The New York Times ( NYT ) reported on the 12th (local time) that No Ik-jang, a white-haired retired general who broke through enemy lines with a pistol and his own Audi car during an air raid on southern Israel by the Palestinian armed political faction Hamas, attracted attention. Retired General Israel Ziv (66), who served as the Director of Operations of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), received several phone calls conveying unexpected news while riding his bicycle on the morning of the
7th . The news was that Hamas was infiltrating across the border by firing rockets. When he learned that his friend’s son was imprisoned in a kibbutz (collective farm), he ran straight home, grabbed a 9mm pistol, and drove his Audi down the highway toward Gaza.
As we got closer to the border area of the Gaza Strip, a plume of black smoke spread out in front of us, and the Israeli army was barely visible. As he went deeper, Hamas members opened fire on him. He fired back with a single pistol and penetrated the enemy lines. He met outnumbered Israeli soldiers near a village besieged by Hamas, put them in his Audi, and engaged in a full-scale battle with Hamas members. When Ziv found it difficult to deal with them with just his pistol, he took
the wounded soldier’s M16 and fired it out the window. Despite Ziv’s quick response, the bodies of the murdered people were already scattered throughout the road and forest. Without leaving the battlefield for 24 hours, he visited kibbutzim under attack, helped evacuate civilians, and organized struggling soldiers into combat units. “No one could have imagined that something like this would happen,” said Ziv. “It is an act of cruelty that has토토사이트 never been witnessed since the founding of the State of Israel.”
The most tragic scene he witnessed unfolded at a rave music festival. It is said that when Ziv arrived here, where thousands of young people, including Israelis and foreigners, were celebrating and came under heavy attack by Hamas, there was nothing he could do. There were cars lined up on the road trying to escape and bodies everywhere. “I think this was the starting point of the Hamas attack,” he said. “I can still hear them screaming. “Hamas must pay a price for this.”
Ziv visited the Ministry of Defense and met with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, held secret meetings with security officials, and talked to the highest levels of the military and police about strengthening the National Guard. On the 11th, he held several remote meetings with officials about fundraising efforts to help victims and their families.
Currently, Ziv is working with retired generals and former military personnel to rebuild border and community defense forces. The NYT assessed that Ziv’s performance in commanding the battlefield with a single pistol paradoxically symbolizes the Israeli military’s failure in responding to this Hamas air attack .