The tiny moshav was attacked by ten terrorists who were repelled by an emergency squad forces and a few police officers.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The IDF released Thursday a report on the Hamas attack on the tiny moshav of Pri Gan during its October 7, 2023 invasion of southern Israel which revealed that while IDF forces in the area ducked out of engaging the enemy, heroic civilians from a neighboring village as well as some police officers successfully repelled the infiltrators.

Pri Gan, which has fewer than 250 residents, had only four members in its emergency response squad, and only two of them were in the moshav at 7:20 AM, when ten terrorists drove in from Rafah on motorcycles and began invading homes.

The pair of defenders did not engage the terrorists, being unprepared and woefully undertrained, the report said, but guided those who came to their aid and gave them updates as the situation unfolded.

Over the course of the next two hours, two sets of volunteers rushed to Pri Gan.

The first arrived about 15 minutes after the infiltration and consisted of a police superintendent, Avi Zidon, who came from his home in Yevul and joined the sector’s security chief, Lotem Nagar, and another police officer.

Zidon was shot dead while providing cover for Nagar after the third officer was wounded and required evacuation.

Nagar had called for help on the radio, however, and nine members of the security squad answered from Shlomit, which was a few kilometers away and hadn’t been attacked itself.

Two of them were killed in the battle in the moshav, and one was murdered while making his way there through the fields.

Around 9:15, the first army force made its appearance – and refused to engage the enemy.

The Caracal unit’s commander said she had to wait for her platoon sergeant. Only when he arrived a quarter of an hour later and ordered them to enter did they do so.

At this time, it became clear that the attackers had fled, and the soldiers just searched the moshav and evacuated the wounded.

A Nahal Brigade reconnaissance unit that arrived around 9:40, also would not go into Pri Gan, saying the troops had to be given explicit orders to do so as they “had prior missions.”

The report made clear that it was due to the heroic actions of the policemen and civilians from Shlomit that no Pri Gan residents were killed or abducted.

“The courageous fighting and camaraderie demonstrated by the civil defense squad members of the village of Shlomit and other security forces who fought in the area are what repelled the terrorists and saved the moshav,” it stated.

By contrast, the report condemned the IDF forces who stayed outside the gate, saying they should have “strive[n] for contact,” and acknowledged that the army had “failed in its mission to defend the moshav.”

The report noted that troops from the Sufa outpost, two kilometers from Pri Gan and the closest source of professional manpower, were trying to fend off a serious attack on their position that had begun before the ten-man team invaded the moshav, which is why they did not come to help.

Other bases in the area were also attacked by Hamas forces, committing damage to the chain of command and communications at the brigade, battalion and company levels, all of which prevented the army from doing its duty towards the residents under its protection, the report said.

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The Israel Defense Forces’ mixed-gender Caracal light infantry battalion prepares for threats from the Sinai.

By Yaakov Lappin, JNS

In recent days, an ISIS spokesman released a new audio message, which included a call for jihadist factions in the Sinai Peninsula and in Syria to step up attacks against Israel. ISIS also claimed credit for blowing up a section of an Israeli-Egyptian natural-gas pipeline in the Sinai.

In Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptian military has spent years battling a bloody ISIS insurgency, and while Cairo’s offensive has notched up achievements, the global terror organization’s Sinai branch remains active and dangerous.

The Israel Defense Forces’ mixed-gender Caracal light infantry battalion prepares for that very threat. Through a range of combat drills designed to stop any surprise attack in its tracks and ongoing border-security missions, the battalion works around the clock to ensure that it’s ready to prevent a killing spree in an Israeli border village, as well as neutralize potential attackers.

“ISIS is very close to us on the border fence. We see it. As soon as it decides to do something in our direction, we have to be ready,” Lt. Col. Erez Shabtay, the commander of the IDF’s Caracal (Hebrew for “wildcat”) Battalion, told JNS in an interview.

The fact that ISIS has not recently launched attacks on Israel does not allay Shabtay’s concerns, for the simple reason, he says, “that I do not know when it will happen. It can happen in 10 minutes or six months. For us as a battalion, it doesn’t matter. We have to know that a border incident can occur without warning, and that is the biggest challenge.”

Describing the ISIS threat as tangible, Shabtay said examinations of ISIS attacks in other areas of the region are sufficient to make the threat clear. “As soon as it decides to do something in our direction, we have to be ready. And our working assumption is that we will have no prior intelligence warning—that they will surprise us. This is what the training is all about. All of the training is about scenarios of incidents with no prior warning.”

At the end of January, the Caracal battalion completed a major series of combat drills lasting almost four weeks — part of a larger nine-week training period.

Established in 2004, Caracal is the IDF’s first mixed-gender light infantry battalion, which unlike other infantry units that maneuver into enemy territory has a fixed sector it is designated to defend.

After proving a success, the IDF set up three other battalions based on the same concept, such as the Bardales (Hebrew for “cheetah”) Battalion, which guards Israel’s border with southern Jordan.

‘Defending the border with Egypt’

Soldiers complete four months of infantry training after their basic training and then become specialists in their sectors, gaining knowledge on the local terrain, communities, and threats.

“Our main mission is defending the border with Egypt,” said Shabtay. “The Egyptian border is a border of peace, but we have the ISIS Sinai Province on the other side, and this is our main enemy. This is the enemy that we are preparing ourselves against.”

While ISIS has been engaged in roadside bombings and shooting attacks on Egyptian security forces, as well as carrying out a series of mass-casualty attacks on civilians in Egypt, the IDF assumes its guns can be turned against Israel at any time.

“Our concern is that its next target will be IDF forces and [civilian] residents in this sector,” said the officer. “And there are quite a few residents here.”

Every four to five months, the battalion heads out for training drills designed to boost the male and female combat soldiers’ combat fitness, field abilities, and marksmanship. “On top of that, we prepare the battalion for attacks by the ISIS Sinai Province,” said Shabtay.

Preparations include weeks of combat drills in open areas, built-up zones, desert valleys, and farming greenhouses. Units sleep out in the field for weeks, despite harsh winter storms. The intensity of the most recent drills continued to build as the weeks wore on, and the mental and physical pressure placed on the troops increased.

The scenarios they trained for included ISIS cross-border raids for the purpose of conducting killing sprees in Israeli villages, attacks on IDF forces and posts, and pursuits.

The battalion practiced a rapid deployment and transition from routine to emergency, as well as operational movements, such as a nighttime 15-kilometer trek with full equipment.

‘Highly mobile and rapid’

Speaking two hours after a drill involving some 400 soldiers, Shabtay also explained what makes light infantry battalions special.

“We are highly mobile and rapid. We have lookout units on the border fence — and the lookouts have their own skill set. Unlike battalions that maneuver in enemy territory, we have amassed in-depth knowledge of our sector,” he said.

The unit has access to a network of cameras, radars, and an array of other special forces patrolling the area, such as the Border Police’s elite counter-terrorism unit, known by its Hebrew acronym, Yamas.

Caracal’s intimate knowledge of the local communities forms another advantage, he said. “We personally know local community security officers and the members of the readiness squads [volunteer teams of armed civilians in border communities). We hold joint drills with them,” he noted.

Other types of infantry units rotate in and out of their sectors, and are unable to build such close knowledge of the region they defend as a result.

Shabtay also stressed the fact that the battalion has drawn a considerable number of volunteer female lone soldiers from North American cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Montreal and Ottawa.

“They left the U.S. and Canada to be soldiers in the IDF, and they found their home in Caracal,” he said. “They found that this is the best place for them to contribute. It’s a choice for them to come here.”

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