it and then
- 25:05the team leader will explain to the team
- 25:07that Do you use different colors for
- 25:08different things? I understand the
- 25:10tactics, techniques, and procedures um
- 25:12between different units or militaries
- 25:14are going to differ heavily, so that's
- 25:15fine. Just understand that
- 25:16Yeah. 10-6 are important. Yeah, some
- 25:18stuff we can't say about color marking.
- 25:20I understand. I understand. Yeah. And
- 25:23finally, in here, I always carry some
- 25:24kind of pen or uh or a marker. It's
- 25:27first and foremost for drawing pictures
- 25:30of uh your teammates on the wall and
- 25:31your commanders. It's also very useful
- 25:33for just you're going to write Usually
- 25:34you spray paint, but if you don't have
- 25:35spray paint, you can also use a marker
- 25:37and just start writing
- 25:38uh different directions uh so that you
- 25:40know
- 25:41you know, where your where your friends
- 25:42are and where the enemies are. I'm
- 25:43usually carrying two frags on me. As one
- 25:45of the as lead marksman, I was actually
- 25:47running six frags at one point. I put
- 25:49two on my battle belt and I put two over
- 25:51here and I put two more pouches up here.
- 25:53Uh so, I was actually running six. Uh
- 25:55but two is two is the basic. So, this is
- 25:57a new addition to my pack
- 25:58to my uh plate carrier. In Gaza, I found
- 26:01that running around with my usual pack,
- 26:03I just was kind of like kind of like a
- 26:04turtle. And like when I was opening
- 26:06doors, I was getting stuck with uh with
- 26:08my battle buddy.
- 26:09So, I ended up just not taking a pack
- 26:10with me. So, this guy's great because
- 26:12it's very minimalist and it's just it's
- 26:14just uh carrying the hydration bladder
- 26:16and very basic things. I'll usually have
- 26:18a smoke on me as well, which I'll stick
- 26:19up front. As far as additional gear in
- 26:21the pack,
- 26:23this is uh this is something that uh
- 26:26that we use in my team,
- 26:27which we basically keep our batteries in
- 26:29here. Spare spare batteries for each
- 26:30kind of night vision, flashlights, PEC,
- 26:33uh optics. We'll throw in like these
- 26:35little things that um that absorb the
- 26:36moisture. Another thing that I usually
- 26:38run up front is uh is it just two spare
- 26:41batteries for immediate optics or or
- 26:43nods. Nods and uh thermal. So, when I
- 26:46have those
- 26:47um and it's daytime, I'm usually going
- 26:48to keep them in my pack. And then um for
- 26:51context for everybody, you are getting
- 26:52resupplies fairly regularly, every two
- 26:54days at minimum, correct? Yeah. Okay.
- 26:57Yeah, it's usually every day, but um
- 26:59happens sometimes it's more than
- 27:00that. Sure. And then you're you have a a
- 27:02kind of a
- 27:03not to delve too much into it, but
- 27:05you're essentially operating out of a
- 27:06FOB, like a forward operating base to
- 27:08some extent, correct? Um usually it's
- 27:10it's it's ever-changing. At a certain
- 27:13point though, you're going to stop and
- 27:13it's going to turn into a FOB, yeah.
- 27:15Yep, okay. Uh we got a lighter here.
- 27:17Uh and that is for lighting up uh
- 27:19hookahs and uh cigarettes.
- 27:21Over here, we got
- 27:23uh we had a carabiner, which uh
- 27:24honestly, it started out as a logistic
- 27:26thing, just you know, bus filled with
- 27:28gear of uh of an entire platoon. Put
- 27:31your uh helmet on there, knee pads,
- 27:33anything that has a string, just connect
- 27:35it all there and you have one piece, you
- 27:36just carry it around. Also, like in the
- 27:37event you have like a guy gets injured,
- 27:39you just connect all his to that
- 27:41one thing and then it's all one piece.
- 27:42Got you. Well, thank you. Lev, go ahead.
- 27:44Yeah. Let's get right into it. So,
- 27:47over here I'm also running a K0. I have
- 27:49mine set up for a machine machine gun,
- 27:50specifically for the Negev light machine
- 27:51gun. Now, right here I have a SAW.
- 27:54Unfortunately, it's just uh
- 27:56Don't even start it. Don't even start
- 27:58it.
- 27:58do it for me. I am not feeling the itch.
- 27:59I'm not feeling anything, you know, down
- 28:01below. But
- 28:03Is it cold in there? Yeah.
- 28:04Exactly. I need to form a bond. Um so,
- 28:07basically over here, I got two drum
- 28:09pouches that I like basically sewed for
- 28:11myself and just made them for the Negev
- 28:13pouches. Then when I got there, uh they
- 28:15gave me a different kind of Negev drum,
- 28:16like a newer one that didn't fit. So, I
- 28:18had to like kind of stitch them together
- 28:20and make some changes to them. But
- 28:22basically, so K0, I'm running obviously
- 28:24also level four plates in here. Um if we
- 28:27start at the front and move our way
- 28:28around, I guess. So, you have
- 28:31I just added a MOLLE surface on the
- 28:32front. I keep one frag grenade right
- 28:33here. Another frag grenade I keep on my
- 28:35belt back here. I'll show you in a sec.
- 28:37Over here I have a tourniquet right
- 28:39there in the front. I like it right here
- 28:40because it's super obvious to anyone
- 28:42else where it is on me. Um they don't
- 28:44need to look for it anywhere.
- 28:46Uh and it's just right there right in
- 28:47the front and it's impossible to miss if
- 28:48I'm lying on my back or on my side or
- 28:50something. Over here I have another
- 28:51tourniquet on the dangler below. Here I
- 28:54have just a general purpose uh pouch.
- 28:57Inside here I got a bunch of goodies. I
- 28:58have a brush for cleaning dust off my
- 29:01gun cuz you basically whenever you're
- 29:02stopped, it's just a great opportunity
- 29:04to sit down and just start like dusting
- 29:06it off, getting into those nooks and
- 29:07crannies. That's some professional
- 29:09soldier and right there.
- 29:10Exactly. And obviously, I always saw off
- 29:12my toothbrushes, also the ones for my
- 29:13teeth. Just uh you know,
- 29:16makes them easier to put in your
- 29:17pockets. Sometimes I keep a toothbrush
- 29:19in my front pocket. Um
- 29:21makes it a little easier. Over here, I
- 29:23have uh
- 29:25also headlamp with a red function. Super
- 29:27important with a headlamp is to have a
- 29:28headlamp that you can immediately go to
- 29:30red with. Some people bought headlamps
- 29:32that you have to click through white to
- 29:33get to the red, which is just stupid.
- 29:35It's extremely stupid and
- 29:36unprofessional. Good to have a good one.
- 29:38I like the Petzl Tikka ones. I have like
- 29:41uh one for backpacking and one for
- 29:42tactical stuff. Keep them separate. I
- 29:45have over here a Rite in the rain
- 29:46notebook, um
- 29:48that I write down military secrets about
- 29:50the IDF that I sell online and post to
- 29:51War Thunder on.
- 29:53I have a
- 29:57I have a Laffy Taffy blue flavor. I
- 29:59highly recommend the blue flavor. I have
- 30:01a pen and I have my multi-tool in here
- 30:03right now, although usually I end up
- 30:05rocking my multi-tool over here in my
- 30:07front pocket. I used to have it mounted
- 30:08on my belt and then I realized too often
- 30:10I'd like to take off my belt and hang it
- 30:11up somewhere and I just need a
- 30:12multi-tool. So I started just keeping it
- 30:14over here. Uh I usually keep more
- 30:16batteries in here also and I have this
- 30:19bad boy. So in addition to the
- 30:20multi-tool, I like to carry a bicycle
- 30:22multi-tool because these are basically
- 30:23just based around common fasteners like
- 30:26torques and Allen keys that you don't
- 30:27always have on a multi-tool.
- 30:29And um you always need those. Obviously
- 30:33tightening down optics mounts and like
- 30:35night vision and stuff.
- 30:36Um and I have over here a letter from my
- 30:38wife cuz we were getting mail basically
- 30:40in in and out back and forth. So it's
- 30:42nice to have have that so you can sit
- 30:44around and read it every once in a
- 30:45while. So over here, another tourniquet.
- 30:47I have the dangler up here in the front.
- 30:49It's all batteries basically.
- 30:51Um so if I have loose batteries, what I
- 30:54do is I tape them around like that with
- 30:55electrical tape just to make sure that
- 30:57the uh the ends aren't going to be
- 30:59touching other batteries and
- 31:00discharging. Um
- 31:03and I have just like some random I
- 31:05have some like really heavy duty needles
- 31:06and wax thread. This has gotten a bit
- 31:09dirty by now. Should be rewound up or
- 31:10something. But that's just thread that's
- 31:12you can fix anything with basically.
- 31:14It's almost like a zip tie and how
- 31:15strong it is. I have a little bit of one
- 31:16wrap just wrapped up
- 31:19um which is great for either for
- 31:20yourself or if you see some idiot with
- 31:22all his like straps messed up and you're
- 31:23like just put him out of his misery. So
- 31:25over here I have a lighter. I got uh
- 31:28quick clot. I got um combat gauze and I
- 31:32usually have some uh Israeli bandages in
- 31:34here that seem to have disappeared.
- 31:36Um so yeah. It's funny we've always
- 31:38carried Israeli bandages but for some
- 31:40reason it's very ironic Israelis kill
- 31:42carrying Israeli bandages. I don't know
- 31:44why. Yeah, it's like I mean it's like
- 31:45the the basic like from basic training
- 31:47basically that was the the basic
- 31:49individual like that's the basic IFAK is
- 31:51you have an Israeli bandage and a
- 31:52tourniquet all the time.
- 31:53it bandages already in Israel?
- 31:54They call it personal bandage. Ta uh
- 31:56takhboshet ishit. So over here I got the
- 31:58drum pouches. Over here on the left I'm
- 31:59running a knife. This is a Benchmade uh
- 32:02Nimravus I think.
- 32:04Um
- 32:04great knife. Uh honestly it's just so
- 32:07handy having a fixed blade because with
- 32:09a fixed blade you can cut anything with
- 32:11it. It gets dirty just wash it off. It's
- 32:13not like a folder where it gets in
- 32:14there. And obviously it's right here in
- 32:16a defensive posture over here on the
- 32:17plate carrier. Super easy to pull out.
- 32:20Um and you're just always cutting
- 32:21something. If you're like going through
- 32:22a greenhouse you have to cut through
- 32:24through uh cloth or if you're
- 32:26Honestly you can even cut cuz it's
- 32:27serrated you can really easily cut
- 32:29through like electrical cables and stuff
- 32:30if you need them to tie stuff up. Um
- 32:33and over here got a picture on the
- 32:36front. Uh Polaroid picture of my wife
- 32:39and dog. Wife dog. Um and
- 32:42that's nice and it's also a great place
- 32:44to keep
- 32:45rolled cigarettes before you're ready to
- 32:47smoke them. Don't tell my wife that.
- 32:49Um over here in the
- 32:50It's very it's very much too late for
- 32:52that.
- 32:52Too late for that, yeah. Um
- 32:54who knows maybe she won't see this.
- 32:56Uh drum pouches, side plate carriers
- 32:59and over here on the back I just put um
- 33:02you know this is like our unit patch.
- 33:03We're the patrol unit within the the uh
- 33:06company and I just put my last name cuz
- 33:08a lot of people have the same plate
- 33:09carrier so it makes it a little easier
- 33:10to find it. Um
- 33:12Always mark your gear. Yeah, exactly.
- 33:14Over here in the front I also have a
- 33:16pair of scissors. These are honestly
- 33:17like in addition to just the actual
- 33:19first aid aspect of them they're just so
- 33:21useful all the time. Use them for just
- 33:23everything. Like half the time instead
- 33:25of pulling out a knife we'll just pull
- 33:26out a pair of scissors. So
- 33:28if I move over to the belt
- 33:31Dick strap deactivated. All right. So
- 33:34over here I got another tourniquet so
- 33:35that's the third tourniquet basically.
- 33:37Um here I have a homemade holster for my
- 33:40gun. This is this is the same gun but
- 33:43not the same setup. So this is a MP 2.0
- 33:45compact and I also run it with a 17
- 33:48round magazine when it's over here and I
- 33:51have a Holosun optic on it and I have a
- 33:53TLR-7A on the front cuz this is also my
- 33:57uh EDC gun that I appendix carry all the
- 33:59pistols are personally procured,
- 34:00correct?
- 34:00Exactly. They're all personal personal
- 34:02handguns.
- 34:03Um which kind of makes it's kind of
- 34:05interesting thing about the handgun
- 34:06market in it in Israel which is that
- 34:07it's kind of middle of the line.
- 34:09Everyone's running compact handguns
- 34:10because you want it to be small enough
- 34:11to carry it but big enough that you can
- 34:12use it uh and shoot it comfortably. So
- 34:16that's that. Over here
- 34:18single frag pouch and then this is empty
- 34:20right now but this is usually has about
- 34:22110 or 120 rounds uh like loose rounds
- 34:25of uh of ammo for the SAW
- 34:28uh which I can just whip out uh in an
- 34:30emergency and load in or I can use it to
- 34:32fill up one of my drums when I empty it.
- 34:34Over here in the front
- 34:36canted pistol mag
- 34:38right there. Um I I I started out the
- 34:42war with two uh vertical ones.
- 34:45Uh one for the pistol, one for the the
- 34:46multi-tool and I just found out that I
- 34:48was sitting so much on the ground that
- 34:50it just really digs into digs into your
- 34:52hips, starts cutting off your your
- 34:54nerves. Um so I I switched to a canted
- 34:57one like that on the side. And over here
- 34:58I got uh mechanics gloves, the
- 35:00fingerless Agile Ones. Um these are
- 35:02great. You can really you really need
- 35:04gloves in urban combat.
- 35:06Um
- 35:07everything is disgusting that you're
- 35:08touching. It's either disgusting or it's
- 35:10or it's dangerous and sharp or it's just
- 35:12really dirty. So having gloves is super
- 35:14useful.
- 35:15And
- 35:17yeah, that's my setup. Let's move over
- 35:18to the helmet real quick. So my helmet
- 35:22uh
- 35:22this is not my helmet. My helmet is an
- 35:24Armasource.
- 35:25Um I don't have a light on the side
- 35:27although this is actually really sick
- 35:28and I I might start doing this. It's
- 35:30really nice.
- 35:30Thank you. Yeah.
- 35:32I have the Core Survival strobe on mine
- 35:34as well. Uh in the back I sometimes keep
- 35:37um
- 35:37like every once in a while I'll keep uh
- 35:39some spare batteries in here or
- 35:40something. I don't have a counterweight
- 35:42per se but I I have used like a box of
- 35:445.56 ammo before as a counterweight
- 35:47which helps me carry ammo also for my uh
- 35:49battle buddy who's a marksman. Now um
- 35:52this one is Peltors but I'm rocking the
- 35:54uh Ops-Core Ops-Core Amps.
- 35:56Love them to death and then yeah I have
- 35:58a mount on the front for my uh binos
- 36:01and during the day what I'll usually do
- 36:02is I'll
- 36:04I'll open up my assault pack. My assault
- 36:06pack by the way Hill People Gear Terra
- 36:07Houmera. So good. Great pack. I've got
- 36:10this cuz I used to do a lot of mountain
- 36:11biking. Um so basically what I have over
- 36:14here in my assault pack is another drum
- 36:16and then I have this case that uh some
- 36:19trij like Trijicon optic or something
- 36:20came in and what I do with this case is
- 36:22I keep my night vision in here so it's
- 36:24like super protected and then during the
- 36:26uh at night I will take out my night
- 36:28vision and I'll put my GoPro into here
- 36:29with my dark glasses and just keep those
- 36:32glasses 100% protected from the
- 36:34elements. In here I also have a single
- 36:37uh like usually one or two. Right now I
- 36:39have one uh tan sandbag. This is like a
- 36:42multi-purpose thing. Obviously if you
- 36:43need to entrench in like in a hurry that
- 36:45you weren't planning on it, it's good to
- 36:47have everyone carrying sandbags. But
- 36:48mostly what we do is if we're searching
- 36:50houses looking for intelligence stuff,
- 36:51looking for like maps, radios, uh IDs,
- 36:54papers, whatever. So for each house
- 36:57we'll put that stuff in one of these
- 36:58bags and then write the house number on
- 37:00the bag and then tie it up with a zip
- 37:02tie and then we can give that to
- 37:03intelligence officers and it's super
- 37:04organized for them and then they like
- 37:06us. Um
- 37:08I have a a Platypus 2 L
- 37:11water bottle. These are great. Uh this
- 37:13isn't always in my assault pack but if I
- 37:15do want to carry extra water here I'll
- 37:16do it in here. I got a marker and
- 37:20like you said, got to write north,
- 37:21south, east, west and everything in all
- 37:23the doors. With charger cable for my
- 37:25thermal. Thermal isn't here I didn't
- 37:27bring it but I just have a little
- 37:28handheld uh AGM thermal
- 37:31and this is usually full of snacks which
- 37:33is super important. Yeah. What's the
- 37:35best snack to bring?
- 37:37Um
- 37:37Beef jerky? Beef jerky is great. Uh
- 37:40Snickers.
- 37:41like some weird Hebrew word or something
- 37:43like that.
- 37:43Just a just a pocket full of hummus. You
- 37:45know, fill up the pocket and you get
- 37:47just reach in and get a handful.
- 37:48squeeze it out. I like to I I like to
- 37:50fill up a hydration bladder with uh
- 37:52tahini. Yeah. Tahini.
- 37:54Yeah. Yeah. So that's that's my setup
- 37:57basically. Yeah.
- 37:59Awesome. Uh gentlemen I also want to
- 38:00note that all of your gear is green. So
- 38:03this is uh standardized across IDF. This
- 38:05is for friendly force identification,
- 38:07correct?
- 38:08That's correct. Yeah, it's super
- 38:10important. Can I talk about that for a
- 38:10sec?
- 38:11Please. So basically um this is what
- 38:13always an issue we're running into in
- 38:14the reserves where somebody will instead
- 38:16of using their like issued green jacket
- 38:18they'll say like well I have this
- 38:20wonderful black jacket at home. I have
- 38:21like a North Face jacket or something.
- 38:23Show up with that and then you have this
- 38:24bad situation where you know someone
- 38:26someone else like maybe a tank is
- 38:28looking through his night vision sights
- 38:29or something just sees a guy running
- 38:30around with a plate carrier and black
- 38:32jacket when we're all supposed to be
- 38:33wearing green. So it's super dangerous.
- 38:35Um super important to stay standardized
- 38:37with the colors
- 38:38um even if it means you can't have your
- 38:40your swag jacket. Yeah. You know there's
- 38:42different ways of doing friendly force
- 38:43identification. Ukraine we saw a lot of
- 38:45tape um with the IDF it's all just
- 38:48ranger green across across the board.
- 38:50Yeah. Yeah. Pretty simple. Discipline.
- 38:52Keeping your helmet on at all times.
- 38:54What Do you guys wear the the chef's
- 38:56hat?
- 38:57I hate it. It gets stuck on so much
- 38:58stuff when you're going through a
- 38:59doorway.
- 39:00So that that thing's you know it's
- 39:02supposed to be used for open warfare you
- 39:03know like
- 39:04open field stuff. So in urban warfare
- 39:06there's a a lot of people take them off.
- 39:08Yeah. Makes sense. Makes sense.
- 39:10really doing you any favors. For sure.
- 39:11All right gentlemen well we've gone
- 39:12through all of our gear. Let's go ahead
- 39:14and get into our first topic which is
- 39:15going to be basic urban movement.
- 39:21So right here we're going to be talking
- 39:22about basic urban combat movement. Uh
- 39:25gentlemen I know you have a lot to talk
- 39:26about here so please take it away.
- 39:29All right.
- 39:30Um so
- 39:32uh our positions in in our teams are
- 39:34lead machine gunners and lead marksmen.
- 39:36What that means is that we lead the the
- 39:38movement of uh the team and sometimes
- 39:41more than that. Sometimes the company.
- 39:42Part of the job description is just
- 39:43looking out for all possible threats,
- 39:46whether it's suspicious things on the
- 39:48ground, some bombs, booby traps,
- 39:51landmines. You know, you're also looking
- 39:52at the at the windows in an urban
- 39:55environment, you know, you have
- 39:56buildings on the on all sides. So, we
- 39:58kind of split it up. Like if he's going
- 40:00to be on the left, I'm going to be on
- 40:01the right. So, we divide the work
- 40:02between us. He's watching top right, I'm
- 40:04watching top left, and also both
- 40:06watching the forward advancement of our
- 40:08team. In terms Go ahead, Buff.
- 40:11Oh, sorry. I was just going to say that
- 40:12also anytime we stop for a second, say
- 40:13we get to like a corner of a building
- 40:15and we're not moving forward yet. So,
- 40:17we'll we'll usually in between us, at
- 40:19least with my battle buddy, what we
- 40:20would do is we'd create a common
- 40:22language basically. We'll say like,
- 40:23"That's the big house. That's this.
- 40:24That's this. You're going to take from
- 40:26the left of this. I'm going to take from
- 40:27the right of this for now. Or I'll take
- 40:29the bottom, like the first floor of
- 40:30these two houses, and you take the
- 40:31second floor of these two houses."
- 40:33Dividing it up between us.
- 40:35Um it's critical. Just we're two guys,
- 40:37we can we can cover more ground. So,
- 40:39dividing the work between us is
- 40:41is a good way to go. And passing that on
- 40:43when the next people come and switch us
- 40:44out if we're moving like that. So, just
- 40:46as soon as they come telling them,
- 40:47"Okay, you're looking at this this area.
- 40:48You're looking at this area." Um that's
- 40:50it. Always making sure that the cover
- 40:52stays constant. In terms of windows, you
- 40:54talk about watching those. What are some
- 40:55typical things you're watching for
- 40:57besides the obvious of a person being in
- 40:59a window? Are there any other indicators
- 41:00that there might be a threat that might
- 41:02be coming to that window? Um so, cameras
- 41:04is a good one. In general, just looking
- 41:06for a long object objects that are
- 41:08sticking out the window that could, you
- 41:10know, indicate an RPG or some kind of
- 41:12some kind of ambush. Do they do any of
- 41:14the veils similar to what we do? Like a
- 41:16few feet behind the window, the slanted
- 41:18veil at 45 to kind of catch light, kind
- 41:20of conceal things inside of it? They can
- 41:23get pretty creative. They I haven't seen
- 41:24that from them, but we like yeah.
- 41:27In general, you're you're always looking
- 41:28for something that's out of place. Yeah.
- 41:30Yeah. Um exactly. Also, if you if
- 41:32there's a neighborhood that's kind of
- 41:33been evacuated a couple weeks ago and
- 41:35then you see a house that suddenly has
- 41:38like
- 41:38uh there's like a hole in the wall
- 41:40that's been patched up or something. So,
- 41:41you kind of think like who patched that
- 41:42up? Like why who is here?
- 41:44Um
- 41:45Also, knowing your environment like, you
- 41:47know, after you've been there for a week
- 41:48or so, you know,
- 41:50in uh in Gaza for example, all the
- 41:52buildings are just, you know, bombed
- 41:54out. So, you all of a sudden you find a
- 41:55building uh you open a corner and you
- 41:58see a building that's untouched.
- 42:00That stands out and that's something
- 42:01that that you're going to keep an eye
- 42:03on. Yeah. Also, with within buildings,
- 42:05like uh I was in a couple buildings
- 42:06where you go in you're clearing rooms,
- 42:09get to a door, you see the door has
- 42:10already been kicked in before. And like
- 42:12if you're the first soldiers going to
- 42:14that room, that's obviously a little bit
- 42:15weird. You don't know if it's looters or
- 42:17if it's Hamas moving through houses
- 42:19looking for good emplacements. Um so,
- 42:21you always want to treat that carefully
- 42:23and just assume that someone else has
- 42:24been in that house recently. Uh
- 42:26gentlemen, now I know you guys this is
- 42:27pretty basic, but would you mind showing
- 42:29us some of your basic movement
- 42:30techniques, actually showing as lead
- 42:32marksman and lead gunner how that would
- 42:34look like for the audience as you're
- 42:35watching for street? Obviously,
- 42:37we are in the middle of Idaho. So, we're
- 42:40going to pretend there are buildings,
- 42:41but if you could do that for us. All
- 42:43right. So, let's just imagine that this
- 42:44right down here in the middle is a
- 42:45street. You have buildings on that side,
- 42:47buildings on that side, and then more
- 42:49dense buildings like a casbah, which is
- 42:51like a dense sort of marketplace over
- 42:53there. So, basically this is where we
- 42:54would not want to be. We would never be
- 42:55standing here in the middle of this. Um
- 42:58what we would probably do is have a tank
- 43:00come in here, maybe a D9 bulldozer come
- 43:02through first, clear the street looking
- 43:04for mines.
- 43:05Um and then we would be going through
- 43:06the houses on the side over there.
- 43:08Either literally going through the
- 43:10houses one at a time through the walls,
- 43:12or we'd be going around them and between
- 43:13them basically.
- 43:15So, let's kind of show that. Let's
- 43:16pretend like there's a row of houses
- 43:17over there. We'll just talk about how we
- 43:19work together as the lead machine gunner
- 43:20and lead uh designated marksman.
- 43:22Imagine this is basically a wall of
- 43:23buildings over here. Um so,
- 43:26uh Let's just say that we have a tank
- 43:29over here putting cover on this wall and
- 43:31you have people on the houses on the
- 43:32other side of the street on the same
- 43:33pace as us who are looking at these
- 43:35windows up here. So, we're going to be
- 43:36right up against the wall. We're going
- 43:37to be focusing forward and to the left
- 43:39basically, looking for targets, moving
- 43:41forward, and communicating with our
- 43:43platoon commander who's right behind us.
- 43:45Buff, do you have any spacing off the
- 43:46wall or are you guys right up against
- 43:47them?
- 43:48Uh it depends kind of it's kind of a
- 43:49balance on where you feel there's more
- 43:51danger coming from. Cuz I I'd probably
- 43:53rather be up against the wall than than
- 43:56to be, you know, more out in the street.
- 43:58Mhm. Um and also wherever you can, if
- 44:01you ever stop, get low, get as low as
- 44:03you can, look for stuff to get behind.
- 44:05Um so, basically if you want to move
- 44:07along there, I'll just follow you.
- 44:13We're moving along.
- 44:15You're looking forward, I'm looking
- 44:16there.
- 44:17The sides. Moving along and I can say,
- 44:19"Stop. Wait a second.
- 44:21Wait a second. See that over there?
- 44:23There's something weird about that.
- 44:25Vehicle parked next to it.
- 44:27Was that there earlier yesterday?
- 44:29Scanning it. All right. Cool. Check out
- 44:31the that. I'm going to talk to to
- 44:34the man man real quick. Uh
- 44:36Yo, there's a weird vehicle right over
- 44:37there. You see it? That one? We're
- 44:39sending the drone over there. We'll
- 44:40check it out.
- 44:41All right. He's sending the drone.
- 44:43Um want to You want to You want to move
- 44:45over?
- 44:46Want to move over deeper into there and
- 44:47get some better cover on the right over
- 44:49here? Let's do it. Yeah, you go first.
- 44:50You go first.
- 44:51Go ahead.
- 44:52All right.
- 44:54I'm coming.
- 44:56All right. Drop down here.
- 44:58You want to get right behind that little
- 44:59thing up there? Soon. Yeah, all right.
- 45:00Go ahead.
- 45:04All right. Drop low.
- 45:07Are you going over there? All right.
- 45:09Now, basically
- 45:10I'm going to a situation where we can
- 45:11now check out what's going on up there.
- 45:14We
- 45:14uh obviously our platoon platoon
- 45:15commander is going to take control of
- 45:17that. We're just assuming a kind of
- 45:18defensive position, but it's a little
- 45:20bit aggressive up here.
- 45:22So, we're in a position where we're
- 45:23controlling the threat over there. We're
- 45:25able to put down fire if we need to. And
- 45:27now in the back, they're going to bring
- 45:27up the drone. The drone guy is going to
- 45:29set up. We're in a good spot. Our
- 45:31platoon commander is going to talk on
- 45:32the radio, tell everyone else to wait
- 45:33for a second. We're checking something
- 45:34out. They can go and check it out. And
- 45:36then once it's checked out,
- 45:38we'll keep going basically. In terms of
- 45:40the dynamic between the marksman and the
- 45:42machine gunner,
- 45:43what do you Where is his scanning? Where
- 45:45is his kind of sectors of fire versus
- 45:47where are yours? It's a very organic
- 45:48thing. It's like
- 45:50It's very dynamic and it's also very
- 45:51organic cuz I've been working with my
- 45:53battle buddy in reserve duty for the
- 45:54last like 7, 8 years.
- 45:56Um so, we basically like we we know each
- 45:59other so well
- 46:00that we don't even have to have to talk
- 46:01about it most of the time. We'll just
- 46:02say like, "I'm over there that house.
- 46:04I'm on the left, you're on the right."
- 46:05And that's it. Um and it's also
- 46:08kind of you when when you walk for a
- 46:09long time with the point guys in the
- 46:11front and the platoon commander in
- 46:12between them in the back, you just kind
- 46:14of get a sense like a
- 46:15sixth sense of where he is behind you
- 46:18and everything and you work together
- 46:19very well.
- 46:20Um
- 46:22So, yeah. It's not like I wouldn't say
- 46:23it's a it's always this guy looking
- 46:24here, this guy looking here. It's very
- 46:26dynamic. Yeah. Absolutely. Uh gentlemen,
- 46:29well, let's get over to the uh to the
- 46:30rooms right here. Let's talk about
- 46:31coming across alleyways, coming across
- 46:33windows, and coming across rooms and
- 46:34going through those. So, before we enter
- 46:36a room, um
- 46:37one more thing about the movement on the
- 46:39street. When choosing which side to be
- 46:40on the street, you also another another
- 46:42threat factor is is the sturdiness of
- 46:45the buildings.
- 46:46Some buildings have just gotten shot up
- 46:48so bad that they're just, you know, one
- 46:50little oh away from just falling down.
- 46:53Um It actually happened uh we were
- 46:56waiting at a corner.
- 46:57Um I was leading my team.
- 47:00And right in front of me, I see like
- 47:01about a seven, eight story tall
- 47:03building, and it didn't even get shot or
- 47:06anything.
- 47:07It just
- 47:08out of nowhere just collapsed on itself.
- 47:10And there was uh there was another team
- 47:12of uh
- 47:13of uh IED ordinance guys walking past
- 47:16it. And I was sure two of them got
- 47:18squished. Uh but luckily uh they were
- 47:20they were on the other side and they
- 47:22missed it by this much. Part of part of
- 47:23the job description for lead uh for the
- 47:26lead guys is keeping the rest of the
- 47:27team away from the hazards. Yeah. And
- 47:30that's a big one. Also, a tank firing
- 47:32next to you can can put a shockwave
- 47:33that'll knock down a house, also knock
- 47:35down a wall.
- 47:36Um Yeah. Yeah. By the way, something
- 47:38that's good to note here is that um
- 47:40assuming that this was a big kill zone,
- 47:41our only option isn't just to sprint
- 47:43across it. You can bring up a D9
- 47:44bulldozer and you can build little
- 47:46combat emplacements along the way, just
- 47:48little berms of dirt, and then you can
- 47:50leapfrog from those from those and you
- 47:52can add those in basically. If you're
- 47:53missing a certain angle, you can just
- 47:54have a D9 throw up some dirt and you can
- 47:56set up a machine gunner over there in
- 47:58that angle and get really good cover.
- 47:59of the D9 is very specific to the IDF. I
- 48:03haven't really seen those outside um in
- 48:06other military usage. You want to speak
- 48:07to that a little bit? It's a very
- 48:09interesting combat technique. Yeah,
- 48:11sure. I mean, they're they're invaluable
- 48:12really. They're like uh
- 48:14First of all, they got some balls
- 48:15sitting like like 3 m up in the air or
- 48:17whatever. Um What what is a D9 first
- 48:19off?
- 48:20It's a it's a CAT D9 bulldozer that's
- 48:21been up armored significantly. It's got
- 48:24a hook on the back. It's got a huge uh
- 48:26shovel in the front. It's got a cage on
- 48:28it. Um
- 48:30Usually have two guys in there like a
- 48:31commander and an operator. And basically
- 48:33they just uh they're just there to help
- 48:36out with everything. They can peel a
- 48:37wall off of a house for you so you can
- 48:39see what's inside. They can create a
- 48:41breaching hole by basically just peeling
- 48:43off a bit of a house. They can knock
- 48:44down walls. They can um clear trees.
- 48:48They can clear anything basically. Like
- 48:50they could drag like 10 telephone poles
- 48:51behind them. It's pretty ridiculous. And
- 48:54they're just uh if you find a tunnel,
- 48:56you can use them to check the entrance
- 48:58for mines cuz they're almost always
- 48:59mined. Um sometimes you can find a
- 49:01tunnel because a D9 will just randomly
- 49:03like explode a little bit. I say explode
- 49:05a little bit cuz they don't even like
- 49:07sometimes the D9 operators don't even
- 49:08notice when they run over a mine. Cuz
- 49:10you have like an anti-personnel mine or
- 49:11something. It just makes a little
- 49:12explosion. The guy's sitting in like a
- 49:1540-ton machine or 50-ton machine or
- 49:17something doesn't always necessarily
- 49:18feel it. Um but that's a good way to
- 49:20find a tunnel sometimes. And basically
- 49:22you can just use them also to make
- 49:23embankments. You can make a
- 49:24fortification. If you're forced to sleep
- 49:26outside somewhere in the middle of um
- 49:29open field and you haven't gotten yet
- 49:31into buildings, you can have D9s build
- 49:33you what's called the mignon, which is
- 49:35uh like a three or four walled just
- 49:38fortification of dirt walls. It's a
- 49:40Exactly. They can dig some small
- 49:42trenches. You know, it's funny that you
- 49:44mentioned up armored bulldozers. I'd I'd
- 49:46say Americans know a thing or two about
- 49:48up armoring. The
- 49:51killdozer. But no, it truly is a very
- 49:54interesting concept and it's something
- 49:55to take away because it's been
- 49:57incredibly effective for the IDF and
- 49:59during urban combat. Yeah, they're
- 50:01they're incredibly effective and we got
- 50:02to we got to protect them basically. So
- 50:03one of the things that IDF has done a
- 50:05lot better in this war than in the
- 50:07previous war in Gaza is just really good
- 50:11dynamic working work between tanks, D9s,
- 50:15bulldozers, the air force. Infantry.
- 50:17Yeah, infantry everyone basically
- 50:19because it's it's your job as infantry.
- 50:21Infantry and tanks basically cannot
- 50:23cannot support themselves. Like they
- 50:25need Tanks need close infantry support
- 50:27and literally by close as in someone
- 50:29pointing their gun barrel at the tank
- 50:31because sometimes a guy will run up come
- 50:33out of a out of a corner come out of a
- 50:34house come out of a tunnel run up to a
- 50:36tank with a magnet mine or with an
- 50:38explosive mine shove it on the tank and
- 50:40get out of there and then you either try
- 50:41to shoot him before he gets to the tank
- 50:43shoot him obviously after he gets to the
- 50:45tank it's always a good idea to shoot
- 50:46him in general. But you can also shoot
- 50:48at the mine and sometimes people have
- 50:50knocked magnet mines off of tanks
- 50:52because they're basically RPG warheads
- 50:54that are inverted and magneted on and if
- 50:56they're not facing into the tank armor
- 50:58they're basically just making a big
- 50:59explosion. People might think of a
- 51:01magnetic mine as some very complex thing
- 51:03but it's literally as simple as taking
- 51:05some rare earth magnets gluing them to
- 51:06something that's explosive and slapping
- 51:08those onto a vehicle.
- 51:09you're in Hamas it's very complicated
- 51:11you'll never figure it out don't even
- 51:12try. As the lead gunners we're the first
- 51:14guys stepping in in into new territory
- 51:16into enemy territory. So one of the
- 51:18things that help us out is
- 51:20is walking where other armored vehicles
- 51:22or other people have walked. For example
- 51:24tank treads vehicle treads. That's going
- 51:26to be something that we just stick to
- 51:28that and we're less worried about about
- 51:30land mines and stuff like that. It
- 51:32doesn't mean we're going to walk on a
- 51:33road though. So if there's just a road
- 51:34it's there we'd prefer to walk next to
- 51:36the road than on the road. That's right.
- 51:38Cuz the road is a classic place to set
- 51:39up an ambush for an armored vehicle.
- 51:41Okay, so right here we have a simulated
- 51:42building.
- 51:44Obviously these aren't real walls they
- 51:45simulate walls that way you can see
- 51:47through for filming purposes.
- 51:50It's all pretend. So basically the
- 51:52scenario here is that we're going into
- 51:54another house to search it and clear it
- 51:56and move forward through the through the
- 51:58territory. So basically this simulates
- 52:00like either a berm or just like
- 52:02any a piece of debris that we're using
- 52:04as cover.
- 52:05There's already going to be a hole in
- 52:06the wall that's not a door cuz we don't
- 52:08go through doors.
- 52:10We make our own doors basically so
- 52:12that's either going to be a breaching
- 52:13charge that we ran up laid come back and
- 52:15blown or it's going to be a hole from a
- 52:18tank round or it's going to be maybe a
- 52:20D9 went in there and scraped off a
- 52:21little bit of the wall. Why have you
- 52:22guys not using doors? Doors are just
- 52:24super easy to I mean
- 52:26everyone predicts that people are going
- 52:27to go through doors, right? No one's
- 52:29going to just booby trap every single
- 52:30inch of the wall in their house. So when
- 52:32you go through the wall much higher
- 52:33chance that you're going through a clean
- 52:34piece of the house. Awesome. Jacob.
- 52:37Jacob.
- 53:05Yallah. Over there. All right.
- 53:08Ready? Remote. Remote.
- 53:13Yallah.
- 53:15YALLAH AGAIN.
- 53:22YALLAH.
- 53:23DID I GET IT?
- 53:25COME BACK.
- 53:30YALLAH.
- 53:47WE GOT 2% ON RIGHT CORNER.
- 53:50YOU SEE anything in the house in your
- 53:51area? Nope, we're clear. All right,
- 53:53let's go and let's bring in some guys.
- 53:55Get it done.
- 54:00Naki.
- 54:01Good job, mate.
- 54:02Good job. Yeah. Thank you.
- 54:04Thank you. Your first war crime.
- 54:06First recorded war crime. First time
- 54:07fighting for Israel.
- 54:09So a lot just went on there gentlemen
- 54:11and I had no idea what the you were
- 54:12saying so let's go ahead and let's go
- 54:13through it one more time.
- 54:16Not as far as running it but explain
- 54:17what you're doing from each position in
- 54:19English. Sure. So Jacob you want me to
- 54:22take it away? Go for it, yeah. Yeah, so
- 54:24basically we're starting in this
- 54:26position.
- 54:27I kind of told him what we're going to
- 54:29do. It doesn't really matter none none
- 54:31of us is is you know in charge of the
- 54:32other. But we're we're an organic team.
- 54:35At the end of the day it doesn't matter.
- 54:36If he has a better idea he would tell me
- 54:37he has a better idea. I basically just
- 54:39said we're going to
- 54:41we're going to lay down some fire on the
- 54:42windows and around the building. We're
- 54:44going to give some heavy fire. We're
- 54:45going to run up and we're going to
- 54:47get onto that right close corner to
- 54:49here. I'm going to aim down you're going
- 54:51to aim at the door then we're going to
- 54:52go throw a grenade and go into the door
- 54:53basically. So that's exactly what we
- 54:55did. From here you know from behind
- 54:56cover we laid down some suppressive
- 54:58fire.
- 54:59If it was just our team it would be us
- 55:01but if we had a tank we might ask him to
- 55:03pump a couple hundred rounds from the FN
- 55:05MAG into there or something. We threw we
- 55:07shot some Obviously if this is an actual
- 55:08house with windows we would shoot into
- 55:10all the windows as well.
- 55:12And if there's anything in the
- 55:13surrounding houses in the direction of
- 55:15fire that we're allowed to do because if
- 55:17you have a lot of troops you're not
- 55:18going to just be shooting every
- 55:18direction. So in our direction of fire
- 55:20we would shoot anything that looks like
- 55:22there might be someone behind it. So
- 55:23What's the amount of men that you
- 55:25typically have conducting something like
- 55:26this? Well you you we usually go four
- 55:28guys into a house because the more
- 55:29people going into the house the higher
- 55:31the
- 55:32you know casualty rate can be if the
- 55:34house is booby trapped. So we try to go
- 55:36in with the small team clear and then
- 55:38we're going to
- 55:39if there's a second floor we're going to
- 55:41clear the first floor bring in another
- 55:42pair of people to hold the the stairwell
- 55:45and then once the first floor is clear
- 55:46go up get the second floor third floor
- 55:47whatever. So try to keep it small. And
- 55:51then once it's clear then you can move
- 55:52in troops which we did at the end to
- 55:54kind of either make positions or take
- 55:56positions within the house and lay some
- 55:59fire down down range. Okay, so as we're
- 56:01moving up to here Lev took the right
- 56:03corner and I took my corner over here on
- 56:06the on the opening we made. As soon as I
- 56:08got to this point I saw the first
- 56:11terrorist okay and I opened fire on him
- 56:13and neutralized him.
- 56:14Okay and then I get on my corner.
- 56:17Okay. Jacob by this point Mike would
- 56:19already come up behind me and Mike's
- 56:20here simulating another pair of
- 56:22soldiers. So he came up he tapped me on
- 56:23the shoulder just to tell me that he was
- 56:25here. I told him basically what I'm
- 56:26looking at and then
- 56:28he swapped me out and now I'm available
- 56:30to come here and be with you. Yeah, go
- 56:31ahead.
- 56:31Okay, once I know that he's with me okay
- 56:34then I went for my grenade. Lev told me
- 56:36that he's that he's that he took my my
- 56:39cover okay then I was able to put down
- 56:41my weapon go for my grenade
- 56:44chuck it
- 56:45and then we took a couple steps back
- 56:48let it go up okay and then basically we
- 56:51gave the command to enter the house with
- 56:53live fire okay. Which means we're going
- 56:55to be shooting at anything suspicious we
- 56:57see in the house furniture um
- 57:00anything that could be a potential
- 57:01threat. Um
- 57:04so then we started entering. As soon as
- 57:06I entered this corner I saw this
- 57:08terrorist shot him up okay neutralized
- 57:10him.
- 57:11And then we both entered together saw
- 57:13this guy neutralized him.
- 57:15And and then Lev took initiative and
- 57:17went to the far end of the house to
- 57:19start looking for more terrorists.
- 57:21Okay,
- 57:22in general when you when you're taking
- 57:23over a new house okay you're usually on
- 57:25the front lines of the advancement. So
- 57:28it's pretty realistic that there's going
- 57:30to be a direction that we're going to
- 57:32expect there to be some kind of uh
- 57:34continuation of the combat. So Lev goes
- 57:37opens this window. He sees a terrorist.
- 57:40Lev you want to take it away? Yeah, so
- 57:47but I came here found an opening look
- 57:48out it see a terrorist over there so
- 57:50shoot him and I yelled terrorist
- 57:53so that he would know what I'm shooting
- 57:54at basically. Okay, once I heard that
- 57:56there's continuation my first instinct
- 57:58is to look for a way to support him.
- 58:00Okay, if the if the window is too small
- 58:03I realize I can't get in with him and
- 58:04put two barrels on him. So I I went
- 58:07through here. Lev finished neutralizing
- 58:09him and over here we had two more guys
- 58:11simulated by Mike searching for more
- 58:15insurgents. And searching the inside of
- 58:17the house. That was me. Yeah, because
- 58:19before you before you can bring in all
- 58:20your guys you're going to want to clear
- 58:21the house not just from terrorists.
- 58:23First you go through and you can look
- 58:24for for immediate threats terrorists you
- 58:26know IEDs that are right out there in
- 58:28the in the middle or something then
- 58:29after that you can go through and look
- 58:30for it a little bit more closely but the
- 58:32most important thing is to make sure
- 58:33you're not bringing all your friends in
- 58:34your house that's going to explode.
- 58:35Exactly. That first sweep that you do
- 58:38um
- 58:39you're you're you're being as thorough
- 58:40as you can but you're moving okay you're
- 58:42moving and you're you're not able to go
- 58:45down to little details so doing the
- 58:46final
- 58:48doing that final search is critical so
- 58:50that you can you can kind of stamp your
- 58:52signature on it to tell the rest of you
- 58:54guys okay you guys can come in
- 58:56and not put them into a booby trap. So
- 58:58good guys there's a lot to CQB there's a
- 59:02lot to urban combat. These are some of
- 59:03the very simple the simplest of
- 59:06movements to get building to building to
- 59:08move down roads. There's a lot more to
- 59:11it.
- 59:11We're not here to make you experts we're
- 59:12here to explain some things and to help
- 59:15you think a little bit more deeply about
- 59:17the subject of urban combat. With that
- 59:19being said gentlemen let's continue. So
- 59:21kind of wrapping up movement in urban
- 59:24combat situations I think one thing to
- 59:26note is going to be friendly own troops
- 59:28otherwise known as a flot. I understand
- 59:30that's a very fluid situation with what
- 59:32you guys have been dealing with. So, if
- 59:33you want to speak to that.
- 59:34sure. For sure. As opposed to like
- 59:36previous conflicts, basically in this
- 59:38conflict we've realized that there is no
- 59:41forward line of troops basically. And
- 59:43like there they could be tunnels
- 59:44anywhere. You could pass over a section
- 59:46of of dirt. You could cross over with a
- 59:48D9 bulldozer and it could still be a
- 59:50tunnel there. So, we basically have to
- 59:52360 defense always. You have some lines
- 59:55of fire that are more closed off than
- 59:56others because you know there's there's
- 59:58troops over there. But in in general,
- 1:00:01especially when it comes to like
- 1:00:03doing close support on tanks and stuff
- 1:00:05like that, basically 360 defense that
- 1:00:07people could pop out of any any
- 1:00:09location, any house. And whenever you
- 1:00:11leave a house and come back to it later,
- 1:00:13you it's as if you've never been there
- 1:00:15basically. You have to open it up and
- 1:00:16clear it from from scratch and check for
- 1:00:19booby traps, mines. Some some people
- 1:00:20have been in the same house 10, 12, 15
- 1:00:23times and then they come back one time
- 1:00:24and it's booby trapped. So, it's uh
- 1:00:27Are there any things to look for that
- 1:00:28might indicate a booby trap? I mean,
- 1:00:30there's there's some stuff you can do
- 1:00:31when you leave your house that if you
- 1:00:32want to make sure that it's not being
- 1:00:33booby trapped. You can put a clear tape
- 1:00:35over the doorways and stuff. You can
- 1:00:38close stuff in a certain way. You can
- 1:00:39move furniture around so you can see if
- 1:00:41it's been moved when you come back. In
- 1:00:42general also, we just kind of want to
- 1:00:44close off the houses when we leave them
- 1:00:45cuz we don't want cats to come in and
- 1:00:46take shits in our kitchens. So.
- 1:00:47Yeah. Now, this video is brought to you
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- 1:02:12back to the video.
- 1:02:17So, we've covered a lot of information
- 1:02:19from kits to combat to combat movement.
- 1:02:21Uh let's talk about weapon systems right
- 1:02:23here. Gentlemen, please. On you.
- 1:02:26Um so, this is a this is a saw
- 1:02:28obviously. Usually I run a Negev um
- 1:02:30Negev light machine gun, but this is the
- 1:02:32same optics combo that I use. So, I like
- 1:02:34to have the EOTech with a flip up
- 1:02:36magnifier. If I wasn't the point machine
- 1:02:38gunner, I probably wouldn't put on a
- 1:02:39magnifier just for the weight and the
- 1:02:40simplicity. But, being that we're both
- 1:02:42out in the front, I like to be able to
- 1:02:44look out a little bit farther, see
- 1:02:45farther ahead of me, help look for
- 1:02:47cameras and stuff like that, look for
- 1:02:49ambushes. And it's just, you know, fun.
- 1:02:51You can draw smiley faces on walls and
- 1:02:53stuff from far away. Is this what you do
- 1:02:55in your off time? I can't comment on
- 1:02:57that. Um And then I I have the like IDF
- 1:03:01issued I think old Elbit like laser on
- 1:03:04mine. Just an IR laser and then I put a
- 1:03:05Streamlight flashlight on the left side.
- 1:03:08I actually modified my Negev by screwing
- 1:03:10with my multi-tool screwing on a plastic
- 1:03:12Picatinny rail to the bottom so I could
- 1:03:14uh add a a vertical foregrip just like
- 1:03:17this. What I and then the Negev lets you
- 1:03:20fold the stock in. And I really like
- 1:03:21about that is it was super easy to
- 1:03:23switch stocks like this with the stock
- 1:03:24right in your chest. You get really
- 1:03:26really easily get around corners like
- 1:03:27that.
- 1:03:28Um and then the Negev also has 150 round
- 1:03:31drums. I would carry one here, one here,
- 1:03:33one here, one in the pack. And then
- 1:03:35on my battle belt right here another
- 1:03:37like 120 rounds or something. Then I'm
- 1:03:39having an extra thousand back in the
- 1:03:41rucksack.
- 1:03:41Are you guys just carrying
- 1:03:43you know M855? Is it like
- 1:03:45The green We we green tip. Yeah,
- 1:03:46exactly. We both do. As designated
- 1:03:48marksman and machine gunners both have
- 1:03:49green tip. Do you want to talk to the
- 1:03:51the feet? I know we we had different
- 1:03:53opinions on
- 1:03:53was something interesting that Mike and
- 1:03:54I were talking about. Basically, um the
- 1:03:57default basically in the IDF, at least
- 1:03:58where I am, is you walk around with them
- 1:04:00open up like this. So, if you need to
- 1:04:02sprawl down, you can just sprawl down in
- 1:04:03a second with them already open. Very
- 1:04:05athletic.
- 1:04:05Um
- 1:04:06which is which is nice to do. You were
- 1:04:09saying you guys walk around with them
- 1:04:10folding backwards a lot. What do you do
- 1:04:12usually? Um Possibly cuz the Negev
- 1:04:14design, once you have a handle over here
- 1:04:16you can't fold them backwards. Okay.
- 1:04:17Um also the the PTT cable would get in
- 1:04:20the way and stuff. So, I would fold them
- 1:04:22if I wanted to, I would just fold them
- 1:04:23forwards like this. And then this is
- 1:04:24nice cuz I can really easily rest this
- 1:04:26on um Exactly. So, I can really easily
- 1:04:29rest this on something like that.
- 1:04:31Um maybe get some contrast against it.
- 1:04:33And also, if I want to really steady it,
- 1:04:35I can actually put my hand on one of
- 1:04:36these while it's rested forward and I
- 1:04:37can crank down on the whole thing and
- 1:04:38get super steady.
- 1:04:40Um and also, if there's a broken window,
- 1:04:42I can use these to gently kind of gently
- 1:04:44smash out the rest of the glass of the
- 1:04:46window and then clear the window frames
- 1:04:47so I'm not going to cut myself. Yep. Um
- 1:04:49obviously these are different from the
- 1:04:51Negev. Yeah, a bit different. Um but,
- 1:04:54you know, use them for similar stuff.
- 1:04:55Also, if you're shooting through bars on
- 1:04:57a window, which a lot of them have, you
- 1:04:59can really easily rest those on the bars
- 1:05:00of the window and get to a good
- 1:05:02position.
- 1:05:03Good. There's there's there's something
- 1:05:04for everything, right?
- 1:05:05sure.
- 1:05:05Tactics are going 100% going to change.
- 1:05:07Yeah. Um in terms of the ammunition, are
- 1:05:09any of your teammates carrying belts of
- 1:05:11ammo for you as well? Um
- 1:05:14I mean, I have occasionally. If we're if
- 1:05:16we're going somewhere far away without a
- 1:05:17lot of resupply, I'll throw in some
- 1:05:18extra belts with other people. But,
- 1:05:20people have enough stuff to carry in
- 1:05:22general. I like to carry my own ammo.
- 1:05:24I'm of the the firm belief that
- 1:05:26designated marksman, who are always the
- 1:05:27battle buddy of a Negev, are a little
- 1:05:28bit weaker mentally and that's why
- 1:05:30they're marksman and not machine
- 1:05:31gunners. Um so, I try try not to, you
- 1:05:34know, make their life too hard. Of
- 1:05:35course. Yeah. You want to make it too
- 1:05:37difficult. I mean, this guy is actually
- 1:05:38a machine gunner like
- 1:05:40before he before he switched units. So,
- 1:05:42in my team I'm usually running a a light
- 1:05:45machine gun Negev also.
- 1:05:47Um a funny story, when we were first
- 1:05:49going into Gaza they told us that we
- 1:05:50weren't going to have resupply for
- 1:05:52a little above 48 hours. So, we ended up
- 1:05:55doing is I took my usual four drums uh
- 1:06:00and I put in a fifth.
- 1:06:01And then my battle buddy took two more
- 1:06:04drums.
- 1:06:05Um so, that's like seven drums or
- 1:06:08something like that.
- 1:06:10Yeah.
- 1:06:10So, we we went in we went in heavy and
- 1:06:13uh and later later regretted it. We
- 1:06:14could have we didn't have to bring that
- 1:06:15much. But, we wanted to be better safe
- 1:06:17than sorry, you know. 100%. I mean,
- 1:06:19yeah, for sure. And then side arms, talk
- 1:06:21about
- 1:06:21talk about your current setup because
- 1:06:22No, go go through your side arm as well
- 1:06:24right now.
- 1:06:24Okay. So, my side arm over here, this
- 1:06:26isn't exactly indicative of it, but M&P
- 1:06:282.0 compact 17 round magazine. Um the
- 1:06:31one
- 1:06:32M&P because of our video?
- 1:06:34Uh partly. Hey, let's go.
- 1:06:38I just use that video if anyone shits on
- 1:06:39it.
- 1:06:40And they're like, "You need the Glock.
- 1:06:41The Glock is the reliable gun, you know?
- 1:06:43It's the reliable one." You hear that
- 1:06:44all the time, right? Of course he does.
- 1:06:45He's a Glock fanboy.
- 1:06:47everyone's like like you you need the
- 1:06:49Glock. Only the Glock. I'm like, "You
- 1:06:51can buy other things besides for Glock."
- 1:06:52It's like, you know, everyone everyone's
- 1:06:54working on it. I have a red dot on here
- 1:06:56and a flashlight. And actually on the
- 1:06:577th of October, um I didn't have a
- 1:07:00flashlight yet on my on my Negev. So, we
- 1:07:03were just like straight up drafted and
- 1:07:05thrown into it. So, I actually cleared a
- 1:07:07lot of the houses in Kfar Aza, like the
- 1:07:08Israeli houses, with just my handgun and
- 1:07:11with this slung to the side like that
- 1:07:12basically. And cleared them with a
- 1:07:14handgun with the flashlight going
- 1:07:15through the rooms. Wild. Yeah. All
- 1:07:17right. So,
- 1:07:19like I said, in my team I'm usually a
- 1:07:21light machine gunnist, but there was
- 1:07:22definitely a month in Gaza where I
- 1:07:24joined up with a different unit and I
- 1:07:27was lead marksman. Um So, basically a
- 1:07:31marksman gun in the IDF, it's going to
- 1:07:34look it's going to look a lot like this.
- 1:07:36Uh it's standard M4 um flat top with
- 1:07:41with an ACOG optic. Um personally, I
- 1:07:44added a piggyback prefer so I have
- 1:07:46something for close range.
- 1:07:48Um
- 1:07:50and the IDF issued M4 is going to come
- 1:07:53with is going to come with the little
- 1:07:55legs here. Uh the bipod.
- 1:07:57Uh I don't like them. They're heavy.
- 1:07:59And it just it doesn't feel right for my
- 1:08:01hand. And I think it's I think it's a
- 1:08:03personal preference. Uh what you shoot
- 1:08:05best with is what you should do. So, I
- 1:08:07like I like to keep it clean without a
- 1:08:09grip. Yeah, flashlight and PEC.
- 1:08:11Now, in terms of your flashlights, you
- 1:08:12are keeping caps on those for
- 1:08:14Yes. So, I we actually we have someone
- 1:08:17sew these
- 1:08:18these basically like cloth covers for
- 1:08:21them.
- 1:08:21Um they're basically like a like a
- 1:08:24stretchy material. And you just kind of
- 1:08:26stick it on, it's stuck on. And if you
- 1:08:27want to pull it off, you pull it off.
- 1:08:28Nice. Um and yeah, just to just to make
- 1:08:31minimize any risk of flash. Now, and to
- 1:08:34be clear, you're using the
- 1:08:36This is a battery powered ACOG. It's
- 1:08:38what we had on hand. But, you're using
- 1:08:40the fiber optic ACOG.
- 1:08:41So, active service
- 1:08:43active service combatants are using this
- 1:08:45one.
- 1:08:45Oh, cool. Okay.
- 1:08:46Okay.
- 1:08:47But, I I haven't used it. They didn't
- 1:08:49have it when I was in active service.
- 1:08:51Yeah. Now, I've noticed that you guys
- 1:08:52haven't talked about suppressors at all.
- 1:08:54Is that because they're not issued? So,
- 1:08:56only certain units are going to have
- 1:08:57them. It's usually tier one units.
- 1:08:59Okay. Um we we haven't used them at all.
- 1:09:01Is it something you'd like to have on on
- 1:09:03your weapons? A suppressor?
- 1:09:05Yeah. Um yeah, sure. I'd like that.
- 1:09:07Yeah. I don't know. Like uh
- 1:09:09I feel like combat is so loud anyway
- 1:09:11with with heavy machine guns and with
- 1:09:13tanks firing and I'm like uh
- 1:09:17I don't know. I mean, yeah, it can be
- 1:09:18really loud with someone shooting, but
- 1:09:19it'd be nice to have the option, though.
- 1:09:21I wouldn't put extra weight on my Negev.
- 1:09:22It's already so heavy.
- 1:09:23No, not on Negev.
- 1:09:25Not on the Negev.
- 1:09:26No. Interesting. Yeah, so I mean at
- 1:09:28night I guess that's kind of the big the
- 1:09:30big thing. But are you
- 1:09:31barrel negative makes a huge fireball at
- 1:09:32night.
- 1:09:33Yeah. Yeah, but it's beautiful in a way,
- 1:09:35you know? Yeah, you know You got to put
- 1:09:36down that suppressing fire. You guys
- 1:09:37seen a lot of night fighting or do they
- 1:09:39not come out at night? The night
- 1:09:41fighting is more static in both
- 1:09:42directions. There have been some
- 1:09:43situations where they come and try to
- 1:09:45overrun posts at night, but usually it's
- 1:09:48it's not
- 1:09:49Usually it's a daytime skirmish. Okay.
- 1:09:50Is that due to a lack of nods or
- 1:09:52thermals on their end? Um I would say
- 1:09:55so, yeah. I would say they fear our
- 1:09:57ability to Fair.
- 1:09:59Yeah.
- 1:09:59With the thermals and the nods, yeah.
- 1:10:01Fair enough. You want to talk to your
- 1:10:02handgun?
- 1:10:03Yeah.
- 1:10:04Um
- 1:10:07It's my baby.
- 1:10:08yeah, so I run I usually run a Glock 19.
- 1:10:11It's a Glock 17,
- 1:10:13but it's pretty close to what I to what
- 1:10:15I use. I have a mounted optic,
- 1:10:17Holosun SCS.
- 1:10:19And and also I run the TLR-8 flashlight
- 1:10:22and laser.
- 1:10:23Um yeah, it's also like for for close
- 1:10:27for like small bathrooms and stuff like
- 1:10:29that.
- 1:10:30When you're running a machine gun and
- 1:10:31you're opening really small corners like
- 1:10:33that, really small like meter on meter
- 1:10:36rooms,
- 1:10:37you're going to go for the for the
- 1:10:39handgun. Yeah, also if you have to crawl
- 1:10:40up into a crawl space or something. If
- 1:10:42you I've had a couple situations where
- 1:10:43like above the doorway there's like a
- 1:10:45crawl space for storage. So you crawl
- 1:10:47climb up climb on up there and you're
- 1:10:48not going to be using a machine gun.
- 1:10:49Yeah, you're just going to climb up and
- 1:10:50you're going to have and you're going to
- 1:10:51have a handgun.
- 1:10:52like that. Also in the you know in in in
- 1:10:54inside Israel in Kfar Aza on the 9th of
- 1:10:56October, we were growing up to a lot of
- 1:10:58roofs. So climbing up to the roof on a
- 1:11:00ladder, you're going to poke up your
- 1:11:01head on the ladder with a with the
- 1:11:03handgun and not go up with your machine
- 1:11:04gun. Yeah. Um so gentlemen, obviously
- 1:11:07when it comes to the weapons that you
- 1:11:08guys are using, these are issued. You're
- 1:11:09in a professional military. There's
- 1:11:11really not going to be much of a choice
- 1:11:12when it comes to them. And often times
- 1:11:14you can see with whatever they have,
- 1:11:16they make it work. And that's a big
- 1:11:18thing you saw in the United States
- 1:11:19military or any military. So
- 1:11:22there's always going to be that element
- 1:11:23when we're talking about the weapons
- 1:11:24that you guys are issued and what you're
- 1:11:26kind of you have what you work with and
- 1:11:29that's what you get. There's not really
- 1:11:30much you can do about it. Yeah. Although
- 1:11:32the gear I guess is the exception. Like
- 1:11:34and I think in this war especially
- 1:11:35there's been so much
- 1:11:37um so much donation money coming in from
- 1:11:39the Jewish community. So many people who
- 1:11:42are you know no longer in a unit who
- 1:11:43want to donate back to people in our
- 1:11:44unit. So we've kind of been upgrading
- 1:11:45our gear the whole time. Nice. And I
- 1:11:47think it's you kind of see the super
- 1:11:49important when you get new gear
- 1:11:50obviously to go out and test it and run
- 1:11:51around in it before you get to combat.
- 1:11:54Sure. Um don't be a dumbass and like
- 1:11:56cross the border into Gaza and be like
- 1:11:57oh my backpack's uncomfortable.
- 1:11:59You're you're a dumbass, you know. Just
- 1:12:01test it in your in your on your base.
- 1:12:02Yeah. Awesome. Well gentlemen, thank you
- 1:12:04for talking about the weapons. Um
- 1:12:06let's talk a little bit about October
- 1:12:087th. It was a pretty interesting
- 1:12:09scenario and I know there's some good
- 1:12:11lessons learned there. So let's go ahead
- 1:12:13and roll into that. Yeah.
- 1:12:17So a lot of people might not be familiar
- 1:12:19with what October 7th was and how it
- 1:12:20kind of redefined a lot of combat for
- 1:12:22you guys. So if you could explain what
- 1:12:24October 7th was and then explain
- 1:12:27a lot of the combat and how things were
- 1:12:29kind of different during that time.
- 1:12:30Basically October 7th was a super super
- 1:12:32well coordinated really hardcore attack
- 1:12:35across the border the southern border
- 1:12:37with Gaza by Hamas. It started with
- 1:12:40leading up to it basically
- 1:12:41systematically removing and overpowering
- 1:12:45the
- 1:12:47what do you call it? Surveillance
- 1:12:48uh systems the surveillance systems on
- 1:12:50the border. So sending drones into
- 1:12:52attack surveillance towers, taking out
- 1:12:53cameras. And then there was like a heavy
- 1:12:56very heavy rocket barrage in the
- 1:12:57morning. Personally I was I was in
- 1:13:00Beersheba at my parents' house with with
- 1:13:01my wife. And you were with your kids
- 1:13:04there basically. And so we all went into
- 1:13:05our bomb shelters. And that's kind of
- 1:13:07what they were counting on is having a
- 1:13:09really powerful long barrage to keep
- 1:13:10people's heads down. Then they had a
- 1:13:12multi-pronged approach where they
- 1:13:14crossed the border
- 1:13:15by ramming and having bulldozers ram
- 1:13:17holes in the fence. Like enough holes to
- 1:13:20basically overwhelm any quick reaction
- 1:13:21force that could come in and and
- 1:13:23counterattack. Having paragliders who
- 1:13:25came in Hamas paragliders, you'd have
- 1:13:27two guys one or two guys on a paraglider
- 1:13:29come in and um
- 1:13:31dismount and start start setting up
- 1:13:33roadblocks on roads and attacking and
- 1:13:35just having a ton of classic you know
- 1:13:38Middle East white white pickup truck
- 1:13:40full of terrorists just crossing again
- 1:13:42and again. Having a ton of those and
- 1:13:43having terrorists on dirt bikes who were
- 1:13:46super mobile. And the idea was to go and
- 1:13:48attack and overwhelm the bases, kidnap
- 1:13:51or slaughter everyone on the army bases
- 1:13:53on the border and also attack all of the
- 1:13:54kibbutz seem which are like small
- 1:13:56communal villages on the border. And
- 1:13:58they were also the reason they did it on
- 1:14:00that date specifically was because of
- 1:14:01the Nova music festival which was a huge
- 1:14:03music festival where they killed
- 1:14:05hundreds
- 1:14:06killed and raped hundreds of people at
- 1:14:08the festival and kidnapped a bunch of
- 1:14:09them. Turned it into just a straight up
- 1:14:11massacre. So
- 1:14:14one of the one of the hardest things for
- 1:14:15the IDF in this on this day was that the
- 1:14:17QRFs were set up to to
- 1:14:21take on small individual attacks. So you
- 1:14:24know each kibbutz had their own
- 1:14:26quick reaction it's called the kitat
- 1:14:27konanut which is like a readiness party
- 1:14:29that has a couple guys maybe and you
- 1:14:31have the guy in charge and they're
- 1:14:32they're ready for someone to come and
- 1:14:33attack a certain house or one guy on the
- 1:14:35border. One guy to attack this. You have
- 1:14:37you know people getting ambushed with
- 1:14:39hundreds of terrorists outside of their
- 1:14:40houses just getting absolutely cut down.
- 1:14:42And like the security at the music
- 1:14:44festival of like a dozen cops or
- 1:14:45whatever with with Glock 19s, two mags
- 1:14:48each or something like that. Just
- 1:14:49getting absolutely torn apart by PK fire
- 1:14:52and AK fire. RPGs. RPGs. A lot of um
- 1:14:57a lot of people basically take shelter
- 1:14:59from the rockets and those shelters turn
- 1:15:01into their final resting places cuz
- 1:15:02people would go into like uh in Israel
- 1:15:05in the in the south you have a lot of
- 1:15:07bomb shelters and rocket shelters that
- 1:15:09are just next to bus stops. People would
- 1:15:11go into them, get trapped inside and
- 1:15:12Hamas terrorists would come and throw
- 1:15:14grenades inside. When people run out
- 1:15:15just gun them down basically. Uh it
- 1:15:17turned into a very chaotic situation.
- 1:15:19People didn't quite understand what was
- 1:15:20going on in the beginning and it took
- 1:15:22just way too long to get it under
- 1:15:24control. All the QRF teams that went in
- 1:15:26were just hit really heavily, took
- 1:15:28really heavy casualties. And you ended
- 1:15:29up having like a couple of helicopters
- 1:15:32per each area and they just the guys
- 1:15:34killing dozens if not tens of of
- 1:15:37terrorists. Taking really heavy
- 1:15:39casualties. And you have some really
- 1:15:42crazy stories from that. I was only
- 1:15:44involved in that on the on the 8th and
- 1:15:479th. I went in to Kfar Aza which is one
- 1:15:50of the villages that got hit very hard.
- 1:15:53You were involved from the first day.
- 1:15:54Basically I was drafted on the first day
- 1:15:56and then we just they didn't really
- 1:15:57quite know what to do with us cuz there
- 1:15:58were already so many forces converging
- 1:16:00on the area. Held us back a little bit
- 1:16:02and then sent us in after to start
- 1:16:03clearing bodies. But why don't you talk
- 1:16:04about your experience? So on the 7th
- 1:16:06after we
- 1:16:07we got the message to go to base and and
- 1:16:09arm up. This was around like 12 12 in
- 1:16:12the afternoon.
- 1:16:13Uh we spent two hours giving up gearing
- 1:16:15up. And we made it to the south
- 1:16:20on our Humvees.
- 1:16:21And I remember when we were on the we
- 1:16:23were on the the road road number six.
- 1:16:26I'm just seeing all these cars like
- 1:16:28running away from the south.
- 1:16:30Like just traffic jam of cars running
- 1:16:32away from the south and we're just going
- 1:16:34down. So like whatever they're running
- 1:16:35from we're going towards it. Um
- 1:16:38and I remember once we passed a certain
- 1:16:40point like we were like in the area of
- 1:16:43of like that south of Gaza.
- 1:16:46We started seeing just carnage along the
- 1:16:49streets. Just bodies all along the
- 1:16:50streets of terrorists. I saw I saw a car
- 1:16:55with civilian casualties as well.
- 1:16:57Uh just it it looked like the purge. It
- 1:16:59looked like it looked like something out
- 1:17:00of the movie The Purge. Just cars
- 1:17:02burning, fire, destruction everywhere.
- 1:17:05Um we went to kibbutz called kibbutz
- 1:17:09Sa'ad.
- 1:17:10And we hold up over there. And from
- 1:17:12there we went out to to scanning
- 1:17:14missions. Just searching the surrounding
- 1:17:17the surrounding nature and the
- 1:17:18surrounding uh agricultural fields for
- 1:17:20stragglers for any terrorists that may
- 1:17:22be hiding there.
- 1:17:24Um during one of our missions we
- 1:17:26actually found we we had a report of a
- 1:17:28terrorist hiding in a orchard. And me
- 1:17:31and my team were doing a scan of the
- 1:17:33orchard which is just everyone just gets
- 1:17:34a strip of their own. In between each
- 1:17:37line of trees is a strip.
- 1:17:38A guy in my team
- 1:17:41sees the terrorist from 5 m away. Uh he
- 1:17:44just we're just it's slow moving slow
- 1:17:46slowly through the orchard. Sees him 5 m
- 1:17:49away.
- 1:17:50Puts three in him and then uh
- 1:17:52neutralizes him. Um we ended up checking
- 1:17:55his phone and we found out that he was a
- 1:17:58uh he was one of the guys basically
- 1:18:01helping Hamas uh find so he was a scout.
- 1:18:06Um basically just teaching finding
- 1:18:08stragglers and killing civilians. So
- 1:18:11from there after the search parties that
- 1:18:13we were doing around the kibbutz,
- 1:18:16we got the mission to retake the base
- 1:18:17Nahal Oz.
- 1:18:19Uh we went to the base.
- 1:18:21And at the front gates of the base we
- 1:18:23were contacted by by a terrorist from
- 1:18:25inside the base. We took cover, returned
- 1:18:27fire.
- 1:18:28Um and the platoon commander called in a
- 1:18:31commander tank to take out the
- 1:18:34terrorist.
- 1:18:35Uh after the terrorist was neutralized,
- 1:18:37we started clearing the base of
- 1:18:40terrorist threats.
- 1:18:41And once it was clear, we basically got
- 1:18:44the mission
- 1:18:46of clearing out 70 casualties of our own
- 1:18:49soldiers. Male and female. Some of them
- 1:18:52non-combatant. A good portion of them
- 1:18:54weren't even combatants. Uh bodies were
- 1:18:57mutilated.
- 1:18:58Um and we basically just bagged them and
- 1:19:01brought them back home. Obviously you're
- 1:19:03dealing with a tough situation. There
- 1:19:04are no rules in this conflict as far as
- 1:19:06their side. So you're dealing with a lot
- 1:19:08of very tough situations. Now what were
- 1:19:10some things and tactics that they did
- 1:19:12once you were entering these locations
- 1:19:14to clean up bodies um
- 1:19:16that put you guys in vulnerable
- 1:19:17situations that you weren't aware of
- 1:19:19until you know it occurred that day.
- 1:19:22Um so, you're they were basically
- 1:19:25booby-trapping dead bodies. Like taking
- 1:19:27grenades, for example, removing the uh
- 1:19:30removing the handle and basically just
- 1:19:33leaving removing the pin and leaving it
- 1:19:34under a body. And uh then when
- 1:19:37paramedics or or uh soldiers will come
- 1:19:39to the dead body and touch it, move it,
- 1:19:42the grenade will go off and uh injure
- 1:19:44soldiers. Um They pull the pin out and
- 1:19:47the handle would be against the body, so
- 1:19:48when the body's moved, the handle would
- 1:19:49pop off
- 1:19:50Yes, sir. The fuse would go off at this
- 1:19:51time.
- 1:19:52They were also doing that with bags,
- 1:19:54uh like putting them in bags kind of, so
- 1:19:56that when you touch the bag or step on
- 1:19:57it, um also
- 1:20:00uh RPG warheads, they were just They
- 1:20:02were leaving weapons behind and
- 1:20:05booby-trapping the weapons.
- 1:20:06Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Were there any
- 1:20:08ambushes when it came to that when as
- 1:20:10far as like recovering dead bodies where
- 1:20:11they'd be in wait?
- 1:20:14Uh I didn't I don't really see that
- 1:20:15because
- 1:20:17um
- 1:20:18you know, it's kind of like what
- 1:20:20at that point it was retaking Israel.
- 1:20:21So, there's so many soldiers in the
- 1:20:23area.
- 1:20:24Uh the the choppers that Lev was talking
- 1:20:26about, uh they they kind of sca- they
- 1:20:29kind of just hit and ran. Okay. Um but
- 1:20:31some There were some stragglers, but not
- 1:20:32many. There were also a lot of guys and
- 1:20:34civilians basically that that took the
- 1:20:35opportunity to cross the border and
- 1:20:36start looting. So, you have like guys
- 1:20:39who come with their like donkey cart or
- 1:20:40whatever and start loading up washing
- 1:20:41machines and TVs and stuff. Had those
- 1:20:44guys and those That was also in the
- 1:20:45beginning that the Hamas said that they
- 1:20:47couldn't even say how many prisoners
- 1:20:48they had cuz they didn't have all the
- 1:20:49prisoners. So, basically people were
- 1:20:51just taking their own prisoners cuz they
- 1:20:52knew they'd be worth something
- 1:20:53eventually.
- 1:20:55Um and a lot of the guys that we ran
- 1:20:57into in Khirbat I'bill, we basically we
- 1:20:59ran into to after Khirbat I'bill was
- 1:21:02already partially retaken, we went in
- 1:21:04and finished taking it on the 8th and
- 1:21:069th. Um and we basically cleared it
- 1:21:09house to house at night and then uh we
- 1:21:12set up
- 1:21:13basically bases inside civilian houses
- 1:21:16and we set up a line, basically a
- 1:21:18friendly line, and then the next day we
- 1:21:20cleared the rest of it and we, you know,
- 1:21:22bagged, like you said, and and protected
- 1:21:25the the non-combatants and combatants
- 1:21:27who were who had the job, the
- 1:21:29unfortunate job of having to bag up,
- 1:21:31identify, bag up Israeli civilians and
- 1:21:34remove them. Um so, we saw we saw a lot
- 1:21:37of that and we saw a lot of just
- 1:21:38butchered Israelis in their homes and uh
- 1:21:41I think it was just the creepiest thing
- 1:21:42was just the fact that it was like
- 1:21:45a city, like a neighborhood that I was I
- 1:21:47wasn't familiar with that one, but it
- 1:21:48was very similar to ones that I lived in
- 1:21:50in Israel.
- 1:21:51And it was just like
- 1:21:52completely empty of of life. It was just
- 1:21:55here and there a soldier, and you'd have
- 1:21:57maybe a cat walking around, and there
- 1:21:58were just dead dogs and dead people in
- 1:22:00the street, dead terrorists everywhere.
- 1:22:02Tanks had like run over cars while
- 1:22:04trying to get a better firing position,
- 1:22:06burning cars, burned-out houses. Um like
- 1:22:10the strong like a lot of houses have um
- 1:22:12or all new houses in Israel built with a
- 1:22:14safe room, and a lot of the safe rooms
- 1:22:16were just RPG'd open, basically. So,
- 1:22:17someone would just shoot in through the
- 1:22:19through the through the wall.
- 1:22:20Um and it was just really creepy. It was
- 1:22:22really really very uh
- 1:22:24very eerie. I think when it comes to
- 1:22:26that, there's a definite um
- 1:22:28thing we have to speak to, which is
- 1:22:29urban civilian readiness, right? Yeah.
- 1:22:31So, just like where you are, no matter
- 1:22:33where you are, we've talked about it in
- 1:22:34past survival situations, um in videos
- 1:22:37that we've done, but you never know when
- 1:22:39the situation's going to hit you. The
- 1:22:40safest you can be, obviously Israel, um
- 1:22:42being so close to the border to people
- 1:22:43who hate you, you're you're going to get
- 1:22:45a little bit more of that than what we
- 1:22:46see, obviously, here in the United
- 1:22:47States. But nonetheless,
- 1:22:49the information that we're showing here,
- 1:22:51that we're presenting here, uh is
- 1:22:52incredibly valuable. Um
- 1:22:55and the time that you need it, that you
- 1:22:56absolutely need it, it's too late to
- 1:22:58learn it. So, this is where it's really
- 1:22:59important to take these lessons that
- 1:23:00we've talked about today and begin to
- 1:23:02implement them in do your own training.
- 1:23:04That's going to be extremely important.
- 1:23:05Gentlemen, we're going to go ahead and
- 1:23:06finish up here, and I can't thank you
- 1:23:07guys enough for coming on. Uh do you
- 1:23:09want to have any final thoughts for the
- 1:23:10guys before you go?
- 1:23:11I mean, you've got to be ready. You've
- 1:23:13got to be ready to make the mental
- 1:23:15switch. There's, you know, you've got to
- 1:23:18you have your civilian life, you're
- 1:23:19going day to day, you're with your
- 1:23:20family, you're with your loved ones,
- 1:23:22you're you're at a music festival,
- 1:23:23you're wherever. Uh when the shots start
- 1:23:25start flying and the bullets start
- 1:23:27flying, you've got to be able to make
- 1:23:28that switch, go into survival mode, and
- 1:23:30either
- 1:23:31save yourself, get out of there, or go
- 1:23:33towards the go towards the gunfire and,
- 1:23:35you know, find terrorists and kill them.
- 1:23:37You have people who had just just the
- 1:23:39handgun they had on them, maybe one
- 1:23:40spare magazine, who went out, fought to
- 1:23:42a long gun, whether it was from a fallen
- 1:23:44soldier or from a fallen terrorist, and
- 1:23:46then some of them literally took
- 1:23:47uniforms off of dead soldiers so they
- 1:23:49could put them on so they would wouldn't
- 1:23:50be misidentified by friendlies and
- 1:23:53killed, and who fought to to their loved
- 1:23:54ones and created just groups of other
- 1:23:58survivors and fought out. And it's
- 1:24:00you've got to be ready for it, you know?
- 1:24:02And you just
- 1:24:04be ready to protect the ones you love
- 1:24:06and the people you love and the country
- 1:24:07you love and just uh
- 1:24:09stay always ready.
- 1:24:11Yeah. Um get some training.
- 1:24:14Um these people
- 1:24:16in uh in all these settlements on the
- 1:24:187th of October, they didn't see this
- 1:24:20coming,
- 1:24:21you know?
- 1:24:22Uh it could happen it could happen to
- 1:24:23anyone, unfortunately. Uh get training,
- 1:24:27take it seriously, and uh be aware, and
- 1:24:30uh know how to make the switch. Awesome.
- 1:24:31Gentlemen, can't thank you guys enough.
- 1:24:33Uh we've given a lot of dead advice
- 1:24:35today, a lot of advice in general.
- 1:24:37Train, be good at what it is, be ready
- 1:24:39to protect your loved ones. Guys, thank
- 1:24:41you so much for watching. Tons of more
- 1:24:42survival content coming. We got nothing
- 1:24:44else for you.
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