Givati Brigade
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| Givati Brigade | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1948 |
| Country | Israel |
| Branch | Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Part of | Israeli Southern Command |
| Motto | "With me to Givati", "Any Place, Any Time, Any Mission" |
| Colors | Purple berets |
| March | "Mi She-Halam Givati" ("Those who dreamt Givati") |
| Battles/wars | Operation Nachshon, Operation Yoav, Operation Rainbow Cloud, Operation Days of Penitence |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander |
Colonel Ilan Malka |
| Ceremonial chief | Fox |
| Notable commanders |
Effi Eitam, Imad Fares, Amos Yarkoni |
The Givati Brigade (Hebrew: חטיבת גבעתי) is one of the infantry brigades in the Israel Defense Forces. It was formed in December 1948 and placed under the command of Shimon Avidan. Before that it participated in Operation Yoav (October 15-22, 1948). Its role was to capture the areas of Hulikat, Kawkaba and the junction which is today known as the Givati Junction. Later it was disbanded but was reestablished in 1983 and still exists today. Since 1999 it serves under the Southern Command (Pikud Darom). Givati soldiers are designated by purple berets. The Brigade's symbol is the fox, alluding to Shualei Shimshon (שועלי שמשון, lit. Samson's Foxes), a unit in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
As of 2006, the Givati brigade is organized into three main battalions: Shaked, Tzabar, and Rotem, in addition to associated reconnaissance, engineering, and other units.
Contents |
[edit] Military operations during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War in which the Givati Brigade participated
[edit] Current status
[edit] 2002-2003
The Givati Brigade served under the Southern Command and was deployed in the Gaza Strip. The Brigade was awarded a medal of honor for its service in the Gaza Strip during the last two years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada under the command of Aluf-Mishne Imad Fares. Under Fares' command, the Givati Brigade attained a reputation for excellence after carrying out thousands of Counter-insurgency operations in the Gaza Strip with great success and low casualties.
[edit] 2004
The brigade continued its operations in the Gaza Strip under the command of new Brigadier General Eyal Eizenberg and the new head of Southern Command, Dan Harel. Givati's Recon Battalion, attached with Dolev combat engineering platoon and the Bedouin scouts battalion, won a recommendation of honor, mainly for their activities against Rafah's smuggling tunnels. Givati forces, combined with a special combat engineering tunnel's unit, and Caterpillar D9 armoured bulldozers, managed to suppress most of Rafah's tunnels.
On May 11 and May 12, two armored personnal carriers of Givati's Dolev engineering battalion were destroyed by Palestinian militants. The two separate attacks, in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood and the Philadelphi Route near Rafah and the Egyptian border, claimed the lives of 11 soldiers. Palestinian terrorists of Islamic Jihad captured parts of the remains mutilated the bodies and disgraced them.[1] This caused an outrage in Israel, eventually leading to a massive operation in Zeitoun's neighbourhood and Rafah.[2][3] After international pressure and aggressive Israeli operation in Zeitoun, the bodies of soldiers killed in Zeitoun were returned to Israel and were properly buried.
In the Zeitoun incident, UNRWA ambulances were used as transport by healthy Palestinian fighters. A Reuters video shows the incident. In an interview with Haaretz, Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz also said that UNRWA's ambulances were used by Palestinian militants in order to smuggle some of the remains of IDF soldiers killed in Zaitoun neighbourhood in Gaza on May 11, 2004. UNRWA has described the May 11 incident as a hijacking.
After two more soldiers were killed in Rafah, Israel launched Operation Rainbow. This involved Givati forces reinforced by Golani Brigade soldiers with IDF Achzarit HAPCs, a battlion of officers from the class-commanders school and several Caterpillar D9 armoured bulldozers. The stated aim of Operation Rainbow was to destroy the terror infrastructure of Rafah, destroy smuggling tunnels and stop illegal missile shipment.
The brigade's Shaked battalion, under the command of a Lt. Col. "Ofer" (surname not publicized) was rocked by scandals in the second half of 2004 while stationed in the southern Gaza Strip.
Two of the battalion's four company commanders were removed, although one was later exonerated. Captain "R," a Druze officer was tried for "confirming the kill", or administering a coup de grace on Iman al-Hams, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, in Rafah in October 2004. Testimony cleared him from all charges.[4] The accusing soldiers admitted that their motive was to remove an officer they considered to be an exceptionally harsh disciplinarian.
Another officer, Captain "N," was removed after Palestinian gunmen infiltrated the Morag settlement and killed three soldiers in September 2004.
[edit] 2005
On September 12, the Givati Brigade left the Gaza Strip as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, one month after the evacuation of approximately 8,000 Jewish settlers living in 22 communities in the Strip. It marked an end to the 38 year IDF presence in the Gaza Strip. Today, two battalions are stationed outside the Strip, while the third battalion is positioned on the northern border.
[edit] External Links
- Official site http://www.givati.org.il/
[edit] See also
- Israeli Defence Forces
- Israel Defence Forces History
- List of Israeli military operations in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
[edit] External links and references
- http://www.idf.il/english/organization/givati/givati.stm IDF Givati Brigade Page
- http://www.givati.org.il Official Givati Brigade Website
