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Combat Vets from Israel Explain Urban Warfare, Drones, Insurgency tactics — Transcript

by Garand Thumb · 18,547 words · 2,745 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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  1. 0:00Guys, I have a cold, so you're going to
  2. 0:01have to deal with it. But, the show goes
  3. 0:03on.
  4. 0:05I don't care
  5. 0:06what you think about these conflicts.
  6. 0:09Whether you like them, whether you hate
  7. 0:11them, whether you support or hate the
  8. 0:12men who participate in them, it doesn't
  9. 0:14matter.
  10. 0:16If you intellectually can't understand
  11. 0:18the value behind getting real-world
  12. 0:21combat information that is incredibly
  13. 0:23valuable because combat, you have to
  14. 0:25understand, is changing a lot right now.
  15. 0:28Then I don't know what to tell you. In
  16. 0:29today's video, we'll be talking about a
  17. 0:31very complex issue, and that is going to
  18. 0:34be urban combat. A place that urban
  19. 0:36combat is taking place in right now is
  20. 0:38in Gaza. So, with us, we're going to
  21. 0:40have two Israeli special operations men
  22. 0:43who, as of 4 days ago, were fighting on
  23. 0:46the front. So, a lot of you are going to
  24. 0:48be angry at the way they think about
  25. 0:50their convictions. Again, I don't care.
  26. 0:52They're going to be the way they're
  27. 0:53going to be. We're not going to censor
  28. 0:54them. This is history. This is what's
  29. 0:56actually occurring on the ground. This
  30. 0:57is reality. Separate your emotions from
  31. 1:00however you feel, and learn some very
  32. 1:02valuable information. In today's video,
  33. 1:04they are two professional military
  34. 1:06members fighting against a terrorist
  35. 1:08organization.
  36. 1:09Again, I don't care what you think about
  37. 1:10that. Here's the thing. This goes both
  38. 1:13ways, the information that we're
  39. 1:15learning. Whether you are fighting
  40. 1:17against an enemy that is entrenched in a
  41. 1:18city, which is a very plausible
  42. 1:20situation, or whether you're on the
  43. 1:22opposite end,
  44. 1:24this information is highly highly
  45. 1:27valuable. So, I hope you guys will enjoy
  46. 1:30as today we talk about urban combat from
  47. 1:32men who are currently fighting in a
  48. 1:34complex urban environment.
  49. 2:06But, before we get into it, we do have
  50. 2:07to thank the sponsors of this channel.
  51. 2:10So, the biggest sponsor of the channel
  52. 2:12is the Sonoran Desert Institute. Charles
  53. 2:14is actually working, so he can't screw
  54. 2:16this up. I'm sure he'd say something
  55. 2:17about Israel, but we are where we are.
  56. 2:19So, if you're looking to get your start
  57. 2:21in gunsmithing, they're the people to go
  58. 2:23to. They support the channel, and the
  59. 2:24support they gives us allows us to bring
  60. 2:27you this type of material for free. And
  61. 2:29who can we not forget?
  62. 2:30Micah? Primary Arms.
  63. 2:31Probably combat-proven optics at this
  64. 2:33point in these conflicts. And where are
  65. 2:34they made? Not in Israel. No, the
  66. 2:37mountains back there. And of course,
  67. 2:38Mantis. If you're trying to get better
  68. 2:40at shooting, dry fire is the way to go.
  69. 2:41Mantis is awesome. It will turn your
  70. 2:43weapon into a dry fire machine with a
  71. 2:44little laser you can see so you can see
  72. 2:46where your impacts are. We love them. It
  73. 2:47also helps you with that trigger reset.
  74. 2:49Go and check them out. And finally, AAC.
  75. 2:52All of our ammunition is sponsored
  76. 2:54through AAC, so we can't thank them
  77. 2:55enough. With all that being said, guys,
  78. 2:57um this is a very important topic, so
  79. 2:58let's get into it. So, if you're not
  80. 3:00familiar with my background, my name is
  81. 3:01Michael Jones. I am a former Air Force
  82. 3:03special warfare member. Served for 9
  83. 3:04years. Served in survival, and then as a
  84. 3:06TAC-P. Um this is a topic that I can't
  85. 3:09speak to. Um this is why we brought on
  86. 3:11two experts from this local conflict.
  87. 3:13You have to understand, guys,
  88. 3:14they were just in the conflict. So,
  89. 3:18again, separate your feelings from the
  90. 3:20information that you're going to learn.
  91. 3:21We do have to give a big shout-out to
  92. 3:22Agilite. It should be noted that Agilite
  93. 3:24did uh sponsor them, get them out here
  94. 3:26and everything. Agilite is a um uh
  95. 3:28equipment company. They make a lot of
  96. 3:29good stuff. Um full disclosure, we did
  97. 3:32have the uh Israeli um public affairs
  98. 3:35hit us up when the war kicked off,
  99. 3:36asking if we wanted to do anything. We
  100. 3:38declined. We try to stay as neutral as
  101. 3:39possible on this stuff. So, understand,
  102. 3:42we're not connected at all with any of
  103. 3:44the public affairs or anything that's
  104. 3:45going on there. This is merely for
  105. 3:47combat information. With all that being
  106. 3:48said, gentlemen, please come on. How's
  107. 3:50it going? Thanks for coming. Uh
  108. 3:52gentlemen, please uh introduce
  109. 3:53yourselves for the audience. Um I
  110. 3:55understand uh you have to stay a little
  111. 3:56bit more anonymous, but please go ahead.
  112. 3:58All right. Well, um I served in uh Egoz,
  113. 4:01which is a commando unit for 4 years.
  114. 4:04I've been in a reserve unit right now
  115. 4:05for the past uh 4 or 5 months in Gaza.
  116. 4:08I'm Lev. I uh I was in a paratroopers in
  117. 4:11the 101st Israeli 101st paratrooper uh
  118. 4:14brigade uh for about 2 and 1/2 years,
  119. 4:16and now I've been in reserves also in
  120. 4:17the in the paratroopers for the last 7 8
  121. 4:20years. And uh I was in Gaza for a little
  122. 4:23bit less time. I was in for about a
  123. 4:25month and a half, and before that we
  124. 4:26were basically up north for a couple
  125. 4:28months, and before that, right after the
  126. 4:297th of October, we were clearing houses
  127. 4:32and clearing Israeli bodies out of uh
  128. 4:34Kvar Aza. Yep. Um gentlemen, so there's
  129. 4:36there's a lot to talk about today. I do
  130. 4:37want to start off by saying that we did
  131. 4:39talk to um US government to change the
  132. 4:42weather, so it's really close to Gaza
  133. 4:43right now for you guys. I'm sure you
  134. 4:44guys are used to the cold and
  135. 4:46everything, right? This is perfect
  136. 4:47weather for what you do. Yeah, that's
  137. 4:49exactly what we do. It it is what it is,
  138. 4:50guys. Uh we can't control the weather on
  139. 4:52that. With that being said, gentlemen,
  140. 4:54um let's get into it.
  141. 4:57We're going to kick this thing off with
  142. 4:59the most intense information, and that's
  143. 5:00going to be urban combat. There's a lot
  144. 5:02to it. Um we're not going to make you
  145. 5:04guys experts in urban combat, but we're
  146. 5:06going to learn some first-hand
  147. 5:08experience from the guys who have been
  148. 5:09there as of recently as a couple days
  149. 5:11ago. So, gentlemen, uh I know there's a
  150. 5:13lot here. You guys are the subject
  151. 5:15matter experts. Please, take it away.
  152. 5:16Yeah. I would first start by saying that
  153. 5:18like I I at least feel like I'm by no
  154. 5:19means an expert in urban combat. I think
  155. 5:21you'd have to be years in urban combat
  156. 5:23to become an expert.
  157. 5:24It's exactly what the Ukrainians said.
  158. 5:25They're like, "Oh, we're not we're not I
  159. 5:26don't feel like I don't have enough
  160. 5:27experience killing people." I'm like,
  161. 5:28you guys have been doing this for a long
  162. 5:31time.
  163. 5:31Yeah. Like I've seen the unit I'm in
  164. 5:33getting so much better over the period
  165. 5:34of time, and you kind of develop a sense
  166. 5:35for it, for sure.
  167. 5:36Definitely. Definitely. Same by us. And
  168. 5:38developing a like a spatial awareness
  169. 5:40of, you know, what what windows are
  170. 5:42looking at you, where your And also,
  171. 5:44when you're doing CQB, you probably
  172. 5:46experienced this when you like do
  173. 5:47something wrong and keep going, you're
  174. 5:49like, "Ooh, I feel like I'm slightly
  175. 5:50more in danger than I should be right
  176. 5:51now." You know what I mean? So, you have
  177. 5:53that a lot, and then you're like, "Oh,
  178. 5:54okay, I can do that better next time."
  179. 5:55But, like there's definitely a lot of
  180. 5:56lessons we learned about how Hamas
  181. 5:58fights, how they set up situations for
  182. 6:00us to fall into, ambushes, whatever. How
  183. 6:02they try to draw us in. You want to talk
  184. 6:03about some of that? We got we got some
  185. 6:05reports of them basically like using
  186. 6:07record tape recordings of like baby
  187. 6:09crying and stuff like that, injuring
  188. 6:11dogs so that the dog is making like a
  189. 6:13whining noise. Just things that draw you
  190. 6:15into to to an area to be like, "Okay,
  191. 6:17what's that?" And that's where they want
  192. 6:19to ambush you and hit you with
  193. 6:20explosives, RPGs, and just lead you into
  194. 6:23their spot and take you out. There's
  195. 6:26also the the classic ambush technique,
  196. 6:27which is where they would, you know,
  197. 6:28fire fire at us from a position, hoping
  198. 6:31we would close the distance and move in
  199. 6:33so that they could hit us with another
  200. 6:34ambush. Yeah.
  201. 6:35That's that's all the time. How does
  202. 6:36that typically look? I mean, it'll look
  203. 6:38like you you come to like an open area,
  204. 6:40say like uh like an kind of an open city
  205. 6:43center or something, or like uh open
  206. 6:45marketplace or something. You're in a
  207. 6:46house, and suddenly your tank gets hit
  208. 6:48by an RPG or something, right? And if
  209. 6:50they're they're shooting just an RPG-7
  210. 6:52at a tank, it's not going to do anything
  211. 6:53to the tank. They're doing that so that
  212. 6:55you're going to come out and try to try
  213. 6:57to get over to their building and attack
  214. 6:58them, and that's exactly the last thing
  215. 6:59you need to do.
  216. 7:00Yeah. For sure. Yep. Um cuz you get some
  217. 7:03hungry predator drones up there in the
  218. 7:04sky who can help you out with that.
  219. 7:06you guys are hearing noises now, whether
  220. 7:08it be whining dogs, crying kids, and
  221. 7:10stuff, are you sending drones up to
  222. 7:11investigate beforehand now?
  223. 7:13Definitely. We're reporting it, and uh
  224. 7:15in anyways that don't endanger our teams
  225. 7:18to investigate the sources of these
  226. 7:20sounds.
  227. 7:21Yeah. Um it's an indication to more to
  228. 7:23more uh combat. Um and uh yeah, we have
  229. 7:26drones for that. We have
  230. 7:28We have more expendable methods. I mean,
  231. 7:30anytime we can basically send in a
  232. 7:32drone, but you can only carry so many
  233. 7:33drone batteries. And those little DJI
  234. 7:35Avata batteries, they last like
  235. 7:3718 minutes or something. How long do
  236. 7:38those things last? It depends on the
  237. 7:40drone, but
  238. 7:40Yeah, the Avata, the one with the
  239. 7:41closed-off um propellers. Uh yeah, that
  240. 7:45one that one's a short battery.
  241. 7:46Yeah, and maybe you carry like nine
  242. 7:47batteries, 10 batteries, or something.
  243. 7:49So, obviously, you can't send it
  244. 7:50everywhere. But, yeah, obviously, if you
  245. 7:51see something suspicious, if you hear
  246. 7:53something suspicious, you're going to
  247. 7:54send that in. Um you said you guys are
  248. 7:56using the DJI Avatas.
  249. 7:58Yeah. Why is that? They're super
  250. 7:59durable, and they're really small,
  251. 8:00basically.
  252. 8:01So, if I'm not mistaken, the Avatas have
  253. 8:03the protection around the propellers.
  254. 8:04Yeah. Yeah. So, do you guys like how are
  255. 8:06you how are you implementing them? How
  256. 8:08are you using them? So, if yeah, if if
  257. 8:09we're going to go into a house, um and
  258. 8:11we felt that there was a high chance,
  259. 8:13either because of uh intelligence
  260. 8:15reports that we'd got saying that it was
  261. 8:16a uh a dangerous house, a house that it
  262. 8:18had known Hamas operatives working out
  263. 8:20of it or something, or if if someone had
  264. 8:22seen movement in that house in the like
  265. 8:24a couple days leading up to that, so
  266. 8:26when we got there, we might send in the
  267. 8:27drone, send it in through one of the
  268. 8:29windows, or through a hole in the wall,
  269. 8:30or through the door, and and just have
  270. 8:32that drone go around as much as
  271. 8:33possible. So, you're actually sending
  272. 8:36the drone into the building. No
  273. 8:38And you go you send the drone inside the
  274. 8:39building, and and and then you have the
  275. 8:40drone operator, right, who's wearing his
  276. 8:42VR glasses, and he also has flip-down
  277. 8:45phone screen connected to the drone. So,
  278. 8:47he's looking through the glasses, and
  279. 8:48then the platoon commander is next to
  280. 8:50him looking at the uh the screen. Maybe
  281. 8:52also the company commander, depending on
  282. 8:54uh where he is in the combat. So, that
  283. 8:56then then the the platoon commander can
  284. 8:57build a plan for how to how to clear the
  285. 8:59building cuz he knows the internal
  286. 9:00layout. And you can look for suspicious
  287. 9:02stuff. And if you see that there's
  288. 9:04someone inside the building, you can
  289. 9:05choose to, you know, deal with him as
  290. 9:07you please. Uh how do how how are
  291. 9:09individuals typically So, combatants, uh
  292. 9:11how are they reacting to these drones
  293. 9:13flying in their face? So, it kind of
  294. 9:15depends on the mental and physical state
  295. 9:17of the combatant. You have some guys
  296. 9:18that are like their tunnel was air
  297. 9:20striked or something. They come out, and
  298. 9:22they haven't eaten or really and they
  299. 9:23may be injured, and they may be sitting
  300. 9:24in a house for a couple days waiting for
  301. 9:26someone to come in so they can throw
  302. 9:27their last grenade at him. And those
  303. 9:28guys are just going to kind of just look
  304. 9:30at it, maybe, right? But, then you have
  305. 9:32some guys who are are trying to hit it
  306. 9:34with like brooms or sticks, or like
  307. 9:36shooting at it, throwing rocks at it, um
  308. 9:38trying to swat them out of the air. It's
  309. 9:40hilarious. It's really good. Can they
  310. 9:41they survive that, being swatted out of
  311. 9:43the air? I mean, who knows? It doesn't
  312. 9:45really matter. Like I think a drone is
  313. 9:46worth the terrorist like uh to most
  314. 9:49people. But, yeah, they're pretty
  315. 9:50they're pretty strong. What happens a
  316. 9:51lot when you send them into a house is
  317. 9:52that they just eventually lose
  318. 9:54connection with the operator, so either
  319. 9:55he sees that he's losing collect
  320. 9:57connection and pulls out or he just it
  321. 9:59just he loses connection and just falls
  322. 10:01on the floor and then what when we clear
  323. 10:02the house afterwards, we just kick kick
  324. 10:04it to the side as we're going through
  325. 10:05and then pick it up after. DJI Avatars,
  326. 10:07huh?
  327. 10:07Yeah. That's interesting.
  328. 10:09Uh you mentioned throwing a grenade at
  329. 10:10it. Why would they not just shoot it?
  330. 10:12Why would they throw a grenade at a
  331. 10:13drone? That makes no sense to me. I
  332. 10:15mean,
  333. 10:16it's kind of like a Hamas tactic in
  334. 10:17general. They realize that because of
  335. 10:19rules of engagement, if they're out
  336. 10:21walking with a uniform, a vest, and a
  337. 10:22weapon, they're going to get shot. Um
  338. 10:24but if they're, you know, at the other
  339. 10:26extreme walking around in civilian
  340. 10:27clothing with nothing visible on them,
  341. 10:29they're not going to get shot most of
  342. 10:30the time. So, like uh what a lot of them
  343. 10:32have started doing is they leave their
  344. 10:34rifles in a stash somewhere. Um and then
  345. 10:37they walk around with just grenades in
  346. 10:38their pockets cuz you can still do
  347. 10:39something with a grenade. Um and, you
  348. 10:41know, if if you're looking from a UAV or
  349. 10:43from a helicopter or from a drone,
  350. 10:45you're not going to spot a grenade in
  351. 10:46someone's pocket. So, some of these guys
  352. 10:48gets in end up in some house and all
  353. 10:50they have with them is grenades. Yeah.
  354. 10:52Uh that's throwing the baseball at them,
  355. 10:53right?
  356. 10:53Yeah, exactly. Yeah, good times. Now, in
  357. 10:55terms of your drones, are you guys
  358. 10:56implementing thermal drones at all?
  359. 10:58Yeah, yeah, for sure. We have thermal
  360. 11:00drones.
  361. 11:01Um
  362. 11:01Uh I don't think I can say at what at
  363. 11:03what level and how many and how we use
  364. 11:05them exactly, but we have thermal
  365. 11:06everything. I have some interesting
  366. 11:08stuff after, but um we yeah, we have a
  367. 11:10lot of thermals. Thermals are one of the
  368. 11:11big changes in this war, for sure.
  369. 11:13Implementation for marksmen, for
  370. 11:15snipers, um and just for general general
  371. 11:18use. Uh cuz tanks have always had them
  372. 11:20in the IDF for for a long time. Uh but
  373. 11:22it's nice to have, you know,
  374. 11:24being able to cross-identify and have a
  375. 11:26tank say, "I see something." and look at
  376. 11:28it with other thermals and you
  377. 11:29understand what you're talking about. Um
  378. 11:31and yeah, having being able to look from
  379. 11:33above with thermals is it's super
  380. 11:34critical. Now, we've talked a lot about
  381. 11:36drones on your side. Um
  382. 11:38what are you guys seeing in terms of
  383. 11:40drones from the enemy side?
  384. 11:43I mean, did you see any on the 7th of
  385. 11:44October? Uh I personally didn't. Yeah, I
  386. 11:47mean, we there there are videos from 7th
  387. 11:48of October of them taking out um them
  388. 11:50taking out uh tanks with uh drone drop
  389. 11:53munitions that had their open hatches.
  390. 11:54They weren't They basically ready for
  391. 11:56it. FPV drones attacking like comms
  392. 11:58towers and stuff like that. Um Let's
  393. 12:00slow down for a second. Let's talk both
  394. 12:01those really quickly. So, there's two
  395. 12:03types of drones. If you've seen the
  396. 12:04Ukraine video, you're you're going to be
  397. 12:06familiar with this, but you have your
  398. 12:07typical like DJI drone, big old
  399. 12:09quadcopter copter, and they can have
  400. 12:10little fishing lure attachments to drop
  401. 12:13fishing lures. But in this case, it's a
  402. 12:15grenade or a munition of some type like
  403. 12:16a mortar round that will impact that
  404. 12:18will explode on impact. Um
  405. 12:21then you have the FPVs. Those are
  406. 12:22basically racing drones. Uh they're
  407. 12:24flown from the first person. Those are
  408. 12:26used uh with a munition attached to
  409. 12:28suicide into something, whether it be a
  410. 12:29human being or some type of vehicle.
  411. 12:31Yeah. Sorry about that. I just wanted to
  412. 12:33make sure they understood.
  413. 12:33yeah, for sure. And like um and then so
  414. 12:35there's there's a third type that they
  415. 12:36use, which is just reconnaissance
  416. 12:38drones. Hm, okay.
  417. 12:39Um and those those are those are
  418. 12:40probably the the ones they use the most,
  419. 12:42I think. Yeah. Um also because if you
  420. 12:44see a a drone with something dangling
  421. 12:45from it, we're not currently doing that
  422. 12:47really much. So, if you see a drone like
  423. 12:49that, it's very clear that it's an enemy
  424. 12:51drone and it's going to get shot down
  425. 12:52within seconds.
  426. 12:54Um either by like someone with a smart
  427. 12:56shooter on his gun or um just some good
  428. 12:59marksman. We have We do have drone
  429. 13:00jamming stuff, but we also have like a a
  430. 13:03bit of a proliferation of uh smart
  431. 13:05shooters. You know those? I'm not
  432. 13:06familiar with those. Please tell me
  433. 13:07about them.
  434. 13:07It's um it's basically a sight It's a
  435. 13:10It's a sight called the smart shooter.
  436. 13:12It's an Israeli startup and it's
  437. 13:13connected to
  438. 13:15a unit within the the handle over here
  439. 13:17and then there's basically something
  440. 13:19that a pin that blocks the trigger. So,
  441. 13:20if you have it on uh smart shooter mode,
  442. 13:22you can use it regularly as a regular
  443. 13:24AR-15 and or you can make it so that it
  444. 13:26locks onto a target and then you squeeze
  445. 13:27the trigger and it lets it fire when
  446. 13:29it's at optimal
  447. 13:30am familiar with that. Yeah, so it can
  448. 13:32track targets.
  449. 13:32So, those are great for drones. Yeah. It
  450. 13:34It can track a drone? Yeah. It can track
  451. 13:35a drone, shoot it out of the sky 100 m
  452. 13:38easily. Uh farther than that, it gets a
  453. 13:40little bit sketchy, but it's still
  454. 13:41doable. And you can shoot out cameras
  455. 13:42and stuff like that really easily. Now,
  456. 13:44do you guys have any tactics as far as
  457. 13:46when you see drones overhead, if you're
  458. 13:48unsure if they're friendly or or or
  459. 13:50enemy, what do you what do you typically
  460. 13:51do?
  461. 13:52you're going to take cover. Um you're
  462. 13:53going to take cover, for sure. Uh and
  463. 13:55you're going to try to figure out You're
  464. 13:56going to say You're just going to ask
  465. 13:58like, "What What is that drone?"
  466. 13:59Uh and then someone someone's going to
  467. 14:01get on the radio, figure out, say, "Who
  468. 14:02has a drone up?" Someone's going to say,
  469. 14:03"I have a drone up." And then you're
  470. 14:04going to say
  471. 14:05um "A funtakine." which means uh um good
  472. 14:08drone, basically. And then everyone's
  473. 14:10going to yell it and everyone's going to
  474. 14:11know. Yeah. Although, you know, you
  475. 14:13don't wait You don't wait around.
  476. 14:15If they take too long getting that
  477. 14:16answer back to you, that drone's going
  478. 14:17down and it's Have you guys ever shot a
  479. 14:19friendly drone?
  480. 14:19Oh, yeah.
  481. 14:20I haven't, but uh someone someone in my
  482. 14:22uh in my company did. We were We were
  483. 14:24all so proud of him. He was like No,
  484. 14:26yeah, he shot a drone that belonged to a
  485. 14:28different company and we like have a
  486. 14:29rivalry with them. So, we were like,
  487. 14:31"Yeah, the Messiah. Yeah, good job.
  488. 14:33You did it." We like We called him like
  489. 14:35drone hunter and stuff. This seems to be
  490. 14:37a problem with the Ukrainians as well,
  491. 14:39where it's hard to identify whose drones
  492. 14:41are who. Yeah. There's just not a good
  493. 14:43method of that currently. So, I can see
  494. 14:45that's still a problem. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
  495. 14:48Yeah. It's not worth the risk. Now, are
  496. 14:50you still seeing those drones this late
  497. 14:52in the war from the enemy or is it kind
  498. 14:54of slowed down much? It's a lot fewer.
  499. 14:56We've did We've denied them a lot of the
  500. 14:57places where their drone operators can
  501. 14:59operate a drone from, basically. Um as
  502. 15:02far as enough good fortified buildings,
  503. 15:03buildings that are close to their
  504. 15:04tunnels. And it's kind of a very
  505. 15:06high-risk, low-reward activity to leave
  506. 15:08the safety of a tunnel to go and
  507. 15:10position yourself in a spot where you
  508. 15:12have a direct air like a direct line of
  509. 15:14sight to the drone.
  510. 15:16Which means you're either going to be in
  511. 15:17a window or you're going to be out in
  512. 15:17the open just so that you can get
  513. 15:19reconnaissance on a drone. It would have
  514. 15:20to be part of a much bigger attack and
  515. 15:21just does There's not a lot of ROI on
  516. 15:23it, you know? Now, when it comes to
  517. 15:25tunnels, you guys have talked about that
  518. 15:26a few times. We're not talking about the
  519. 15:28tunnels in New York from those other
  520. 15:29Jews. I'm just with you.
  521. 15:31How are you guys dealing with those? How
  522. 15:32are those typically assaulted? How are
  523. 15:34those taken care of? What What are you
  524. 15:36doing with those?
  525. 15:37I mean, um
  526. 15:38there's a lot of stuff you can you can
  527. 15:40do with them like on the immediate level
  528. 15:41and in the the the dealing with them to
  529. 15:44a on a deeper level, which we can't talk
  530. 15:46about for sure. That'll definitely get
  531. 15:48censored. But on an immediate level,
  532. 15:50it's basically just adds like when
  533. 15:51you're in urban combat, you know, you
  534. 15:52have the stuff that's on your eyesight
  535. 15:53and then you have all the below. So, now
  536. 15:55you also have the below, basically.
  537. 15:56Yeah. So, on one hand, you're you're
  538. 15:58basically
  539. 16:00expecting people to pop out not just
  540. 16:01from behind corners and around doors.
  541. 16:03People could come out literally from a
  542. 16:05tunnel cuz they could pop their head up.
  543. 16:06Um when you're inside a tunnel, I guess
  544. 16:08it's probably pretty disorienting to
  545. 16:09know what's going on above you. Sure.
  546. 16:11So, sometimes people can pop up and not
  547. 16:13and take a while to orient themselves.
  548. 16:15Um
  549. 16:16but basically, you're looking for
  550. 16:17suspicious things and there's a lot of
  551. 16:19things that look like tunnels in Gaza.
  552. 16:21Uh there's really bad sewage
  553. 16:22infrastructure. So, a lot of them just
  554. 16:23dig sewage drainage pits outside of
  555. 16:26their houses and then cover them,
  556. 16:27obviously, cuz you don't want your kids
  557. 16:28falling into a pit of of sewage.
  558. 16:30Yeah. So, they cover them with a piece
  559. 16:31of wood and then sometimes some trash
  560. 16:33just cuz they're Arabs and they like
  561. 16:34making piles of trash.
  562. 16:35So, then you get to that and you say,
  563. 16:36"Oh, Is this a tunnel?" You start
  564. 16:38like You put a take a grappling hook.
  565. 16:40You start pulling stuff away. You're
  566. 16:42like, "Oh my god, it's got a wooden
  567. 16:43cover." You're like, "Oh my god, wooden
  568. 16:45cover." You get the drone and you like
  569. 16:47pull that off and you throw in a grenade
  570. 16:50and then you send in a drone to look and
  571. 16:51they're like, "Yeah, it's just full of
  572. 16:52shit." And that's the Sometimes the
  573. 16:54drone loses connection and falls in the
  574. 16:56but that's uh So, you are sending
  575. 16:58drones in the tunnels, then? In a
  576. 16:59limited sense because um the connection
  577. 17:02capabilities. And there are drones that
  578. 17:04are better suited for that. Um but yeah,
  579. 17:07I'm not sure. In my unit, we don't have
  580. 17:09much and we probably can't talk about
  581. 17:10that.
  582. 17:10Yep. I I I understand fully. As an
  583. 17:12infantryman, like for us, we're
  584. 17:14basically just finding the tunnels
  585. 17:16and making sure no one's coming out of
  586. 17:18the tunnel. And the most we're going to
  587. 17:20do is throw a couple grenades down there
  588. 17:21or something.
  589. 17:22Um
  590. 17:23and then we're going to leave it to uh
  591. 17:24professionals to take care of that.
  592. 17:26Until until a tunnel is taken care of
  593. 17:29and and the special forces units that
  594. 17:31deal with that kind of sensitive thing,
  595. 17:33infantry's just going to be like we have
  596. 17:35said, pointing their rifles at the at
  597. 17:38the threat. Um Maybe taking selfies.
  598. 17:41Yeah, taking selfies. Let's talk a
  599. 17:43little bit about how you guys are
  600. 17:44reacting to contact. What are the
  601. 17:45typical engagement distances you guys
  602. 17:47are seeing? How are you putting down
  603. 17:49fire superiority? How does it work with
  604. 17:51the IDF or with your teams in
  605. 17:53particular?
  606. 17:56Um so, in general, once once contacted,
  607. 17:59an entire team will search for cover or
  608. 18:01just get down and return fire.
  609. 18:03Generally, we're seeing we're getting
  610. 18:05contacted from pretty far ranges. Uh
  611. 18:07what would you say like in meters? We're
  612. 18:09talking
  613. 18:11talking like
  614. 18:12100 like above 150 usually is what is
  615. 18:15what we're dealing with.
  616. 18:16from shooting from afar, snipers. RPGs,
  617. 18:19they tend to get pretty close. Those
  618. 18:21Those Those Those guys like to getting
  619. 18:23close so that they can be accurate.
  620. 18:2550 under the hundreds. No, we had an
  621. 18:27Yeah, I mean, they they do that a lot,
  622. 18:28which is difficult for tanks to deal
  623. 18:29with, but like for the trophy system to
  624. 18:31deal with and stuff for really close
  625. 18:33shots, but they also they shot at a tank
  626. 18:35that was right outside of our building,
  627. 18:37hit it with an RPG from I think like 200
  628. 18:39m or something. It was like a really far
  629. 18:40shot and they I think part of that is
  630. 18:43cuz they realize that once we get up to
  631. 18:44where they are, there's going to be like
  632. 18:46an overwhelming amount of fire on them.
  633. 18:48So, they kind of want to
  634. 18:50shoot and then get out of there.
  635. 18:52When you say sniper fire, are you
  636. 18:53talking from AKMs or or specialized
  637. 18:56weapon systems? Um when I say sniper
  638. 18:58fire,
  639. 18:59they're they're using M24s. Um
  640. 19:03Interesting. And some Dragonovs, also.
  641. 19:07generally, it's been M24s what I've
  642. 19:09seen. Yeah, we haven't had seen a lot of
  643. 19:11snipers. Um which is strange cuz you'd
  644. 19:13think that they'd be very prolific in an
  645. 19:15urban scenario like that, but You really
  646. 19:17would.
  647. 19:17Just a lot of just pot shots from from
  648. 19:19AKs and stuff.
  649. 19:21Um a lot of the times, if you're engaged
  650. 19:23from far away, sometimes there's not
  651. 19:25even anything you will do about it. You
  652. 19:26kind of get cover. So, then it's kind of
  653. 19:28like a reminder, "I should probably not
  654. 19:29be like sticking my head out." Yeah.
  655. 19:31Like if you're engaged from really far
  656. 19:33away, if there's just bullets coming
  657. 19:34over your head, you're going to try to
  658. 19:35figure out, you know, use the tools you
  659. 19:37have to figure out if who's shooting
  660. 19:38you, if it's friendly, if it's not
  661. 19:40friendly, and then have someone do
  662. 19:41something about it, but it might not be
  663. 19:43in your area. Like if I'm being shot at
  664. 19:45from 300 m away and that's a direction
  665. 19:48of fire that I'm definitely close to
  666. 19:50because there's a friendly unit over
  667. 19:51there. So, we're just going to tell them
  668. 19:53and they're going to deal with it.
  669. 19:53They're probably already dealing with
  670. 19:54it, you know? So, like um
  671. 19:57but definitely, yeah, get get some
  672. 19:58cover. Um figure out what's going on.
  673. 20:00Make sure that all the all your angles
  674. 20:02are covered. Cuz sometimes they'll try
  675. 20:03to uh give you some fire to keep you
  676. 20:05down and then they're going to send out
  677. 20:06an attack. Uh
  678. 20:08or they're going to wait for you to come
  679. 20:09into the attack. So. How has it been for
  680. 20:10you as far as recognizing when the shots
  681. 20:12are coming towards you or whether the
  682. 20:13shots are just the general background of
  683. 20:16what's going on? Like recognizing the
  684. 20:18chatter of different weapons, right?
  685. 20:19So, once you once you've spent some
  686. 20:21time, like I have to say when I first
  687. 20:22went into Gaza, I I didn't really know
  688. 20:25that I I knew that different calibers
  689. 20:27have different sounds.
  690. 20:28But uh once you're living it day-to-day
  691. 20:30and you're hearing the the gunfire of
  692. 20:32the tanks and
  693. 20:34uh and the Apaches and uh you you just
  694. 20:37get to know that every every gun has its
  695. 20:39own voice. And uh the AK-47 is just it's
  696. 20:43you can you can spot it in in just a
  697. 20:45fire of an array of weapons, you'll hear
  698. 20:47that crack. You'll be like, that's enemy
  699. 20:49fire. And uh if it's not in your uh
  700. 20:52quadrant, then you're going to you're
  701. 20:53going to get on the comms and you're
  702. 20:55going to you're going to let the
  703. 20:56relevant uh battalion know. Yeah,
  704. 20:59although in in urban warfare it can can
  705. 21:00get really confusing with all the echoes
  706. 21:02off buildings. Yeah. It's kind of hard
  707. 21:04to to hear, you know, who's shooting and
  708. 21:05from where. And very often you're kind
  709. 21:07of just aware that a firefight or
  710. 21:09something is happening somewhere. Cuz
  711. 21:11you hear a lot of fire coming from one
  712. 21:13area. You try to kind of figure out
  713. 21:15what's going on and then maybe you might
  714. 21:16see like the 669 rescue helicopters
  715. 21:18coming in and then you know we have
  716. 21:19injured people. Um or you know, you'll
  717. 21:23just hear something interesting about it
  718. 21:24on the radio. Then you have um Did you
  719. 21:26guys have a radio station? We had like
  720. 21:28Radio Halal. You have that?
  721. 21:30Yeah, yeah, we were we were hardcore on
  722. 21:32the
  723. 21:32shouldn't blur the name of it,
  724. 21:33basically.
  725. 21:33Whenever you're on guard duty, you just
  726. 21:34got this little mini radio next to you.
  727. 21:36No, no, I'm talking about something
  728. 21:37else. Talking about We had basically
  729. 21:39like everyone wants to know what's going
  730. 21:41on all the time, right? So, we ended up
  731. 21:42just having a uh
  732. 21:44once a day at like 8:30 p.m. or 9:00
  733. 21:46p.m. like uh on one of the radios like
  734. 21:48on one of the radio bands and with
  735. 21:50someone just just gave the news for the
  736. 21:51whole day. Oh, interesting.
  737. 21:53Like we found these terrorists and
  738. 21:55killed them, this guy got injured, we
  739. 21:56found a tunnel here, we found this, we
  740. 21:58had found this. And everyone's just
  741. 21:59listening to it, they're like, oh,
  742. 22:01yeah. Yeah, so we had a guy on the
  743. 22:02radio. Yeah, Radio Halal. So, we had a
  744. 22:04guy who would uh who would also give the
  745. 22:07give the sports news for soccer for all
  746. 22:09the Israelis. And he would just right
  747. 22:11after he goes after the day's updates of
  748. 22:13what actually is relevant, you know,
  749. 22:15tactically.
  750. 22:16Um he just starts he starts going he
  751. 22:18also did like updates on celebrities.
  752. 22:20Oh, uh what's uh Eden Ben Zaken doing,
  753. 22:23you know, uh
  754. 22:24Nobody Nobody cares about soccer.
  755. 22:27Except for the rest of the world.
  756. 22:28Yeah, except
  757. 22:29Except for the rest of the world. Are
  758. 22:30you into soccer now that you've been in
  759. 22:31Israel for a while?
  760. 22:32a about
  761. 22:33Absolutely not. There we go. Do you guys
  762. 22:34still like American football? I don't
  763. 22:36care about American football. I don't
  764. 22:37really follow sports now.
  765. 22:38A little bit of MMA or like that stuff.
  766. 22:40That's fair.
  767. 22:41That's fair. Cool.
  768. 22:46Gentlemen, so we have our kit set up on
  769. 22:47the ground. Right here I have a Crye
  770. 22:48JPC. This is a pretty close setup to
  771. 22:51what I ran in the US military.
  772. 22:52Obviously, my job was way different. My
  773. 22:54level training was different. Everything
  774. 22:55was different. Your carriers are
  775. 22:56different in terms of camouflage, in
  776. 22:58terms of what you have on it,
  777. 23:00everything. So, let's talk a little bit
  778. 23:02about your kit setups. Let's go ahead
  779. 23:03and start with you and talk about the
  780. 23:05hows and whys. People want to know why
  781. 23:07your kit is set up. You've been fighting
  782. 23:08for a while. You still probably still
  783. 23:09got dust on that thing.
  784. 23:11Same here.
  785. 23:12All right. All right, so I'm running a
  786. 23:13Agilite K0. Uh running level four armor,
  787. 23:17side plates.
  788. 23:18Um
  789. 23:20As far as ammunition, uh I usually run
  790. 23:22around uh about six to to eight mags.
  791. 23:26Um I'll run a double mag in the in the
  792. 23:28weapon, uh
  793. 23:29another mag on my battle belt, and three
  794. 23:31mags here, and then a couple more in my
  795. 23:33uh my battle pack. Uh medical gear. So,
  796. 23:35medical gear. Uh I'm running two
  797. 23:37tourniquets usually, one over here, and
  798. 23:40I'll usually keep another one either
  799. 23:41here or in my uh pack.
  800. 23:43Um and then over here I have a personal
  801. 23:45bandage.
  802. 23:47And on my battle belt, so I'm running a
  803. 23:49personal
  804. 23:50first aid kit over here. It's got uh
  805. 23:53combat gauze and uh some basic just
  806. 23:55basic stuff. And then finally, I got
  807. 23:57these scissors for cutting through uh
  808. 23:59uniforms and vests and whatnot. Next,
  809. 24:01ammunition. Lastly, I have
  810. 24:03I have two 9 mm mags over here. Okay?
  811. 24:06And then I have my personal sidearm.
  812. 24:07What are you typically carrying? Um
  813. 24:09typically carrying a Glock 19. Nice.
  814. 24:12All right. Weapon light, optic? Yeah,
  815. 24:14both.
  816. 24:14Both times. Mhm. Over here we got
  817. 24:16multi-tool. It's a must-have. Uh it's an
  818. 24:19SOG. I use it usually to like cut wires,
  819. 24:21fences, uh helps me out sometimes when
  820. 24:24I'm when I'm busting into a building or
  821. 24:26or uh trying to just get through an
  822. 24:28area. On that note, as far as breaching
  823. 24:30and stuff like that, I'm usually running
  824. 24:31also a cutter in back in my battle pack.
  825. 24:34Do you mean like a bolt cutter?
  826. 24:35Yeah, bolt cutter, yeah.
  827. 24:37Front, we got here
  828. 24:39we got here red light.
  829. 24:41Um this is this is mostly stuff that I'm
  830. 24:42going to use like inside a building once
  831. 24:44we've once we've uh taken it over. I got
  832. 24:46some stick lights in here. So, you're
  833. 24:47going to use them to basically mark
  834. 24:50hazards or anything that needs to be
  835. 24:52marked. It's useful also for
  836. 24:54miscellaneous things like say we have
  837. 24:56like a detonation cord set up and we
  838. 24:58don't want guys to step on it. Mhm. Um
  839. 25:00so, we'll like cut this and we'll just
  840. 25:02drizzle a little bit of that glowing
  841. 25:03liquid on it and then
  842. 25:05the team leader will explain to the team
  843. 25:07that Do you use different colors for
  844. 25:08different things? I understand the
  845. 25:10tactics, techniques, and procedures um
  846. 25:12between different units or militaries
  847. 25:14are going to differ heavily, so that's
  848. 25:15fine. Just understand that
  849. 25:16Yeah. 10-6 are important. Yeah, some
  850. 25:18stuff we can't say about color marking.
  851. 25:20I understand. I understand. Yeah. And
  852. 25:23finally, in here, I always carry some
  853. 25:24kind of pen or uh or a marker. It's
  854. 25:27first and foremost for drawing pictures
  855. 25:30of uh your teammates on the wall and
  856. 25:31your commanders. It's also very useful
  857. 25:33for just you're going to write Usually
  858. 25:34you spray paint, but if you don't have
  859. 25:35spray paint, you can also use a marker
  860. 25:37and just start writing
  861. 25:38uh different directions uh so that you
  862. 25:40know
  863. 25:41you know, where your where your friends
  864. 25:42are and where the enemies are. I'm
  865. 25:43usually carrying two frags on me. As one
  866. 25:45of the as lead marksman, I was actually
  867. 25:47running six frags at one point. I put
  868. 25:49two on my battle belt and I put two over
  869. 25:51here and I put two more pouches up here.
  870. 25:53Uh so, I was actually running six. Uh
  871. 25:55but two is two is the basic. So, this is
  872. 25:57a new addition to my pack
  873. 25:58to my uh plate carrier. In Gaza, I found
  874. 26:01that running around with my usual pack,
  875. 26:03I just was kind of like kind of like a
  876. 26:04turtle. And like when I was opening
  877. 26:06doors, I was getting stuck with uh with
  878. 26:08my battle buddy.
  879. 26:09So, I ended up just not taking a pack
  880. 26:10with me. So, this guy's great because
  881. 26:12it's very minimalist and it's just it's
  882. 26:14just uh carrying the hydration bladder
  883. 26:16and very basic things. I'll usually have
  884. 26:18a smoke on me as well, which I'll stick
  885. 26:19up front. As far as additional gear in
  886. 26:21the pack,
  887. 26:23this is uh this is something that uh
  888. 26:26that we use in my team,
  889. 26:27which we basically keep our batteries in
  890. 26:29here. Spare spare batteries for each
  891. 26:30kind of night vision, flashlights, PEC,
  892. 26:33uh optics. We'll throw in like these
  893. 26:35little things that um that absorb the
  894. 26:36moisture. Another thing that I usually
  895. 26:38run up front is uh is it just two spare
  896. 26:41batteries for immediate optics or or
  897. 26:43nods. Nods and uh thermal. So, when I
  898. 26:46have those
  899. 26:47um and it's daytime, I'm usually going
  900. 26:48to keep them in my pack. And then um for
  901. 26:51context for everybody, you are getting
  902. 26:52resupplies fairly regularly, every two
  903. 26:54days at minimum, correct? Yeah. Okay.
  904. 26:57Yeah, it's usually every day, but um
  905. 26:59happens sometimes it's more than
  906. 27:00that. Sure. And then you're you have a a
  907. 27:02kind of a
  908. 27:03not to delve too much into it, but
  909. 27:05you're essentially operating out of a
  910. 27:06FOB, like a forward operating base to
  911. 27:08some extent, correct? Um usually it's
  912. 27:10it's it's ever-changing. At a certain
  913. 27:13point though, you're going to stop and
  914. 27:13it's going to turn into a FOB, yeah.
  915. 27:15Yep, okay. Uh we got a lighter here.
  916. 27:17Uh and that is for lighting up uh
  917. 27:19hookahs and uh cigarettes.
  918. 27:21Over here, we got
  919. 27:23uh we had a carabiner, which uh
  920. 27:24honestly, it started out as a logistic
  921. 27:26thing, just you know, bus filled with
  922. 27:28gear of uh of an entire platoon. Put
  923. 27:31your uh helmet on there, knee pads,
  924. 27:33anything that has a string, just connect
  925. 27:35it all there and you have one piece, you
  926. 27:36just carry it around. Also, like in the
  927. 27:37event you have like a guy gets injured,
  928. 27:39you just connect all his to that
  929. 27:41one thing and then it's all one piece.
  930. 27:42Got you. Well, thank you. Lev, go ahead.
  931. 27:44Yeah. Let's get right into it. So,
  932. 27:47over here I'm also running a K0. I have
  933. 27:49mine set up for a machine machine gun,
  934. 27:50specifically for the Negev light machine
  935. 27:51gun. Now, right here I have a SAW.
  936. 27:54Unfortunately, it's just uh
  937. 27:56Don't even start it. Don't even start
  938. 27:58it.
  939. 27:58do it for me. I am not feeling the itch.
  940. 27:59I'm not feeling anything, you know, down
  941. 28:01below. But
  942. 28:03Is it cold in there? Yeah.
  943. 28:04Exactly. I need to form a bond. Um so,
  944. 28:07basically over here, I got two drum
  945. 28:09pouches that I like basically sewed for
  946. 28:11myself and just made them for the Negev
  947. 28:13pouches. Then when I got there, uh they
  948. 28:15gave me a different kind of Negev drum,
  949. 28:16like a newer one that didn't fit. So, I
  950. 28:18had to like kind of stitch them together
  951. 28:20and make some changes to them. But
  952. 28:22basically, so K0, I'm running obviously
  953. 28:24also level four plates in here. Um if we
  954. 28:27start at the front and move our way
  955. 28:28around, I guess. So, you have
  956. 28:31I just added a MOLLE surface on the
  957. 28:32front. I keep one frag grenade right
  958. 28:33here. Another frag grenade I keep on my
  959. 28:35belt back here. I'll show you in a sec.
  960. 28:37Over here I have a tourniquet right
  961. 28:39there in the front. I like it right here
  962. 28:40because it's super obvious to anyone
  963. 28:42else where it is on me. Um they don't
  964. 28:44need to look for it anywhere.
  965. 28:46Uh and it's just right there right in
  966. 28:47the front and it's impossible to miss if
  967. 28:48I'm lying on my back or on my side or
  968. 28:50something. Over here I have another
  969. 28:51tourniquet on the dangler below. Here I
  970. 28:54have just a general purpose uh pouch.
  971. 28:57Inside here I got a bunch of goodies. I
  972. 28:58have a brush for cleaning dust off my
  973. 29:01gun cuz you basically whenever you're
  974. 29:02stopped, it's just a great opportunity
  975. 29:04to sit down and just start like dusting
  976. 29:06it off, getting into those nooks and
  977. 29:07crannies. That's some professional
  978. 29:09soldier and right there.
  979. 29:10Exactly. And obviously, I always saw off
  980. 29:12my toothbrushes, also the ones for my
  981. 29:13teeth. Just uh you know,
  982. 29:16makes them easier to put in your
  983. 29:17pockets. Sometimes I keep a toothbrush
  984. 29:19in my front pocket. Um
  985. 29:21makes it a little easier. Over here, I
  986. 29:23have uh
  987. 29:25also headlamp with a red function. Super
  988. 29:27important with a headlamp is to have a
  989. 29:28headlamp that you can immediately go to
  990. 29:30red with. Some people bought headlamps
  991. 29:32that you have to click through white to
  992. 29:33get to the red, which is just stupid.
  993. 29:35It's extremely stupid and
  994. 29:36unprofessional. Good to have a good one.
  995. 29:38I like the Petzl Tikka ones. I have like
  996. 29:41uh one for backpacking and one for
  997. 29:42tactical stuff. Keep them separate. I
  998. 29:45have over here a Rite in the rain
  999. 29:46notebook, um
  1000. 29:48that I write down military secrets about
  1001. 29:50the IDF that I sell online and post to
  1002. 29:51War Thunder on.
  1003. 29:53I have a
  1004. 29:57I have a Laffy Taffy blue flavor. I
  1005. 29:59highly recommend the blue flavor. I have
  1006. 30:01a pen and I have my multi-tool in here
  1007. 30:03right now, although usually I end up
  1008. 30:05rocking my multi-tool over here in my
  1009. 30:07front pocket. I used to have it mounted
  1010. 30:08on my belt and then I realized too often
  1011. 30:10I'd like to take off my belt and hang it
  1012. 30:11up somewhere and I just need a
  1013. 30:12multi-tool. So I started just keeping it
  1014. 30:14over here. Uh I usually keep more
  1015. 30:16batteries in here also and I have this
  1016. 30:19bad boy. So in addition to the
  1017. 30:20multi-tool, I like to carry a bicycle
  1018. 30:22multi-tool because these are basically
  1019. 30:23just based around common fasteners like
  1020. 30:26torques and Allen keys that you don't
  1021. 30:27always have on a multi-tool.
  1022. 30:29And um you always need those. Obviously
  1023. 30:33tightening down optics mounts and like
  1024. 30:35night vision and stuff.
  1025. 30:36Um and I have over here a letter from my
  1026. 30:38wife cuz we were getting mail basically
  1027. 30:40in in and out back and forth. So it's
  1028. 30:42nice to have have that so you can sit
  1029. 30:44around and read it every once in a
  1030. 30:45while. So over here, another tourniquet.
  1031. 30:47I have the dangler up here in the front.
  1032. 30:49It's all batteries basically.
  1033. 30:51Um so if I have loose batteries, what I
  1034. 30:54do is I tape them around like that with
  1035. 30:55electrical tape just to make sure that
  1036. 30:57the uh the ends aren't going to be
  1037. 30:59touching other batteries and
  1038. 31:00discharging. Um
  1039. 31:03and I have just like some random I
  1040. 31:05have some like really heavy duty needles
  1041. 31:06and wax thread. This has gotten a bit
  1042. 31:09dirty by now. Should be rewound up or
  1043. 31:10something. But that's just thread that's
  1044. 31:12you can fix anything with basically.
  1045. 31:14It's almost like a zip tie and how
  1046. 31:15strong it is. I have a little bit of one
  1047. 31:16wrap just wrapped up
  1048. 31:19um which is great for either for
  1049. 31:20yourself or if you see some idiot with
  1050. 31:22all his like straps messed up and you're
  1051. 31:23like just put him out of his misery. So
  1052. 31:25over here I have a lighter. I got uh
  1053. 31:28quick clot. I got um combat gauze and I
  1054. 31:32usually have some uh Israeli bandages in
  1055. 31:34here that seem to have disappeared.
  1056. 31:36Um so yeah. It's funny we've always
  1057. 31:38carried Israeli bandages but for some
  1058. 31:40reason it's very ironic Israelis kill
  1059. 31:42carrying Israeli bandages. I don't know
  1060. 31:44why. Yeah, it's like I mean it's like
  1061. 31:45the the basic like from basic training
  1062. 31:47basically that was the the basic
  1063. 31:49individual like that's the basic IFAK is
  1064. 31:51you have an Israeli bandage and a
  1065. 31:52tourniquet all the time.
  1066. 31:53it bandages already in Israel?
  1067. 31:54They call it personal bandage. Ta uh
  1068. 31:56takhboshet ishit. So over here I got the
  1069. 31:58drum pouches. Over here on the left I'm
  1070. 31:59running a knife. This is a Benchmade uh
  1071. 32:02Nimravus I think.
  1072. 32:04Um
  1073. 32:04great knife. Uh honestly it's just so
  1074. 32:07handy having a fixed blade because with
  1075. 32:09a fixed blade you can cut anything with
  1076. 32:11it. It gets dirty just wash it off. It's
  1077. 32:13not like a folder where it gets in
  1078. 32:14there. And obviously it's right here in
  1079. 32:16a defensive posture over here on the
  1080. 32:17plate carrier. Super easy to pull out.
  1081. 32:20Um and you're just always cutting
  1082. 32:21something. If you're like going through
  1083. 32:22a greenhouse you have to cut through
  1084. 32:24through uh cloth or if you're
  1085. 32:26Honestly you can even cut cuz it's
  1086. 32:27serrated you can really easily cut
  1087. 32:29through like electrical cables and stuff
  1088. 32:30if you need them to tie stuff up. Um
  1089. 32:33and over here got a picture on the
  1090. 32:36front. Uh Polaroid picture of my wife
  1091. 32:39and dog. Wife dog. Um and
  1092. 32:42that's nice and it's also a great place
  1093. 32:44to keep
  1094. 32:45rolled cigarettes before you're ready to
  1095. 32:47smoke them. Don't tell my wife that.
  1096. 32:49Um over here in the
  1097. 32:50It's very it's very much too late for
  1098. 32:52that.
  1099. 32:52Too late for that, yeah. Um
  1100. 32:54who knows maybe she won't see this.
  1101. 32:56Uh drum pouches, side plate carriers
  1102. 32:59and over here on the back I just put um
  1103. 33:02you know this is like our unit patch.
  1104. 33:03We're the patrol unit within the the uh
  1105. 33:06company and I just put my last name cuz
  1106. 33:08a lot of people have the same plate
  1107. 33:09carrier so it makes it a little easier
  1108. 33:10to find it. Um
  1109. 33:12Always mark your gear. Yeah, exactly.
  1110. 33:14Over here in the front I also have a
  1111. 33:16pair of scissors. These are honestly
  1112. 33:17like in addition to just the actual
  1113. 33:19first aid aspect of them they're just so
  1114. 33:21useful all the time. Use them for just
  1115. 33:23everything. Like half the time instead
  1116. 33:25of pulling out a knife we'll just pull
  1117. 33:26out a pair of scissors. So
  1118. 33:28if I move over to the belt
  1119. 33:31Dick strap deactivated. All right. So
  1120. 33:34over here I got another tourniquet so
  1121. 33:35that's the third tourniquet basically.
  1122. 33:37Um here I have a homemade holster for my
  1123. 33:40gun. This is this is the same gun but
  1124. 33:43not the same setup. So this is a MP 2.0
  1125. 33:45compact and I also run it with a 17
  1126. 33:48round magazine when it's over here and I
  1127. 33:51have a Holosun optic on it and I have a
  1128. 33:53TLR-7A on the front cuz this is also my
  1129. 33:57uh EDC gun that I appendix carry all the
  1130. 33:59pistols are personally procured,
  1131. 34:00correct?
  1132. 34:00Exactly. They're all personal personal
  1133. 34:02handguns.
  1134. 34:03Um which kind of makes it's kind of
  1135. 34:05interesting thing about the handgun
  1136. 34:06market in it in Israel which is that
  1137. 34:07it's kind of middle of the line.
  1138. 34:09Everyone's running compact handguns
  1139. 34:10because you want it to be small enough
  1140. 34:11to carry it but big enough that you can
  1141. 34:12use it uh and shoot it comfortably. So
  1142. 34:16that's that. Over here
  1143. 34:18single frag pouch and then this is empty
  1144. 34:20right now but this is usually has about
  1145. 34:22110 or 120 rounds uh like loose rounds
  1146. 34:25of uh of ammo for the SAW
  1147. 34:28uh which I can just whip out uh in an
  1148. 34:30emergency and load in or I can use it to
  1149. 34:32fill up one of my drums when I empty it.
  1150. 34:34Over here in the front
  1151. 34:36canted pistol mag
  1152. 34:38right there. Um I I I started out the
  1153. 34:42war with two uh vertical ones.
  1154. 34:45Uh one for the pistol, one for the the
  1155. 34:46multi-tool and I just found out that I
  1156. 34:48was sitting so much on the ground that
  1157. 34:50it just really digs into digs into your
  1158. 34:52hips, starts cutting off your your
  1159. 34:54nerves. Um so I I switched to a canted
  1160. 34:57one like that on the side. And over here
  1161. 34:58I got uh mechanics gloves, the
  1162. 35:00fingerless Agile Ones. Um these are
  1163. 35:02great. You can really you really need
  1164. 35:04gloves in urban combat.
  1165. 35:06Um
  1166. 35:07everything is disgusting that you're
  1167. 35:08touching. It's either disgusting or it's
  1168. 35:10or it's dangerous and sharp or it's just
  1169. 35:12really dirty. So having gloves is super
  1170. 35:14useful.
  1171. 35:15And
  1172. 35:17yeah, that's my setup. Let's move over
  1173. 35:18to the helmet real quick. So my helmet
  1174. 35:22uh
  1175. 35:22this is not my helmet. My helmet is an
  1176. 35:24Armasource.
  1177. 35:25Um I don't have a light on the side
  1178. 35:27although this is actually really sick
  1179. 35:28and I I might start doing this. It's
  1180. 35:30really nice.
  1181. 35:30Thank you. Yeah.
  1182. 35:32I have the Core Survival strobe on mine
  1183. 35:34as well. Uh in the back I sometimes keep
  1184. 35:37um
  1185. 35:37like every once in a while I'll keep uh
  1186. 35:39some spare batteries in here or
  1187. 35:40something. I don't have a counterweight
  1188. 35:42per se but I I have used like a box of
  1189. 35:445.56 ammo before as a counterweight
  1190. 35:47which helps me carry ammo also for my uh
  1191. 35:49battle buddy who's a marksman. Now um
  1192. 35:52this one is Peltors but I'm rocking the
  1193. 35:54uh Ops-Core Ops-Core Amps.
  1194. 35:56Love them to death and then yeah I have
  1195. 35:58a mount on the front for my uh binos
  1196. 36:01and during the day what I'll usually do
  1197. 36:02is I'll
  1198. 36:04I'll open up my assault pack. My assault
  1199. 36:06pack by the way Hill People Gear Terra
  1200. 36:07Houmera. So good. Great pack. I've got
  1201. 36:10this cuz I used to do a lot of mountain
  1202. 36:11biking. Um so basically what I have over
  1203. 36:14here in my assault pack is another drum
  1204. 36:16and then I have this case that uh some
  1205. 36:19trij like Trijicon optic or something
  1206. 36:20came in and what I do with this case is
  1207. 36:22I keep my night vision in here so it's
  1208. 36:24like super protected and then during the
  1209. 36:26uh at night I will take out my night
  1210. 36:28vision and I'll put my GoPro into here
  1211. 36:29with my dark glasses and just keep those
  1212. 36:32glasses 100% protected from the
  1213. 36:34elements. In here I also have a single
  1214. 36:37uh like usually one or two. Right now I
  1215. 36:39have one uh tan sandbag. This is like a
  1216. 36:42multi-purpose thing. Obviously if you
  1217. 36:43need to entrench in like in a hurry that
  1218. 36:45you weren't planning on it, it's good to
  1219. 36:47have everyone carrying sandbags. But
  1220. 36:48mostly what we do is if we're searching
  1221. 36:50houses looking for intelligence stuff,
  1222. 36:51looking for like maps, radios, uh IDs,
  1223. 36:54papers, whatever. So for each house
  1224. 36:57we'll put that stuff in one of these
  1225. 36:58bags and then write the house number on
  1226. 37:00the bag and then tie it up with a zip
  1227. 37:02tie and then we can give that to
  1228. 37:03intelligence officers and it's super
  1229. 37:04organized for them and then they like
  1230. 37:06us. Um
  1231. 37:08I have a a Platypus 2 L
  1232. 37:11water bottle. These are great. Uh this
  1233. 37:13isn't always in my assault pack but if I
  1234. 37:15do want to carry extra water here I'll
  1235. 37:16do it in here. I got a marker and
  1236. 37:20like you said, got to write north,
  1237. 37:21south, east, west and everything in all
  1238. 37:23the doors. With charger cable for my
  1239. 37:25thermal. Thermal isn't here I didn't
  1240. 37:27bring it but I just have a little
  1241. 37:28handheld uh AGM thermal
  1242. 37:31and this is usually full of snacks which
  1243. 37:33is super important. Yeah. What's the
  1244. 37:35best snack to bring?
  1245. 37:37Um
  1246. 37:37Beef jerky? Beef jerky is great. Uh
  1247. 37:40Snickers.
  1248. 37:41like some weird Hebrew word or something
  1249. 37:43like that.
  1250. 37:43Just a just a pocket full of hummus. You
  1251. 37:45know, fill up the pocket and you get
  1252. 37:47just reach in and get a handful.
  1253. 37:48squeeze it out. I like to I I like to
  1254. 37:50fill up a hydration bladder with uh
  1255. 37:52tahini. Yeah. Tahini.
  1256. 37:54Yeah. Yeah. So that's that's my setup
  1257. 37:57basically. Yeah.
  1258. 37:59Awesome. Uh gentlemen I also want to
  1259. 38:00note that all of your gear is green. So
  1260. 38:03this is uh standardized across IDF. This
  1261. 38:05is for friendly force identification,
  1262. 38:07correct?
  1263. 38:08That's correct. Yeah, it's super
  1264. 38:10important. Can I talk about that for a
  1265. 38:10sec?
  1266. 38:11Please. So basically um this is what
  1267. 38:13always an issue we're running into in
  1268. 38:14the reserves where somebody will instead
  1269. 38:16of using their like issued green jacket
  1270. 38:18they'll say like well I have this
  1271. 38:20wonderful black jacket at home. I have
  1272. 38:21like a North Face jacket or something.
  1273. 38:23Show up with that and then you have this
  1274. 38:24bad situation where you know someone
  1275. 38:26someone else like maybe a tank is
  1276. 38:28looking through his night vision sights
  1277. 38:29or something just sees a guy running
  1278. 38:30around with a plate carrier and black
  1279. 38:32jacket when we're all supposed to be
  1280. 38:33wearing green. So it's super dangerous.
  1281. 38:35Um super important to stay standardized
  1282. 38:37with the colors
  1283. 38:38um even if it means you can't have your
  1284. 38:40your swag jacket. Yeah. You know there's
  1285. 38:42different ways of doing friendly force
  1286. 38:43identification. Ukraine we saw a lot of
  1287. 38:45tape um with the IDF it's all just
  1288. 38:48ranger green across across the board.
  1289. 38:50Yeah. Yeah. Pretty simple. Discipline.
  1290. 38:52Keeping your helmet on at all times.
  1291. 38:54What Do you guys wear the the chef's
  1292. 38:56hat?
  1293. 38:57I hate it. It gets stuck on so much
  1294. 38:58stuff when you're going through a
  1295. 38:59doorway.
  1296. 39:00So that that thing's you know it's
  1297. 39:02supposed to be used for open warfare you
  1298. 39:03know like
  1299. 39:04open field stuff. So in urban warfare
  1300. 39:06there's a a lot of people take them off.
  1301. 39:08Yeah. Makes sense. Makes sense.
  1302. 39:10really doing you any favors. For sure.
  1303. 39:11All right gentlemen well we've gone
  1304. 39:12through all of our gear. Let's go ahead
  1305. 39:14and get into our first topic which is
  1306. 39:15going to be basic urban movement.
  1307. 39:21So right here we're going to be talking
  1308. 39:22about basic urban combat movement. Uh
  1309. 39:25gentlemen I know you have a lot to talk
  1310. 39:26about here so please take it away.
  1311. 39:29All right.
  1312. 39:30Um so
  1313. 39:32uh our positions in in our teams are
  1314. 39:34lead machine gunners and lead marksmen.
  1315. 39:36What that means is that we lead the the
  1316. 39:38movement of uh the team and sometimes
  1317. 39:41more than that. Sometimes the company.
  1318. 39:42Part of the job description is just
  1319. 39:43looking out for all possible threats,
  1320. 39:46whether it's suspicious things on the
  1321. 39:48ground, some bombs, booby traps,
  1322. 39:51landmines. You know, you're also looking
  1323. 39:52at the at the windows in an urban
  1324. 39:55environment, you know, you have
  1325. 39:56buildings on the on all sides. So, we
  1326. 39:58kind of split it up. Like if he's going
  1327. 40:00to be on the left, I'm going to be on
  1328. 40:01the right. So, we divide the work
  1329. 40:02between us. He's watching top right, I'm
  1330. 40:04watching top left, and also both
  1331. 40:06watching the forward advancement of our
  1332. 40:08team. In terms Go ahead, Buff.
  1333. 40:11Oh, sorry. I was just going to say that
  1334. 40:12also anytime we stop for a second, say
  1335. 40:13we get to like a corner of a building
  1336. 40:15and we're not moving forward yet. So,
  1337. 40:17we'll we'll usually in between us, at
  1338. 40:19least with my battle buddy, what we
  1339. 40:20would do is we'd create a common
  1340. 40:22language basically. We'll say like,
  1341. 40:23"That's the big house. That's this.
  1342. 40:24That's this. You're going to take from
  1343. 40:26the left of this. I'm going to take from
  1344. 40:27the right of this for now. Or I'll take
  1345. 40:29the bottom, like the first floor of
  1346. 40:30these two houses, and you take the
  1347. 40:31second floor of these two houses."
  1348. 40:33Dividing it up between us.
  1349. 40:35Um it's critical. Just we're two guys,
  1350. 40:37we can we can cover more ground. So,
  1351. 40:39dividing the work between us is
  1352. 40:41is a good way to go. And passing that on
  1353. 40:43when the next people come and switch us
  1354. 40:44out if we're moving like that. So, just
  1355. 40:46as soon as they come telling them,
  1356. 40:47"Okay, you're looking at this this area.
  1357. 40:48You're looking at this area." Um that's
  1358. 40:50it. Always making sure that the cover
  1359. 40:52stays constant. In terms of windows, you
  1360. 40:54talk about watching those. What are some
  1361. 40:55typical things you're watching for
  1362. 40:57besides the obvious of a person being in
  1363. 40:59a window? Are there any other indicators
  1364. 41:00that there might be a threat that might
  1365. 41:02be coming to that window? Um so, cameras
  1366. 41:04is a good one. In general, just looking
  1367. 41:06for a long object objects that are
  1368. 41:08sticking out the window that could, you
  1369. 41:10know, indicate an RPG or some kind of
  1370. 41:12some kind of ambush. Do they do any of
  1371. 41:14the veils similar to what we do? Like a
  1372. 41:16few feet behind the window, the slanted
  1373. 41:18veil at 45 to kind of catch light, kind
  1374. 41:20of conceal things inside of it? They can
  1375. 41:23get pretty creative. They I haven't seen
  1376. 41:24that from them, but we like yeah.
  1377. 41:27In general, you're you're always looking
  1378. 41:28for something that's out of place. Yeah.
  1379. 41:30Yeah. Um exactly. Also, if you if
  1380. 41:32there's a neighborhood that's kind of
  1381. 41:33been evacuated a couple weeks ago and
  1382. 41:35then you see a house that suddenly has
  1383. 41:38like
  1384. 41:38uh there's like a hole in the wall
  1385. 41:40that's been patched up or something. So,
  1386. 41:41you kind of think like who patched that
  1387. 41:42up? Like why who is here?
  1388. 41:44Um
  1389. 41:45Also, knowing your environment like, you
  1390. 41:47know, after you've been there for a week
  1391. 41:48or so, you know,
  1392. 41:50in uh in Gaza for example, all the
  1393. 41:52buildings are just, you know, bombed
  1394. 41:54out. So, you all of a sudden you find a
  1395. 41:55building uh you open a corner and you
  1396. 41:58see a building that's untouched.
  1397. 42:00That stands out and that's something
  1398. 42:01that that you're going to keep an eye
  1399. 42:03on. Yeah. Also, with within buildings,
  1400. 42:05like uh I was in a couple buildings
  1401. 42:06where you go in you're clearing rooms,
  1402. 42:09get to a door, you see the door has
  1403. 42:10already been kicked in before. And like
  1404. 42:12if you're the first soldiers going to
  1405. 42:14that room, that's obviously a little bit
  1406. 42:15weird. You don't know if it's looters or
  1407. 42:17if it's Hamas moving through houses
  1408. 42:19looking for good emplacements. Um so,
  1409. 42:21you always want to treat that carefully
  1410. 42:23and just assume that someone else has
  1411. 42:24been in that house recently. Uh
  1412. 42:26gentlemen, now I know you guys this is
  1413. 42:27pretty basic, but would you mind showing
  1414. 42:29us some of your basic movement
  1415. 42:30techniques, actually showing as lead
  1416. 42:32marksman and lead gunner how that would
  1417. 42:34look like for the audience as you're
  1418. 42:35watching for street? Obviously,
  1419. 42:37we are in the middle of Idaho. So, we're
  1420. 42:40going to pretend there are buildings,
  1421. 42:41but if you could do that for us. All
  1422. 42:43right. So, let's just imagine that this
  1423. 42:44right down here in the middle is a
  1424. 42:45street. You have buildings on that side,
  1425. 42:47buildings on that side, and then more
  1426. 42:49dense buildings like a casbah, which is
  1427. 42:51like a dense sort of marketplace over
  1428. 42:53there. So, basically this is where we
  1429. 42:54would not want to be. We would never be
  1430. 42:55standing here in the middle of this. Um
  1431. 42:58what we would probably do is have a tank
  1432. 43:00come in here, maybe a D9 bulldozer come
  1433. 43:02through first, clear the street looking
  1434. 43:04for mines.
  1435. 43:05Um and then we would be going through
  1436. 43:06the houses on the side over there.
  1437. 43:08Either literally going through the
  1438. 43:10houses one at a time through the walls,
  1439. 43:12or we'd be going around them and between
  1440. 43:13them basically.
  1441. 43:15So, let's kind of show that. Let's
  1442. 43:16pretend like there's a row of houses
  1443. 43:17over there. We'll just talk about how we
  1444. 43:19work together as the lead machine gunner
  1445. 43:20and lead uh designated marksman.
  1446. 43:22Imagine this is basically a wall of
  1447. 43:23buildings over here. Um so,
  1448. 43:26uh Let's just say that we have a tank
  1449. 43:29over here putting cover on this wall and
  1450. 43:31you have people on the houses on the
  1451. 43:32other side of the street on the same
  1452. 43:33pace as us who are looking at these
  1453. 43:35windows up here. So, we're going to be
  1454. 43:36right up against the wall. We're going
  1455. 43:37to be focusing forward and to the left
  1456. 43:39basically, looking for targets, moving
  1457. 43:41forward, and communicating with our
  1458. 43:43platoon commander who's right behind us.
  1459. 43:45Buff, do you have any spacing off the
  1460. 43:46wall or are you guys right up against
  1461. 43:47them?
  1462. 43:48Uh it depends kind of it's kind of a
  1463. 43:49balance on where you feel there's more
  1464. 43:51danger coming from. Cuz I I'd probably
  1465. 43:53rather be up against the wall than than
  1466. 43:56to be, you know, more out in the street.
  1467. 43:58Mhm. Um and also wherever you can, if
  1468. 44:01you ever stop, get low, get as low as
  1469. 44:03you can, look for stuff to get behind.
  1470. 44:05Um so, basically if you want to move
  1471. 44:07along there, I'll just follow you.
  1472. 44:13We're moving along.
  1473. 44:15You're looking forward, I'm looking
  1474. 44:16there.
  1475. 44:17The sides. Moving along and I can say,
  1476. 44:19"Stop. Wait a second.
  1477. 44:21Wait a second. See that over there?
  1478. 44:23There's something weird about that.
  1479. 44:25Vehicle parked next to it.
  1480. 44:27Was that there earlier yesterday?
  1481. 44:29Scanning it. All right. Cool. Check out
  1482. 44:31the that. I'm going to talk to to
  1483. 44:34the man man real quick. Uh
  1484. 44:36Yo, there's a weird vehicle right over
  1485. 44:37there. You see it? That one? We're
  1486. 44:39sending the drone over there. We'll
  1487. 44:40check it out.
  1488. 44:41All right. He's sending the drone.
  1489. 44:43Um want to You want to You want to move
  1490. 44:45over?
  1491. 44:46Want to move over deeper into there and
  1492. 44:47get some better cover on the right over
  1493. 44:49here? Let's do it. Yeah, you go first.
  1494. 44:50You go first.
  1495. 44:51Go ahead.
  1496. 44:52All right.
  1497. 44:54I'm coming.
  1498. 44:56All right. Drop down here.
  1499. 44:58You want to get right behind that little
  1500. 44:59thing up there? Soon. Yeah, all right.
  1501. 45:00Go ahead.
  1502. 45:04All right. Drop low.
  1503. 45:07Are you going over there? All right.
  1504. 45:09Now, basically
  1505. 45:10I'm going to a situation where we can
  1506. 45:11now check out what's going on up there.
  1507. 45:14We
  1508. 45:14uh obviously our platoon platoon
  1509. 45:15commander is going to take control of
  1510. 45:17that. We're just assuming a kind of
  1511. 45:18defensive position, but it's a little
  1512. 45:20bit aggressive up here.
  1513. 45:22So, we're in a position where we're
  1514. 45:23controlling the threat over there. We're
  1515. 45:25able to put down fire if we need to. And
  1516. 45:27now in the back, they're going to bring
  1517. 45:27up the drone. The drone guy is going to
  1518. 45:29set up. We're in a good spot. Our
  1519. 45:31platoon commander is going to talk on
  1520. 45:32the radio, tell everyone else to wait
  1521. 45:33for a second. We're checking something
  1522. 45:34out. They can go and check it out. And
  1523. 45:36then once it's checked out,
  1524. 45:38we'll keep going basically. In terms of
  1525. 45:40the dynamic between the marksman and the
  1526. 45:42machine gunner,
  1527. 45:43what do you Where is his scanning? Where
  1528. 45:45is his kind of sectors of fire versus
  1529. 45:47where are yours? It's a very organic
  1530. 45:48thing. It's like
  1531. 45:50It's very dynamic and it's also very
  1532. 45:51organic cuz I've been working with my
  1533. 45:53battle buddy in reserve duty for the
  1534. 45:54last like 7, 8 years.
  1535. 45:56Um so, we basically like we we know each
  1536. 45:59other so well
  1537. 46:00that we don't even have to have to talk
  1538. 46:01about it most of the time. We'll just
  1539. 46:02say like, "I'm over there that house.
  1540. 46:04I'm on the left, you're on the right."
  1541. 46:05And that's it. Um and it's also
  1542. 46:08kind of you when when you walk for a
  1543. 46:09long time with the point guys in the
  1544. 46:11front and the platoon commander in
  1545. 46:12between them in the back, you just kind
  1546. 46:14of get a sense like a
  1547. 46:15sixth sense of where he is behind you
  1548. 46:18and everything and you work together
  1549. 46:19very well.
  1550. 46:20Um
  1551. 46:22So, yeah. It's not like I wouldn't say
  1552. 46:23it's a it's always this guy looking
  1553. 46:24here, this guy looking here. It's very
  1554. 46:26dynamic. Yeah. Absolutely. Uh gentlemen,
  1555. 46:29well, let's get over to the uh to the
  1556. 46:30rooms right here. Let's talk about
  1557. 46:31coming across alleyways, coming across
  1558. 46:33windows, and coming across rooms and
  1559. 46:34going through those. So, before we enter
  1560. 46:36a room, um
  1561. 46:37one more thing about the movement on the
  1562. 46:39street. When choosing which side to be
  1563. 46:40on the street, you also another another
  1564. 46:42threat factor is is the sturdiness of
  1565. 46:45the buildings.
  1566. 46:46Some buildings have just gotten shot up
  1567. 46:48so bad that they're just, you know, one
  1568. 46:50little oh away from just falling down.
  1569. 46:53Um It actually happened uh we were
  1570. 46:56waiting at a corner.
  1571. 46:57Um I was leading my team.
  1572. 47:00And right in front of me, I see like
  1573. 47:01about a seven, eight story tall
  1574. 47:03building, and it didn't even get shot or
  1575. 47:06anything.
  1576. 47:07It just
  1577. 47:08out of nowhere just collapsed on itself.
  1578. 47:10And there was uh there was another team
  1579. 47:12of uh
  1580. 47:13of uh IED ordinance guys walking past
  1581. 47:16it. And I was sure two of them got
  1582. 47:18squished. Uh but luckily uh they were
  1583. 47:20they were on the other side and they
  1584. 47:22missed it by this much. Part of part of
  1585. 47:23the job description for lead uh for the
  1586. 47:26lead guys is keeping the rest of the
  1587. 47:27team away from the hazards. Yeah. And
  1588. 47:30that's a big one. Also, a tank firing
  1589. 47:32next to you can can put a shockwave
  1590. 47:33that'll knock down a house, also knock
  1591. 47:35down a wall.
  1592. 47:36Um Yeah. Yeah. By the way, something
  1593. 47:38that's good to note here is that um
  1594. 47:40assuming that this was a big kill zone,
  1595. 47:41our only option isn't just to sprint
  1596. 47:43across it. You can bring up a D9
  1597. 47:44bulldozer and you can build little
  1598. 47:46combat emplacements along the way, just
  1599. 47:48little berms of dirt, and then you can
  1600. 47:50leapfrog from those from those and you
  1601. 47:52can add those in basically. If you're
  1602. 47:53missing a certain angle, you can just
  1603. 47:54have a D9 throw up some dirt and you can
  1604. 47:56set up a machine gunner over there in
  1605. 47:58that angle and get really good cover.
  1606. 47:59of the D9 is very specific to the IDF. I
  1607. 48:03haven't really seen those outside um in
  1608. 48:06other military usage. You want to speak
  1609. 48:07to that a little bit? It's a very
  1610. 48:09interesting combat technique. Yeah,
  1611. 48:11sure. I mean, they're they're invaluable
  1612. 48:12really. They're like uh
  1613. 48:14First of all, they got some balls
  1614. 48:15sitting like like 3 m up in the air or
  1615. 48:17whatever. Um What what is a D9 first
  1616. 48:19off?
  1617. 48:20It's a it's a CAT D9 bulldozer that's
  1618. 48:21been up armored significantly. It's got
  1619. 48:24a hook on the back. It's got a huge uh
  1620. 48:26shovel in the front. It's got a cage on
  1621. 48:28it. Um
  1622. 48:30Usually have two guys in there like a
  1623. 48:31commander and an operator. And basically
  1624. 48:33they just uh they're just there to help
  1625. 48:36out with everything. They can peel a
  1626. 48:37wall off of a house for you so you can
  1627. 48:39see what's inside. They can create a
  1628. 48:41breaching hole by basically just peeling
  1629. 48:43off a bit of a house. They can knock
  1630. 48:44down walls. They can um clear trees.
  1631. 48:48They can clear anything basically. Like
  1632. 48:50they could drag like 10 telephone poles
  1633. 48:51behind them. It's pretty ridiculous. And
  1634. 48:54they're just uh if you find a tunnel,
  1635. 48:56you can use them to check the entrance
  1636. 48:58for mines cuz they're almost always
  1637. 48:59mined. Um sometimes you can find a
  1638. 49:01tunnel because a D9 will just randomly
  1639. 49:03like explode a little bit. I say explode
  1640. 49:05a little bit cuz they don't even like
  1641. 49:07sometimes the D9 operators don't even
  1642. 49:08notice when they run over a mine. Cuz
  1643. 49:10you have like an anti-personnel mine or
  1644. 49:11something. It just makes a little
  1645. 49:12explosion. The guy's sitting in like a
  1646. 49:1540-ton machine or 50-ton machine or
  1647. 49:17something doesn't always necessarily
  1648. 49:18feel it. Um but that's a good way to
  1649. 49:20find a tunnel sometimes. And basically
  1650. 49:22you can just use them also to make
  1651. 49:23embankments. You can make a
  1652. 49:24fortification. If you're forced to sleep
  1653. 49:26outside somewhere in the middle of um
  1654. 49:29open field and you haven't gotten yet
  1655. 49:31into buildings, you can have D9s build
  1656. 49:33you what's called the mignon, which is
  1657. 49:35uh like a three or four walled just
  1658. 49:38fortification of dirt walls. It's a
  1659. 49:40Exactly. They can dig some small
  1660. 49:42trenches. You know, it's funny that you
  1661. 49:44mentioned up armored bulldozers. I'd I'd
  1662. 49:46say Americans know a thing or two about
  1663. 49:48up armoring. The
  1664. 49:51killdozer. But no, it truly is a very
  1665. 49:54interesting concept and it's something
  1666. 49:55to take away because it's been
  1667. 49:57incredibly effective for the IDF and
  1668. 49:59during urban combat. Yeah, they're
  1669. 50:01they're incredibly effective and we got
  1670. 50:02to we got to protect them basically. So
  1671. 50:03one of the things that IDF has done a
  1672. 50:05lot better in this war than in the
  1673. 50:07previous war in Gaza is just really good
  1674. 50:11dynamic working work between tanks, D9s,
  1675. 50:15bulldozers, the air force. Infantry.
  1676. 50:17Yeah, infantry everyone basically
  1677. 50:19because it's it's your job as infantry.
  1678. 50:21Infantry and tanks basically cannot
  1679. 50:23cannot support themselves. Like they
  1680. 50:25need Tanks need close infantry support
  1681. 50:27and literally by close as in someone
  1682. 50:29pointing their gun barrel at the tank
  1683. 50:31because sometimes a guy will run up come
  1684. 50:33out of a out of a corner come out of a
  1685. 50:34house come out of a tunnel run up to a
  1686. 50:36tank with a magnet mine or with an
  1687. 50:38explosive mine shove it on the tank and
  1688. 50:40get out of there and then you either try
  1689. 50:41to shoot him before he gets to the tank
  1690. 50:43shoot him obviously after he gets to the
  1691. 50:45tank it's always a good idea to shoot
  1692. 50:46him in general. But you can also shoot
  1693. 50:48at the mine and sometimes people have
  1694. 50:50knocked magnet mines off of tanks
  1695. 50:52because they're basically RPG warheads
  1696. 50:54that are inverted and magneted on and if
  1697. 50:56they're not facing into the tank armor
  1698. 50:58they're basically just making a big
  1699. 50:59explosion. People might think of a
  1700. 51:01magnetic mine as some very complex thing
  1701. 51:03but it's literally as simple as taking
  1702. 51:05some rare earth magnets gluing them to
  1703. 51:06something that's explosive and slapping
  1704. 51:08those onto a vehicle.
  1705. 51:09you're in Hamas it's very complicated
  1706. 51:11you'll never figure it out don't even
  1707. 51:12try. As the lead gunners we're the first
  1708. 51:14guys stepping in in into new territory
  1709. 51:16into enemy territory. So one of the
  1710. 51:18things that help us out is
  1711. 51:20is walking where other armored vehicles
  1712. 51:22or other people have walked. For example
  1713. 51:24tank treads vehicle treads. That's going
  1714. 51:26to be something that we just stick to
  1715. 51:28that and we're less worried about about
  1716. 51:30land mines and stuff like that. It
  1717. 51:32doesn't mean we're going to walk on a
  1718. 51:33road though. So if there's just a road
  1719. 51:34it's there we'd prefer to walk next to
  1720. 51:36the road than on the road. That's right.
  1721. 51:38Cuz the road is a classic place to set
  1722. 51:39up an ambush for an armored vehicle.
  1723. 51:41Okay, so right here we have a simulated
  1724. 51:42building.
  1725. 51:44Obviously these aren't real walls they
  1726. 51:45simulate walls that way you can see
  1727. 51:47through for filming purposes.
  1728. 51:50It's all pretend. So basically the
  1729. 51:52scenario here is that we're going into
  1730. 51:54another house to search it and clear it
  1731. 51:56and move forward through the through the
  1732. 51:58territory. So basically this simulates
  1733. 52:00like either a berm or just like
  1734. 52:02any a piece of debris that we're using
  1735. 52:04as cover.
  1736. 52:05There's already going to be a hole in
  1737. 52:06the wall that's not a door cuz we don't
  1738. 52:08go through doors.
  1739. 52:10We make our own doors basically so
  1740. 52:12that's either going to be a breaching
  1741. 52:13charge that we ran up laid come back and
  1742. 52:15blown or it's going to be a hole from a
  1743. 52:18tank round or it's going to be maybe a
  1744. 52:20D9 went in there and scraped off a
  1745. 52:21little bit of the wall. Why have you
  1746. 52:22guys not using doors? Doors are just
  1747. 52:24super easy to I mean
  1748. 52:26everyone predicts that people are going
  1749. 52:27to go through doors, right? No one's
  1750. 52:29going to just booby trap every single
  1751. 52:30inch of the wall in their house. So when
  1752. 52:32you go through the wall much higher
  1753. 52:33chance that you're going through a clean
  1754. 52:34piece of the house. Awesome. Jacob.
  1755. 52:37Jacob.
  1756. 53:05Yallah. Over there. All right.
  1757. 53:08Ready? Remote. Remote.
  1758. 53:13Yallah.
  1759. 53:15YALLAH AGAIN.
  1760. 53:22YALLAH.
  1761. 53:23DID I GET IT?
  1762. 53:25COME BACK.
  1763. 53:30YALLAH.
  1764. 53:47WE GOT 2% ON RIGHT CORNER.
  1765. 53:50YOU SEE anything in the house in your
  1766. 53:51area? Nope, we're clear. All right,
  1767. 53:53let's go and let's bring in some guys.
  1768. 53:55Get it done.
  1769. 54:00Naki.
  1770. 54:01Good job, mate.
  1771. 54:02Good job. Yeah. Thank you.
  1772. 54:04Thank you. Your first war crime.
  1773. 54:06First recorded war crime. First time
  1774. 54:07fighting for Israel.
  1775. 54:09So a lot just went on there gentlemen
  1776. 54:11and I had no idea what the you were
  1777. 54:12saying so let's go ahead and let's go
  1778. 54:13through it one more time.
  1779. 54:16Not as far as running it but explain
  1780. 54:17what you're doing from each position in
  1781. 54:19English. Sure. So Jacob you want me to
  1782. 54:22take it away? Go for it, yeah. Yeah, so
  1783. 54:24basically we're starting in this
  1784. 54:26position.
  1785. 54:27I kind of told him what we're going to
  1786. 54:29do. It doesn't really matter none none
  1787. 54:31of us is is you know in charge of the
  1788. 54:32other. But we're we're an organic team.
  1789. 54:35At the end of the day it doesn't matter.
  1790. 54:36If he has a better idea he would tell me
  1791. 54:37he has a better idea. I basically just
  1792. 54:39said we're going to
  1793. 54:41we're going to lay down some fire on the
  1794. 54:42windows and around the building. We're
  1795. 54:44going to give some heavy fire. We're
  1796. 54:45going to run up and we're going to
  1797. 54:47get onto that right close corner to
  1798. 54:49here. I'm going to aim down you're going
  1799. 54:51to aim at the door then we're going to
  1800. 54:52go throw a grenade and go into the door
  1801. 54:53basically. So that's exactly what we
  1802. 54:55did. From here you know from behind
  1803. 54:56cover we laid down some suppressive
  1804. 54:58fire.
  1805. 54:59If it was just our team it would be us
  1806. 55:01but if we had a tank we might ask him to
  1807. 55:03pump a couple hundred rounds from the FN
  1808. 55:05MAG into there or something. We threw we
  1809. 55:07shot some Obviously if this is an actual
  1810. 55:08house with windows we would shoot into
  1811. 55:10all the windows as well.
  1812. 55:12And if there's anything in the
  1813. 55:13surrounding houses in the direction of
  1814. 55:15fire that we're allowed to do because if
  1815. 55:17you have a lot of troops you're not
  1816. 55:18going to just be shooting every
  1817. 55:18direction. So in our direction of fire
  1818. 55:20we would shoot anything that looks like
  1819. 55:22there might be someone behind it. So
  1820. 55:23What's the amount of men that you
  1821. 55:25typically have conducting something like
  1822. 55:26this? Well you you we usually go four
  1823. 55:28guys into a house because the more
  1824. 55:29people going into the house the higher
  1825. 55:31the
  1826. 55:32you know casualty rate can be if the
  1827. 55:34house is booby trapped. So we try to go
  1828. 55:36in with the small team clear and then
  1829. 55:38we're going to
  1830. 55:39if there's a second floor we're going to
  1831. 55:41clear the first floor bring in another
  1832. 55:42pair of people to hold the the stairwell
  1833. 55:45and then once the first floor is clear
  1834. 55:46go up get the second floor third floor
  1835. 55:47whatever. So try to keep it small. And
  1836. 55:51then once it's clear then you can move
  1837. 55:52in troops which we did at the end to
  1838. 55:54kind of either make positions or take
  1839. 55:56positions within the house and lay some
  1840. 55:59fire down down range. Okay, so as we're
  1841. 56:01moving up to here Lev took the right
  1842. 56:03corner and I took my corner over here on
  1843. 56:06the on the opening we made. As soon as I
  1844. 56:08got to this point I saw the first
  1845. 56:11terrorist okay and I opened fire on him
  1846. 56:13and neutralized him.
  1847. 56:14Okay and then I get on my corner.
  1848. 56:17Okay. Jacob by this point Mike would
  1849. 56:19already come up behind me and Mike's
  1850. 56:20here simulating another pair of
  1851. 56:22soldiers. So he came up he tapped me on
  1852. 56:23the shoulder just to tell me that he was
  1853. 56:25here. I told him basically what I'm
  1854. 56:26looking at and then
  1855. 56:28he swapped me out and now I'm available
  1856. 56:30to come here and be with you. Yeah, go
  1857. 56:31ahead.
  1858. 56:31Okay, once I know that he's with me okay
  1859. 56:34then I went for my grenade. Lev told me
  1860. 56:36that he's that he's that he took my my
  1861. 56:39cover okay then I was able to put down
  1862. 56:41my weapon go for my grenade
  1863. 56:44chuck it
  1864. 56:45and then we took a couple steps back
  1865. 56:48let it go up okay and then basically we
  1866. 56:51gave the command to enter the house with
  1867. 56:53live fire okay. Which means we're going
  1868. 56:55to be shooting at anything suspicious we
  1869. 56:57see in the house furniture um
  1870. 57:00anything that could be a potential
  1871. 57:01threat. Um
  1872. 57:04so then we started entering. As soon as
  1873. 57:06I entered this corner I saw this
  1874. 57:08terrorist shot him up okay neutralized
  1875. 57:10him.
  1876. 57:11And then we both entered together saw
  1877. 57:13this guy neutralized him.
  1878. 57:15And and then Lev took initiative and
  1879. 57:17went to the far end of the house to
  1880. 57:19start looking for more terrorists.
  1881. 57:21Okay,
  1882. 57:22in general when you when you're taking
  1883. 57:23over a new house okay you're usually on
  1884. 57:25the front lines of the advancement. So
  1885. 57:28it's pretty realistic that there's going
  1886. 57:30to be a direction that we're going to
  1887. 57:32expect there to be some kind of uh
  1888. 57:34continuation of the combat. So Lev goes
  1889. 57:37opens this window. He sees a terrorist.
  1890. 57:40Lev you want to take it away? Yeah, so
  1891. 57:47but I came here found an opening look
  1892. 57:48out it see a terrorist over there so
  1893. 57:50shoot him and I yelled terrorist
  1894. 57:53so that he would know what I'm shooting
  1895. 57:54at basically. Okay, once I heard that
  1896. 57:56there's continuation my first instinct
  1897. 57:58is to look for a way to support him.
  1898. 58:00Okay, if the if the window is too small
  1899. 58:03I realize I can't get in with him and
  1900. 58:04put two barrels on him. So I I went
  1901. 58:07through here. Lev finished neutralizing
  1902. 58:09him and over here we had two more guys
  1903. 58:11simulated by Mike searching for more
  1904. 58:15insurgents. And searching the inside of
  1905. 58:17the house. That was me. Yeah, because
  1906. 58:19before you before you can bring in all
  1907. 58:20your guys you're going to want to clear
  1908. 58:21the house not just from terrorists.
  1909. 58:23First you go through and you can look
  1910. 58:24for for immediate threats terrorists you
  1911. 58:26know IEDs that are right out there in
  1912. 58:28the in the middle or something then
  1913. 58:29after that you can go through and look
  1914. 58:30for it a little bit more closely but the
  1915. 58:32most important thing is to make sure
  1916. 58:33you're not bringing all your friends in
  1917. 58:34your house that's going to explode.
  1918. 58:35Exactly. That first sweep that you do
  1919. 58:38um
  1920. 58:39you're you're you're being as thorough
  1921. 58:40as you can but you're moving okay you're
  1922. 58:42moving and you're you're not able to go
  1923. 58:45down to little details so doing the
  1924. 58:46final
  1925. 58:48doing that final search is critical so
  1926. 58:50that you can you can kind of stamp your
  1927. 58:52signature on it to tell the rest of you
  1928. 58:54guys okay you guys can come in
  1929. 58:56and not put them into a booby trap. So
  1930. 58:58good guys there's a lot to CQB there's a
  1931. 59:02lot to urban combat. These are some of
  1932. 59:03the very simple the simplest of
  1933. 59:06movements to get building to building to
  1934. 59:08move down roads. There's a lot more to
  1935. 59:11it.
  1936. 59:11We're not here to make you experts we're
  1937. 59:12here to explain some things and to help
  1938. 59:15you think a little bit more deeply about
  1939. 59:17the subject of urban combat. With that
  1940. 59:19being said gentlemen let's continue. So
  1941. 59:21kind of wrapping up movement in urban
  1942. 59:24combat situations I think one thing to
  1943. 59:26note is going to be friendly own troops
  1944. 59:28otherwise known as a flot. I understand
  1945. 59:30that's a very fluid situation with what
  1946. 59:32you guys have been dealing with. So, if
  1947. 59:33you want to speak to that.
  1948. 59:34sure. For sure. As opposed to like
  1949. 59:36previous conflicts, basically in this
  1950. 59:38conflict we've realized that there is no
  1951. 59:41forward line of troops basically. And
  1952. 59:43like there they could be tunnels
  1953. 59:44anywhere. You could pass over a section
  1954. 59:46of of dirt. You could cross over with a
  1955. 59:48D9 bulldozer and it could still be a
  1956. 59:50tunnel there. So, we basically have to
  1957. 59:52360 defense always. You have some lines
  1958. 59:55of fire that are more closed off than
  1959. 59:56others because you know there's there's
  1960. 59:58troops over there. But in in general,
  1961. 1:00:01especially when it comes to like
  1962. 1:00:03doing close support on tanks and stuff
  1963. 1:00:05like that, basically 360 defense that
  1964. 1:00:07people could pop out of any any
  1965. 1:00:09location, any house. And whenever you
  1966. 1:00:11leave a house and come back to it later,
  1967. 1:00:13you it's as if you've never been there
  1968. 1:00:15basically. You have to open it up and
  1969. 1:00:16clear it from from scratch and check for
  1970. 1:00:19booby traps, mines. Some some people
  1971. 1:00:20have been in the same house 10, 12, 15
  1972. 1:00:23times and then they come back one time
  1973. 1:00:24and it's booby trapped. So, it's uh
  1974. 1:00:27Are there any things to look for that
  1975. 1:00:28might indicate a booby trap? I mean,
  1976. 1:00:30there's there's some stuff you can do
  1977. 1:00:31when you leave your house that if you
  1978. 1:00:32want to make sure that it's not being
  1979. 1:00:33booby trapped. You can put a clear tape
  1980. 1:00:35over the doorways and stuff. You can
  1981. 1:00:38close stuff in a certain way. You can
  1982. 1:00:39move furniture around so you can see if
  1983. 1:00:41it's been moved when you come back. In
  1984. 1:00:42general also, we just kind of want to
  1985. 1:00:44close off the houses when we leave them
  1986. 1:00:45cuz we don't want cats to come in and
  1987. 1:00:46take shits in our kitchens. So.
  1988. 1:00:47Yeah. Now, this video is brought to you
  1989. 1:00:49by Rocky Boots. If you're not familiar
  1990. 1:00:51with Rocky Boots, I am. I spent a lot of
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  2007. 1:01:23"Oh man, he's got the S2Vs, bro. What is
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  2009. 1:01:30were all pretty stoked about them. So,
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  2029. 1:02:10much. Thank you, Rocky Boots. Let's get
  2030. 1:02:12back to the video.
  2031. 1:02:17So, we've covered a lot of information
  2032. 1:02:19from kits to combat to combat movement.
  2033. 1:02:21Uh let's talk about weapon systems right
  2034. 1:02:23here. Gentlemen, please. On you.
  2035. 1:02:26Um so, this is a this is a saw
  2036. 1:02:28obviously. Usually I run a Negev um
  2037. 1:02:30Negev light machine gun, but this is the
  2038. 1:02:32same optics combo that I use. So, I like
  2039. 1:02:34to have the EOTech with a flip up
  2040. 1:02:36magnifier. If I wasn't the point machine
  2041. 1:02:38gunner, I probably wouldn't put on a
  2042. 1:02:39magnifier just for the weight and the
  2043. 1:02:40simplicity. But, being that we're both
  2044. 1:02:42out in the front, I like to be able to
  2045. 1:02:44look out a little bit farther, see
  2046. 1:02:45farther ahead of me, help look for
  2047. 1:02:47cameras and stuff like that, look for
  2048. 1:02:49ambushes. And it's just, you know, fun.
  2049. 1:02:51You can draw smiley faces on walls and
  2050. 1:02:53stuff from far away. Is this what you do
  2051. 1:02:55in your off time? I can't comment on
  2052. 1:02:57that. Um And then I I have the like IDF
  2053. 1:03:01issued I think old Elbit like laser on
  2054. 1:03:04mine. Just an IR laser and then I put a
  2055. 1:03:05Streamlight flashlight on the left side.
  2056. 1:03:08I actually modified my Negev by screwing
  2057. 1:03:10with my multi-tool screwing on a plastic
  2058. 1:03:12Picatinny rail to the bottom so I could
  2059. 1:03:14uh add a a vertical foregrip just like
  2060. 1:03:17this. What I and then the Negev lets you
  2061. 1:03:20fold the stock in. And I really like
  2062. 1:03:21about that is it was super easy to
  2063. 1:03:23switch stocks like this with the stock
  2064. 1:03:24right in your chest. You get really
  2065. 1:03:26really easily get around corners like
  2066. 1:03:27that.
  2067. 1:03:28Um and then the Negev also has 150 round
  2068. 1:03:31drums. I would carry one here, one here,
  2069. 1:03:33one here, one in the pack. And then
  2070. 1:03:35on my battle belt right here another
  2071. 1:03:37like 120 rounds or something. Then I'm
  2072. 1:03:39having an extra thousand back in the
  2073. 1:03:41rucksack.
  2074. 1:03:41Are you guys just carrying
  2075. 1:03:43you know M855? Is it like
  2076. 1:03:45The green We we green tip. Yeah,
  2077. 1:03:46exactly. We both do. As designated
  2078. 1:03:48marksman and machine gunners both have
  2079. 1:03:49green tip. Do you want to talk to the
  2080. 1:03:51the feet? I know we we had different
  2081. 1:03:53opinions on
  2082. 1:03:53was something interesting that Mike and
  2083. 1:03:54I were talking about. Basically, um the
  2084. 1:03:57default basically in the IDF, at least
  2085. 1:03:58where I am, is you walk around with them
  2086. 1:04:00open up like this. So, if you need to
  2087. 1:04:02sprawl down, you can just sprawl down in
  2088. 1:04:03a second with them already open. Very
  2089. 1:04:05athletic.
  2090. 1:04:05Um
  2091. 1:04:06which is which is nice to do. You were
  2092. 1:04:09saying you guys walk around with them
  2093. 1:04:10folding backwards a lot. What do you do
  2094. 1:04:12usually? Um Possibly cuz the Negev
  2095. 1:04:14design, once you have a handle over here
  2096. 1:04:16you can't fold them backwards. Okay.
  2097. 1:04:17Um also the the PTT cable would get in
  2098. 1:04:20the way and stuff. So, I would fold them
  2099. 1:04:22if I wanted to, I would just fold them
  2100. 1:04:23forwards like this. And then this is
  2101. 1:04:24nice cuz I can really easily rest this
  2102. 1:04:26on um Exactly. So, I can really easily
  2103. 1:04:29rest this on something like that.
  2104. 1:04:31Um maybe get some contrast against it.
  2105. 1:04:33And also, if I want to really steady it,
  2106. 1:04:35I can actually put my hand on one of
  2107. 1:04:36these while it's rested forward and I
  2108. 1:04:37can crank down on the whole thing and
  2109. 1:04:38get super steady.
  2110. 1:04:40Um and also, if there's a broken window,
  2111. 1:04:42I can use these to gently kind of gently
  2112. 1:04:44smash out the rest of the glass of the
  2113. 1:04:46window and then clear the window frames
  2114. 1:04:47so I'm not going to cut myself. Yep. Um
  2115. 1:04:49obviously these are different from the
  2116. 1:04:51Negev. Yeah, a bit different. Um but,
  2117. 1:04:54you know, use them for similar stuff.
  2118. 1:04:55Also, if you're shooting through bars on
  2119. 1:04:57a window, which a lot of them have, you
  2120. 1:04:59can really easily rest those on the bars
  2121. 1:05:00of the window and get to a good
  2122. 1:05:02position.
  2123. 1:05:03Good. There's there's there's something
  2124. 1:05:04for everything, right?
  2125. 1:05:05sure.
  2126. 1:05:05Tactics are going 100% going to change.
  2127. 1:05:07Yeah. Um in terms of the ammunition, are
  2128. 1:05:09any of your teammates carrying belts of
  2129. 1:05:11ammo for you as well? Um
  2130. 1:05:14I mean, I have occasionally. If we're if
  2131. 1:05:16we're going somewhere far away without a
  2132. 1:05:17lot of resupply, I'll throw in some
  2133. 1:05:18extra belts with other people. But,
  2134. 1:05:20people have enough stuff to carry in
  2135. 1:05:22general. I like to carry my own ammo.
  2136. 1:05:24I'm of the the firm belief that
  2137. 1:05:26designated marksman, who are always the
  2138. 1:05:27battle buddy of a Negev, are a little
  2139. 1:05:28bit weaker mentally and that's why
  2140. 1:05:30they're marksman and not machine
  2141. 1:05:31gunners. Um so, I try try not to, you
  2142. 1:05:34know, make their life too hard. Of
  2143. 1:05:35course. Yeah. You want to make it too
  2144. 1:05:37difficult. I mean, this guy is actually
  2145. 1:05:38a machine gunner like
  2146. 1:05:40before he before he switched units. So,
  2147. 1:05:42in my team I'm usually running a a light
  2148. 1:05:45machine gun Negev also.
  2149. 1:05:47Um a funny story, when we were first
  2150. 1:05:49going into Gaza they told us that we
  2151. 1:05:50weren't going to have resupply for
  2152. 1:05:52a little above 48 hours. So, we ended up
  2153. 1:05:55doing is I took my usual four drums uh
  2154. 1:06:00and I put in a fifth.
  2155. 1:06:01And then my battle buddy took two more
  2156. 1:06:04drums.
  2157. 1:06:05Um so, that's like seven drums or
  2158. 1:06:08something like that.
  2159. 1:06:10Yeah.
  2160. 1:06:10So, we we went in we went in heavy and
  2161. 1:06:13uh and later later regretted it. We
  2162. 1:06:14could have we didn't have to bring that
  2163. 1:06:15much. But, we wanted to be better safe
  2164. 1:06:17than sorry, you know. 100%. I mean,
  2165. 1:06:19yeah, for sure. And then side arms, talk
  2166. 1:06:21about
  2167. 1:06:21talk about your current setup because
  2168. 1:06:22No, go go through your side arm as well
  2169. 1:06:24right now.
  2170. 1:06:24Okay. So, my side arm over here, this
  2171. 1:06:26isn't exactly indicative of it, but M&P
  2172. 1:06:282.0 compact 17 round magazine. Um the
  2173. 1:06:31one
  2174. 1:06:32M&P because of our video?
  2175. 1:06:34Uh partly. Hey, let's go.
  2176. 1:06:38I just use that video if anyone shits on
  2177. 1:06:39it.
  2178. 1:06:40And they're like, "You need the Glock.
  2179. 1:06:41The Glock is the reliable gun, you know?
  2180. 1:06:43It's the reliable one." You hear that
  2181. 1:06:44all the time, right? Of course he does.
  2182. 1:06:45He's a Glock fanboy.
  2183. 1:06:47everyone's like like you you need the
  2184. 1:06:49Glock. Only the Glock. I'm like, "You
  2185. 1:06:51can buy other things besides for Glock."
  2186. 1:06:52It's like, you know, everyone everyone's
  2187. 1:06:54working on it. I have a red dot on here
  2188. 1:06:56and a flashlight. And actually on the
  2189. 1:06:577th of October, um I didn't have a
  2190. 1:07:00flashlight yet on my on my Negev. So, we
  2191. 1:07:03were just like straight up drafted and
  2192. 1:07:05thrown into it. So, I actually cleared a
  2193. 1:07:07lot of the houses in Kfar Aza, like the
  2194. 1:07:08Israeli houses, with just my handgun and
  2195. 1:07:11with this slung to the side like that
  2196. 1:07:12basically. And cleared them with a
  2197. 1:07:14handgun with the flashlight going
  2198. 1:07:15through the rooms. Wild. Yeah. All
  2199. 1:07:17right. So,
  2200. 1:07:19like I said, in my team I'm usually a
  2201. 1:07:21light machine gunnist, but there was
  2202. 1:07:22definitely a month in Gaza where I
  2203. 1:07:24joined up with a different unit and I
  2204. 1:07:27was lead marksman. Um So, basically a
  2205. 1:07:31marksman gun in the IDF, it's going to
  2206. 1:07:34look it's going to look a lot like this.
  2207. 1:07:36Uh it's standard M4 um flat top with
  2208. 1:07:41with an ACOG optic. Um personally, I
  2209. 1:07:44added a piggyback prefer so I have
  2210. 1:07:46something for close range.
  2211. 1:07:48Um
  2212. 1:07:50and the IDF issued M4 is going to come
  2213. 1:07:53with is going to come with the little
  2214. 1:07:55legs here. Uh the bipod.
  2215. 1:07:57Uh I don't like them. They're heavy.
  2216. 1:07:59And it just it doesn't feel right for my
  2217. 1:08:01hand. And I think it's I think it's a
  2218. 1:08:03personal preference. Uh what you shoot
  2219. 1:08:05best with is what you should do. So, I
  2220. 1:08:07like I like to keep it clean without a
  2221. 1:08:09grip. Yeah, flashlight and PEC.
  2222. 1:08:11Now, in terms of your flashlights, you
  2223. 1:08:12are keeping caps on those for
  2224. 1:08:14Yes. So, I we actually we have someone
  2225. 1:08:17sew these
  2226. 1:08:18these basically like cloth covers for
  2227. 1:08:21them.
  2228. 1:08:21Um they're basically like a like a
  2229. 1:08:24stretchy material. And you just kind of
  2230. 1:08:26stick it on, it's stuck on. And if you
  2231. 1:08:27want to pull it off, you pull it off.
  2232. 1:08:28Nice. Um and yeah, just to just to make
  2233. 1:08:31minimize any risk of flash. Now, and to
  2234. 1:08:34be clear, you're using the
  2235. 1:08:36This is a battery powered ACOG. It's
  2236. 1:08:38what we had on hand. But, you're using
  2237. 1:08:40the fiber optic ACOG.
  2238. 1:08:41So, active service
  2239. 1:08:43active service combatants are using this
  2240. 1:08:45one.
  2241. 1:08:45Oh, cool. Okay.
  2242. 1:08:46Okay.
  2243. 1:08:47But, I I haven't used it. They didn't
  2244. 1:08:49have it when I was in active service.
  2245. 1:08:51Yeah. Now, I've noticed that you guys
  2246. 1:08:52haven't talked about suppressors at all.
  2247. 1:08:54Is that because they're not issued? So,
  2248. 1:08:56only certain units are going to have
  2249. 1:08:57them. It's usually tier one units.
  2250. 1:08:59Okay. Um we we haven't used them at all.
  2251. 1:09:01Is it something you'd like to have on on
  2252. 1:09:03your weapons? A suppressor?
  2253. 1:09:05Yeah. Um yeah, sure. I'd like that.
  2254. 1:09:07Yeah. I don't know. Like uh
  2255. 1:09:09I feel like combat is so loud anyway
  2256. 1:09:11with with heavy machine guns and with
  2257. 1:09:13tanks firing and I'm like uh
  2258. 1:09:17I don't know. I mean, yeah, it can be
  2259. 1:09:18really loud with someone shooting, but
  2260. 1:09:19it'd be nice to have the option, though.
  2261. 1:09:21I wouldn't put extra weight on my Negev.
  2262. 1:09:22It's already so heavy.
  2263. 1:09:23No, not on Negev.
  2264. 1:09:25Not on the Negev.
  2265. 1:09:26No. Interesting. Yeah, so I mean at
  2266. 1:09:28night I guess that's kind of the big the
  2267. 1:09:30big thing. But are you
  2268. 1:09:31barrel negative makes a huge fireball at
  2269. 1:09:32night.
  2270. 1:09:33Yeah. Yeah, but it's beautiful in a way,
  2271. 1:09:35you know? Yeah, you know You got to put
  2272. 1:09:36down that suppressing fire. You guys
  2273. 1:09:37seen a lot of night fighting or do they
  2274. 1:09:39not come out at night? The night
  2275. 1:09:41fighting is more static in both
  2276. 1:09:42directions. There have been some
  2277. 1:09:43situations where they come and try to
  2278. 1:09:45overrun posts at night, but usually it's
  2279. 1:09:48it's not
  2280. 1:09:49Usually it's a daytime skirmish. Okay.
  2281. 1:09:50Is that due to a lack of nods or
  2282. 1:09:52thermals on their end? Um I would say
  2283. 1:09:55so, yeah. I would say they fear our
  2284. 1:09:57ability to Fair.
  2285. 1:09:59Yeah.
  2286. 1:09:59With the thermals and the nods, yeah.
  2287. 1:10:01Fair enough. You want to talk to your
  2288. 1:10:02handgun?
  2289. 1:10:03Yeah.
  2290. 1:10:04Um
  2291. 1:10:07It's my baby.
  2292. 1:10:08yeah, so I run I usually run a Glock 19.
  2293. 1:10:11It's a Glock 17,
  2294. 1:10:13but it's pretty close to what I to what
  2295. 1:10:15I use. I have a mounted optic,
  2296. 1:10:17Holosun SCS.
  2297. 1:10:19And and also I run the TLR-8 flashlight
  2298. 1:10:22and laser.
  2299. 1:10:23Um yeah, it's also like for for close
  2300. 1:10:27for like small bathrooms and stuff like
  2301. 1:10:29that.
  2302. 1:10:30When you're running a machine gun and
  2303. 1:10:31you're opening really small corners like
  2304. 1:10:33that, really small like meter on meter
  2305. 1:10:36rooms,
  2306. 1:10:37you're going to go for the for the
  2307. 1:10:39handgun. Yeah, also if you have to crawl
  2308. 1:10:40up into a crawl space or something. If
  2309. 1:10:42you I've had a couple situations where
  2310. 1:10:43like above the doorway there's like a
  2311. 1:10:45crawl space for storage. So you crawl
  2312. 1:10:47climb up climb on up there and you're
  2313. 1:10:48not going to be using a machine gun.
  2314. 1:10:49Yeah, you're just going to climb up and
  2315. 1:10:50you're going to have and you're going to
  2316. 1:10:51have a handgun.
  2317. 1:10:52like that. Also in the you know in in in
  2318. 1:10:54inside Israel in Kfar Aza on the 9th of
  2319. 1:10:56October, we were growing up to a lot of
  2320. 1:10:58roofs. So climbing up to the roof on a
  2321. 1:11:00ladder, you're going to poke up your
  2322. 1:11:01head on the ladder with a with the
  2323. 1:11:03handgun and not go up with your machine
  2324. 1:11:04gun. Yeah. Um so gentlemen, obviously
  2325. 1:11:07when it comes to the weapons that you
  2326. 1:11:08guys are using, these are issued. You're
  2327. 1:11:09in a professional military. There's
  2328. 1:11:11really not going to be much of a choice
  2329. 1:11:12when it comes to them. And often times
  2330. 1:11:14you can see with whatever they have,
  2331. 1:11:16they make it work. And that's a big
  2332. 1:11:18thing you saw in the United States
  2333. 1:11:19military or any military. So
  2334. 1:11:22there's always going to be that element
  2335. 1:11:23when we're talking about the weapons
  2336. 1:11:24that you guys are issued and what you're
  2337. 1:11:26kind of you have what you work with and
  2338. 1:11:29that's what you get. There's not really
  2339. 1:11:30much you can do about it. Yeah. Although
  2340. 1:11:32the gear I guess is the exception. Like
  2341. 1:11:34and I think in this war especially
  2342. 1:11:35there's been so much
  2343. 1:11:37um so much donation money coming in from
  2344. 1:11:39the Jewish community. So many people who
  2345. 1:11:42are you know no longer in a unit who
  2346. 1:11:43want to donate back to people in our
  2347. 1:11:44unit. So we've kind of been upgrading
  2348. 1:11:45our gear the whole time. Nice. And I
  2349. 1:11:47think it's you kind of see the super
  2350. 1:11:49important when you get new gear
  2351. 1:11:50obviously to go out and test it and run
  2352. 1:11:51around in it before you get to combat.
  2353. 1:11:54Sure. Um don't be a dumbass and like
  2354. 1:11:56cross the border into Gaza and be like
  2355. 1:11:57oh my backpack's uncomfortable.
  2356. 1:11:59You're you're a dumbass, you know. Just
  2357. 1:12:01test it in your in your on your base.
  2358. 1:12:02Yeah. Awesome. Well gentlemen, thank you
  2359. 1:12:04for talking about the weapons. Um
  2360. 1:12:06let's talk a little bit about October
  2361. 1:12:087th. It was a pretty interesting
  2362. 1:12:09scenario and I know there's some good
  2363. 1:12:11lessons learned there. So let's go ahead
  2364. 1:12:13and roll into that. Yeah.
  2365. 1:12:17So a lot of people might not be familiar
  2366. 1:12:19with what October 7th was and how it
  2367. 1:12:20kind of redefined a lot of combat for
  2368. 1:12:22you guys. So if you could explain what
  2369. 1:12:24October 7th was and then explain
  2370. 1:12:27a lot of the combat and how things were
  2371. 1:12:29kind of different during that time.
  2372. 1:12:30Basically October 7th was a super super
  2373. 1:12:32well coordinated really hardcore attack
  2374. 1:12:35across the border the southern border
  2375. 1:12:37with Gaza by Hamas. It started with
  2376. 1:12:40leading up to it basically
  2377. 1:12:41systematically removing and overpowering
  2378. 1:12:45the
  2379. 1:12:47what do you call it? Surveillance
  2380. 1:12:48uh systems the surveillance systems on
  2381. 1:12:50the border. So sending drones into
  2382. 1:12:52attack surveillance towers, taking out
  2383. 1:12:53cameras. And then there was like a heavy
  2384. 1:12:56very heavy rocket barrage in the
  2385. 1:12:57morning. Personally I was I was in
  2386. 1:13:00Beersheba at my parents' house with with
  2387. 1:13:01my wife. And you were with your kids
  2388. 1:13:04there basically. And so we all went into
  2389. 1:13:05our bomb shelters. And that's kind of
  2390. 1:13:07what they were counting on is having a
  2391. 1:13:09really powerful long barrage to keep
  2392. 1:13:10people's heads down. Then they had a
  2393. 1:13:12multi-pronged approach where they
  2394. 1:13:14crossed the border
  2395. 1:13:15by ramming and having bulldozers ram
  2396. 1:13:17holes in the fence. Like enough holes to
  2397. 1:13:20basically overwhelm any quick reaction
  2398. 1:13:21force that could come in and and
  2399. 1:13:23counterattack. Having paragliders who
  2400. 1:13:25came in Hamas paragliders, you'd have
  2401. 1:13:27two guys one or two guys on a paraglider
  2402. 1:13:29come in and um
  2403. 1:13:31dismount and start start setting up
  2404. 1:13:33roadblocks on roads and attacking and
  2405. 1:13:35just having a ton of classic you know
  2406. 1:13:38Middle East white white pickup truck
  2407. 1:13:40full of terrorists just crossing again
  2408. 1:13:42and again. Having a ton of those and
  2409. 1:13:43having terrorists on dirt bikes who were
  2410. 1:13:46super mobile. And the idea was to go and
  2411. 1:13:48attack and overwhelm the bases, kidnap
  2412. 1:13:51or slaughter everyone on the army bases
  2413. 1:13:53on the border and also attack all of the
  2414. 1:13:54kibbutz seem which are like small
  2415. 1:13:56communal villages on the border. And
  2416. 1:13:58they were also the reason they did it on
  2417. 1:14:00that date specifically was because of
  2418. 1:14:01the Nova music festival which was a huge
  2419. 1:14:03music festival where they killed
  2420. 1:14:05hundreds
  2421. 1:14:06killed and raped hundreds of people at
  2422. 1:14:08the festival and kidnapped a bunch of
  2423. 1:14:09them. Turned it into just a straight up
  2424. 1:14:11massacre. So
  2425. 1:14:14one of the one of the hardest things for
  2426. 1:14:15the IDF in this on this day was that the
  2427. 1:14:17QRFs were set up to to
  2428. 1:14:21take on small individual attacks. So you
  2429. 1:14:24know each kibbutz had their own
  2430. 1:14:26quick reaction it's called the kitat
  2431. 1:14:27konanut which is like a readiness party
  2432. 1:14:29that has a couple guys maybe and you
  2433. 1:14:31have the guy in charge and they're
  2434. 1:14:32they're ready for someone to come and
  2435. 1:14:33attack a certain house or one guy on the
  2436. 1:14:35border. One guy to attack this. You have
  2437. 1:14:37you know people getting ambushed with
  2438. 1:14:39hundreds of terrorists outside of their
  2439. 1:14:40houses just getting absolutely cut down.
  2440. 1:14:42And like the security at the music
  2441. 1:14:44festival of like a dozen cops or
  2442. 1:14:45whatever with with Glock 19s, two mags
  2443. 1:14:48each or something like that. Just
  2444. 1:14:49getting absolutely torn apart by PK fire
  2445. 1:14:52and AK fire. RPGs. RPGs. A lot of um
  2446. 1:14:57a lot of people basically take shelter
  2447. 1:14:59from the rockets and those shelters turn
  2448. 1:15:01into their final resting places cuz
  2449. 1:15:02people would go into like uh in Israel
  2450. 1:15:05in the in the south you have a lot of
  2451. 1:15:07bomb shelters and rocket shelters that
  2452. 1:15:09are just next to bus stops. People would
  2453. 1:15:11go into them, get trapped inside and
  2454. 1:15:12Hamas terrorists would come and throw
  2455. 1:15:14grenades inside. When people run out
  2456. 1:15:15just gun them down basically. Uh it
  2457. 1:15:17turned into a very chaotic situation.
  2458. 1:15:19People didn't quite understand what was
  2459. 1:15:20going on in the beginning and it took
  2460. 1:15:22just way too long to get it under
  2461. 1:15:24control. All the QRF teams that went in
  2462. 1:15:26were just hit really heavily, took
  2463. 1:15:28really heavy casualties. And you ended
  2464. 1:15:29up having like a couple of helicopters
  2465. 1:15:32per each area and they just the guys
  2466. 1:15:34killing dozens if not tens of of
  2467. 1:15:37terrorists. Taking really heavy
  2468. 1:15:39casualties. And you have some really
  2469. 1:15:42crazy stories from that. I was only
  2470. 1:15:44involved in that on the on the 8th and
  2471. 1:15:479th. I went in to Kfar Aza which is one
  2472. 1:15:50of the villages that got hit very hard.
  2473. 1:15:53You were involved from the first day.
  2474. 1:15:54Basically I was drafted on the first day
  2475. 1:15:56and then we just they didn't really
  2476. 1:15:57quite know what to do with us cuz there
  2477. 1:15:58were already so many forces converging
  2478. 1:16:00on the area. Held us back a little bit
  2479. 1:16:02and then sent us in after to start
  2480. 1:16:03clearing bodies. But why don't you talk
  2481. 1:16:04about your experience? So on the 7th
  2482. 1:16:06after we
  2483. 1:16:07we got the message to go to base and and
  2484. 1:16:09arm up. This was around like 12 12 in
  2485. 1:16:12the afternoon.
  2486. 1:16:13Uh we spent two hours giving up gearing
  2487. 1:16:15up. And we made it to the south
  2488. 1:16:20on our Humvees.
  2489. 1:16:21And I remember when we were on the we
  2490. 1:16:23were on the the road road number six.
  2491. 1:16:26I'm just seeing all these cars like
  2492. 1:16:28running away from the south.
  2493. 1:16:30Like just traffic jam of cars running
  2494. 1:16:32away from the south and we're just going
  2495. 1:16:34down. So like whatever they're running
  2496. 1:16:35from we're going towards it. Um
  2497. 1:16:38and I remember once we passed a certain
  2498. 1:16:40point like we were like in the area of
  2499. 1:16:43of like that south of Gaza.
  2500. 1:16:46We started seeing just carnage along the
  2501. 1:16:49streets. Just bodies all along the
  2502. 1:16:50streets of terrorists. I saw I saw a car
  2503. 1:16:55with civilian casualties as well.
  2504. 1:16:57Uh just it it looked like the purge. It
  2505. 1:16:59looked like it looked like something out
  2506. 1:17:00of the movie The Purge. Just cars
  2507. 1:17:02burning, fire, destruction everywhere.
  2508. 1:17:05Um we went to kibbutz called kibbutz
  2509. 1:17:09Sa'ad.
  2510. 1:17:10And we hold up over there. And from
  2511. 1:17:12there we went out to to scanning
  2512. 1:17:14missions. Just searching the surrounding
  2513. 1:17:17the surrounding nature and the
  2514. 1:17:18surrounding uh agricultural fields for
  2515. 1:17:20stragglers for any terrorists that may
  2516. 1:17:22be hiding there.
  2517. 1:17:24Um during one of our missions we
  2518. 1:17:26actually found we we had a report of a
  2519. 1:17:28terrorist hiding in a orchard. And me
  2520. 1:17:31and my team were doing a scan of the
  2521. 1:17:33orchard which is just everyone just gets
  2522. 1:17:34a strip of their own. In between each
  2523. 1:17:37line of trees is a strip.
  2524. 1:17:38A guy in my team
  2525. 1:17:41sees the terrorist from 5 m away. Uh he
  2526. 1:17:44just we're just it's slow moving slow
  2527. 1:17:46slowly through the orchard. Sees him 5 m
  2528. 1:17:49away.
  2529. 1:17:50Puts three in him and then uh
  2530. 1:17:52neutralizes him. Um we ended up checking
  2531. 1:17:55his phone and we found out that he was a
  2532. 1:17:58uh he was one of the guys basically
  2533. 1:18:01helping Hamas uh find so he was a scout.
  2534. 1:18:06Um basically just teaching finding
  2535. 1:18:08stragglers and killing civilians. So
  2536. 1:18:11from there after the search parties that
  2537. 1:18:13we were doing around the kibbutz,
  2538. 1:18:16we got the mission to retake the base
  2539. 1:18:17Nahal Oz.
  2540. 1:18:19Uh we went to the base.
  2541. 1:18:21And at the front gates of the base we
  2542. 1:18:23were contacted by by a terrorist from
  2543. 1:18:25inside the base. We took cover, returned
  2544. 1:18:27fire.
  2545. 1:18:28Um and the platoon commander called in a
  2546. 1:18:31commander tank to take out the
  2547. 1:18:34terrorist.
  2548. 1:18:35Uh after the terrorist was neutralized,
  2549. 1:18:37we started clearing the base of
  2550. 1:18:40terrorist threats.
  2551. 1:18:41And once it was clear, we basically got
  2552. 1:18:44the mission
  2553. 1:18:46of clearing out 70 casualties of our own
  2554. 1:18:49soldiers. Male and female. Some of them
  2555. 1:18:52non-combatant. A good portion of them
  2556. 1:18:54weren't even combatants. Uh bodies were
  2557. 1:18:57mutilated.
  2558. 1:18:58Um and we basically just bagged them and
  2559. 1:19:01brought them back home. Obviously you're
  2560. 1:19:03dealing with a tough situation. There
  2561. 1:19:04are no rules in this conflict as far as
  2562. 1:19:06their side. So you're dealing with a lot
  2563. 1:19:08of very tough situations. Now what were
  2564. 1:19:10some things and tactics that they did
  2565. 1:19:12once you were entering these locations
  2566. 1:19:14to clean up bodies um
  2567. 1:19:16that put you guys in vulnerable
  2568. 1:19:17situations that you weren't aware of
  2569. 1:19:19until you know it occurred that day.
  2570. 1:19:22Um so, you're they were basically
  2571. 1:19:25booby-trapping dead bodies. Like taking
  2572. 1:19:27grenades, for example, removing the uh
  2573. 1:19:30removing the handle and basically just
  2574. 1:19:33leaving removing the pin and leaving it
  2575. 1:19:34under a body. And uh then when
  2576. 1:19:37paramedics or or uh soldiers will come
  2577. 1:19:39to the dead body and touch it, move it,
  2578. 1:19:42the grenade will go off and uh injure
  2579. 1:19:44soldiers. Um They pull the pin out and
  2580. 1:19:47the handle would be against the body, so
  2581. 1:19:48when the body's moved, the handle would
  2582. 1:19:49pop off
  2583. 1:19:50Yes, sir. The fuse would go off at this
  2584. 1:19:51time.
  2585. 1:19:52They were also doing that with bags,
  2586. 1:19:54uh like putting them in bags kind of, so
  2587. 1:19:56that when you touch the bag or step on
  2588. 1:19:57it, um also
  2589. 1:20:00uh RPG warheads, they were just They
  2590. 1:20:02were leaving weapons behind and
  2591. 1:20:05booby-trapping the weapons.
  2592. 1:20:06Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Were there any
  2593. 1:20:08ambushes when it came to that when as
  2594. 1:20:10far as like recovering dead bodies where
  2595. 1:20:11they'd be in wait?
  2596. 1:20:14Uh I didn't I don't really see that
  2597. 1:20:15because
  2598. 1:20:17um
  2599. 1:20:18you know, it's kind of like what
  2600. 1:20:20at that point it was retaking Israel.
  2601. 1:20:21So, there's so many soldiers in the
  2602. 1:20:23area.
  2603. 1:20:24Uh the the choppers that Lev was talking
  2604. 1:20:26about, uh they they kind of sca- they
  2605. 1:20:29kind of just hit and ran. Okay. Um but
  2606. 1:20:31some There were some stragglers, but not
  2607. 1:20:32many. There were also a lot of guys and
  2608. 1:20:34civilians basically that that took the
  2609. 1:20:35opportunity to cross the border and
  2610. 1:20:36start looting. So, you have like guys
  2611. 1:20:39who come with their like donkey cart or
  2612. 1:20:40whatever and start loading up washing
  2613. 1:20:41machines and TVs and stuff. Had those
  2614. 1:20:44guys and those That was also in the
  2615. 1:20:45beginning that the Hamas said that they
  2616. 1:20:47couldn't even say how many prisoners
  2617. 1:20:48they had cuz they didn't have all the
  2618. 1:20:49prisoners. So, basically people were
  2619. 1:20:51just taking their own prisoners cuz they
  2620. 1:20:52knew they'd be worth something
  2621. 1:20:53eventually.
  2622. 1:20:55Um and a lot of the guys that we ran
  2623. 1:20:57into in Khirbat I'bill, we basically we
  2624. 1:20:59ran into to after Khirbat I'bill was
  2625. 1:21:02already partially retaken, we went in
  2626. 1:21:04and finished taking it on the 8th and
  2627. 1:21:069th. Um and we basically cleared it
  2628. 1:21:09house to house at night and then uh we
  2629. 1:21:12set up
  2630. 1:21:13basically bases inside civilian houses
  2631. 1:21:16and we set up a line, basically a
  2632. 1:21:18friendly line, and then the next day we
  2633. 1:21:20cleared the rest of it and we, you know,
  2634. 1:21:22bagged, like you said, and and protected
  2635. 1:21:25the the non-combatants and combatants
  2636. 1:21:27who were who had the job, the
  2637. 1:21:29unfortunate job of having to bag up,
  2638. 1:21:31identify, bag up Israeli civilians and
  2639. 1:21:34remove them. Um so, we saw we saw a lot
  2640. 1:21:37of that and we saw a lot of just
  2641. 1:21:38butchered Israelis in their homes and uh
  2642. 1:21:41I think it was just the creepiest thing
  2643. 1:21:42was just the fact that it was like
  2644. 1:21:45a city, like a neighborhood that I was I
  2645. 1:21:47wasn't familiar with that one, but it
  2646. 1:21:48was very similar to ones that I lived in
  2647. 1:21:50in Israel.
  2648. 1:21:51And it was just like
  2649. 1:21:52completely empty of of life. It was just
  2650. 1:21:55here and there a soldier, and you'd have
  2651. 1:21:57maybe a cat walking around, and there
  2652. 1:21:58were just dead dogs and dead people in
  2653. 1:22:00the street, dead terrorists everywhere.
  2654. 1:22:02Tanks had like run over cars while
  2655. 1:22:04trying to get a better firing position,
  2656. 1:22:06burning cars, burned-out houses. Um like
  2657. 1:22:10the strong like a lot of houses have um
  2658. 1:22:12or all new houses in Israel built with a
  2659. 1:22:14safe room, and a lot of the safe rooms
  2660. 1:22:16were just RPG'd open, basically. So,
  2661. 1:22:17someone would just shoot in through the
  2662. 1:22:19through the through the wall.
  2663. 1:22:20Um and it was just really creepy. It was
  2664. 1:22:22really really very uh
  2665. 1:22:24very eerie. I think when it comes to
  2666. 1:22:26that, there's a definite um
  2667. 1:22:28thing we have to speak to, which is
  2668. 1:22:29urban civilian readiness, right? Yeah.
  2669. 1:22:31So, just like where you are, no matter
  2670. 1:22:33where you are, we've talked about it in
  2671. 1:22:34past survival situations, um in videos
  2672. 1:22:37that we've done, but you never know when
  2673. 1:22:39the situation's going to hit you. The
  2674. 1:22:40safest you can be, obviously Israel, um
  2675. 1:22:42being so close to the border to people
  2676. 1:22:43who hate you, you're you're going to get
  2677. 1:22:45a little bit more of that than what we
  2678. 1:22:46see, obviously, here in the United
  2679. 1:22:47States. But nonetheless,
  2680. 1:22:49the information that we're showing here,
  2681. 1:22:51that we're presenting here, uh is
  2682. 1:22:52incredibly valuable. Um
  2683. 1:22:55and the time that you need it, that you
  2684. 1:22:56absolutely need it, it's too late to
  2685. 1:22:58learn it. So, this is where it's really
  2686. 1:22:59important to take these lessons that
  2687. 1:23:00we've talked about today and begin to
  2688. 1:23:02implement them in do your own training.
  2689. 1:23:04That's going to be extremely important.
  2690. 1:23:05Gentlemen, we're going to go ahead and
  2691. 1:23:06finish up here, and I can't thank you
  2692. 1:23:07guys enough for coming on. Uh do you
  2693. 1:23:09want to have any final thoughts for the
  2694. 1:23:10guys before you go?
  2695. 1:23:11I mean, you've got to be ready. You've
  2696. 1:23:13got to be ready to make the mental
  2697. 1:23:15switch. There's, you know, you've got to
  2698. 1:23:18you have your civilian life, you're
  2699. 1:23:19going day to day, you're with your
  2700. 1:23:20family, you're with your loved ones,
  2701. 1:23:22you're you're at a music festival,
  2702. 1:23:23you're wherever. Uh when the shots start
  2703. 1:23:25start flying and the bullets start
  2704. 1:23:27flying, you've got to be able to make
  2705. 1:23:28that switch, go into survival mode, and
  2706. 1:23:30either
  2707. 1:23:31save yourself, get out of there, or go
  2708. 1:23:33towards the go towards the gunfire and,
  2709. 1:23:35you know, find terrorists and kill them.
  2710. 1:23:37You have people who had just just the
  2711. 1:23:39handgun they had on them, maybe one
  2712. 1:23:40spare magazine, who went out, fought to
  2713. 1:23:42a long gun, whether it was from a fallen
  2714. 1:23:44soldier or from a fallen terrorist, and
  2715. 1:23:46then some of them literally took
  2716. 1:23:47uniforms off of dead soldiers so they
  2717. 1:23:49could put them on so they would wouldn't
  2718. 1:23:50be misidentified by friendlies and
  2719. 1:23:53killed, and who fought to to their loved
  2720. 1:23:54ones and created just groups of other
  2721. 1:23:58survivors and fought out. And it's
  2722. 1:24:00you've got to be ready for it, you know?
  2723. 1:24:02And you just
  2724. 1:24:04be ready to protect the ones you love
  2725. 1:24:06and the people you love and the country
  2726. 1:24:07you love and just uh
  2727. 1:24:09stay always ready.
  2728. 1:24:11Yeah. Um get some training.
  2729. 1:24:14Um these people
  2730. 1:24:16in uh in all these settlements on the
  2731. 1:24:187th of October, they didn't see this
  2732. 1:24:20coming,
  2733. 1:24:21you know?
  2734. 1:24:22Uh it could happen it could happen to
  2735. 1:24:23anyone, unfortunately. Uh get training,
  2736. 1:24:27take it seriously, and uh be aware, and
  2737. 1:24:30uh know how to make the switch. Awesome.
  2738. 1:24:31Gentlemen, can't thank you guys enough.
  2739. 1:24:33Uh we've given a lot of dead advice
  2740. 1:24:35today, a lot of advice in general.
  2741. 1:24:37Train, be good at what it is, be ready
  2742. 1:24:39to protect your loved ones. Guys, thank
  2743. 1:24:41you so much for watching. Tons of more
  2744. 1:24:42survival content coming. We got nothing
  2745. 1:24:44else for you.

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