YONAH JEREMY BOB
Despite the loss of over 500 soldiers, including 300 in the infantry, the IDF remains ready to handle threats on all fronts, said IDF Infantry and Paratroopers Corps Commander Brig.-Gen. Eran Oliel.
“I don’t see any gap. They [IDF soldiers] can handle all of the missions assigned to them without any problems,” he told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview.
Addressing his specific command, the infantry, the largest command in the IDF, he stated: “The infantry has fought everywhere and also fought on October 7.
“There are many processes to address the issue” of having lost more troops in a period of months than the IDF has lost in decades.”
According to Oliel, “The ratio of draftees has gone up for the November 2023 draftees’ group. We also kept more people within the career officer track than usual.
“We shifted more people into the combat fighter category and are keeping more combat commanders. More soldiers and officers across the army will stay on for longer. The motivation to serve is very high, and this is very important,” he said.
Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, February 8, 2024
“The number of ground forces we have is very large. Losing over 300 [however tragic] does not affect the missions. Right now, they are operating in Khan Yunis and Shati – they can handle everything” that they are assigned to do.
Besides the infantry’s general losses, the Paratrooper Brigade within Oliel’s command also has had an unusual number of losses during the current war.
These could be even harder to replace than regular infantry because they [paratroopers] have special talents and much longer and advanced training.
Responding to the dilemma, Oliel said, “The paratroopers is a full brigade, and there are also many reservists. The broader numbers have not gotten much lower [despite losses during the war]. The paratroopers have been involved in many missions.
“We are also keeping more people in their roles going forward than usual, and adding more paratrooper career officer positions, and all of this is then completed with the additional reservists we are using,” he said.
Giving some concrete examples of the Infantry Corps’ strength, he said, “Last week, I was with the Rotem Battalion with the Givati Brigade in Gaza, and I fought with them. I saw they were a very strong battalion, and they did all they needed to do. This was fighting the war in Khan Yunis.
“The Givati Brigade also told me we will keep going, no matter how long it takes, until we achieve the two goals” of the war: defeating Hamas and returning the hostages.
“I was also recently in the field with the Sayeret Nahal 931 Unit and with the paratroopers and the Golani Brigade,” he said. “Every week I go into Gaza... at least for two days... and I see up close how they are fighting and what their needs are.”
OVER 28 years in the IDF, starting in the paratroopers, Oliel has had commands on every key front, as well as top headquarters operations roles, most recently serving as the commander of the Kfir Brigade.
How will IDF's ground forces look like post-war?
Drawing on his vast experience, he answered questions about what the new shape and size of IDF Ground Forces should be on the various borders once the current war passes.
For example, the northern border has jumped from one division to multiple divisions, and there have been between two and five divisions operating in Gaza at different times.
He said, “Having an exact set number is less important. The IDF has carried out very effective planning about the defense of the North in order to provide security, and will be ready for any enemy. This is true with Lebanon and with Syria.
“We made the border defense much more robust, adding many new elements. This is both to give the northern residents the feeling of safety they need, but most importantly to actually provide the necessary increased security,” he said.
Moreover, he stated, “Whether it is two or four divisions on the border, we need to keep the force level appropriate” to the threat level. Now, because of the large increase in our northern defenses, no enemy can do anything to us like what happened on October 7.
“The additional new defenses also include heavier forces beyond the infantry,” he said, doubtlessly a reference to the heavy level of air force, navy, artillery, and tank forces that have been moved to the northern border since October 7.
Next, Oliel was pressed that, like most defense and media officials, he had said in a 2020 interview that Hezbollah was deterred by the IDF’s existing forces.
He was asked how to explain that point of view – a point of view that was held by most of the media and the IDF – in 2024, when 80,000 Israelis had to evacuate because Hezbollah was not deterred to fire around 3,000 times on Israel’s home front.
Oliel responded, “It is a fact that Hezbollah has paid a big price during these four months. The IDF has hit their forces and infrastructure very hard. These are facts.
“The IDF also reserves the right to hit them even harder at a time of its choosing.... We have the capabilities to deal with Hezbollah. We strengthened our defense a lot so it will not try” a larger attack on Israel.
Continuing, he said, “True, the civilians are not in their houses. The IDF wants freedom of action. It needs to be able to use all of its qualitative advantages,” without worrying about potential large Israeli civilian casualties from Hezbollah’s smaller-level attacks on Israeli villages close to the border.
“Hezbollah will not carry out a larger attack, because it is afraid of the IDF. If it were not afraid, it would attack” in a much more dangerous manner, he said.
In addition, he was asked about the fact that southern residents are being allowed to return and open schools, as opposed to northern residents who are not.
Oliel said, “The IDF is doing all it can to get back to as much routine living as possible. But there are other dynamics which affect reality,” in a veiled reference to diplomacy with Hezbollah and related geopolitics issues. “Our job is to make sure our citizens are not hurt. As long as the threat remains at a certain level, we need to prevent harm to civilians” by keeping them away from certain areas near the border.
Asked if he was referring to the government, he stated, “I don’t give any ideas to the political echelon. The ground forces and I defend our citizens, along with the air force, the artillery, and other units. Hezbollah has had very little achievements, because of our military actions.”
In Gaza, the IDF had already drawn down to two divisions. Questioned about whether it would draw down further, given that the IDF is nearly in operational control of Khan Yunis, he said, “It is not good to reveal operational plans in the media. Our job is to defeat Hamas. We are not saying how many IDF forces will be in or out of different parts of Gaza. We need to defeat them and bring back all of the hostages.”
Regarding the current two divisions, he said it could be more or less at any given moment, and it could evolve going up and down, provided that Hamas is defeated and its forces are eliminated wherever they are.
“This doesn’t take just a week; this takes time,” he said.
Next, he was asked about the shape of Israel’s future security strategy for Gaza, including the size of a larger security corridor.
He said, “The defensive strategy is always evolving. We need to defend the Israeli side of the Gaza border corridor, and not just by using a security zone.
“We also need to continue to act [deep] within Gaza’s cities and towns and to make sure we can get anywhere,” said Oliel.
Further, he said that the question is more complex than just analyzing the volume of forces the IDF would invest in the future expected Gaza security zone. Still, he added that the IDF would keep a very large number of infantry and other elements of military power for defending against any threat from Gaza.
Moving on to the West Bank, Oliel stated, “The infantry for the last four months proved itself in Judea and Samaria. Also, reservists know how to handle the challenges in the West Bank and performed incredibly, arresting many terrorists. The IDF went after all of the terrorist infrastructure.”
He said that there is no expectation even now, when the IDF has already achieved operational control over large aspects of Gaza, that it would reduce its forces in the West Bank to pre-October 7 or pre-2022 terrorist wave levels.
Already the IDF forces in the West Bank increased from 11 to around 30 battalions over the course of 2022-2023 due to the pre-October 7 waves of terrorism.
“No one should think that the terrorism motivations from West Bank Palestinians have gone down because of the war,” he warned.
Questioned whether the IDF would permanently increase its forces defending the borders with Egypt and Jordan, with which it has had peace for decades, he responded, “We have forces on every border. We defend the borders even when there is peace. You never know who might try to penetrate [the border], and there are always attempts [often by drug smugglers]. We have invested significantly to stop the smuggling.”
“The level of ground forces for each border is based on the estimated threat level at any given moment, to make sure that nothing like October 7 can happen again,” he remarked.
'The infantry forces are Israel’s largest within the broader Ground Forces'
SUMMARIZING, OLIEL said: “The infantry forces are Israel’s largest within the broader Ground Forces. It works with the artillery, engineering units, air force, intelligence, communications, and needs very strong operational solutions.
“The infantry forces operate everywhere and eliminate enemies on all of the fronts. The reservist components for the infantry are also very large,” he noted.
He said that the infantry’s huge achievements during the current war were larger than even the previous Lebanon wars, and rated at the level of the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
Further, he stated that it is critical to keep the infantry’s initial momentum from October 7, during which so many soldiers “went straight from their houses to defend the state” in the South, without stopping to get more organized at an IDF base with their units.
According to Oliel, “We have better munitions, firepower, capabilities, and experience for how to conduct operations in urban settings to strike large numbers of enemy fighters. We also surprise the enemy in many places.
“What we learned in the south, we will also implement in the north. Still, this does not mean that the south and the north are exactly the same. We distinguish between which lessons apply and which do not apply,” he stated.
Moreover, he said, “The enemy has a different character, and the topography is different, but aspects of fighting on these two fronts are still similar in many ways.
“We paid a significant price and lost friends, commanders, and soldiers, and there are many heroic stories from October 7. So many soldiers went out to help retake the Gaza border area” with nothing but their smaller and less powerful personal weapons, due to the need to rush there without a delay for stopping at an IDF base to pick up better weaponry.
In addition, he was asked about the pre-October 7 debate about reducing the number of soldiers and service time in favor of more technological defenses.
He stated, “I took up this role only one week before October 7. I have not heard anything about needing fewer soldiers. I do know that technology helps soldiers fight better, as it helps them find the enemy and dispose of the enemy faster.
“Technology and soldiers need to go together. Technology cannot replace soldiers. Our ground forces maneuvers have led to eliminating huge amounts of the enemy and to destroying huge amounts of Hamas’s weaponry,” he said.
Oliel recounted, “I went to the main [IDF] Induction Center near Tel Aviv in November to meet the new IDF recruit class. The motivation was very high to be drafted, and it is also high for the March draft. The draft for combat is especially high.
“We have the highest-quality people. In fact, many new recruits said to me that they want to be combat fighters even more, having seen the number of killed and wounded soldiers. The nation of Israel understands the importance” of the IDF to defend the country, he concluded.
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