Givati Brigade
The Givati Brigade (חטיבת גבעתי) is one of the Israeli Defense Forces' infantry brigades. It was formed in December 1948 and placed under the command of Shimon Avidan. Before that it participated in Operation Yoav (15 - 22 October, 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 it was reeshtablished at 1983 and still exists today. Since 1999 it serves under the Southern Command (Pikud Darom). Givati soldiers are designated by purple berrets. The Brigade's symbol is the fox, a hint for Shualey Simshon (שועלי שמשון "Samson's Foxes"), a unit in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
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On May 11 and May 12, two armored personnal carriers of Givati's Dolev engineering battalion, were desyroyed by Palestinian miltants. The two separate attacks, in Gaza City's Zeitoun neigbourhood and the Philadelphi Route near Rafah and the Egyptian border claimed the lives of 11 soldiers. Palestinian terrorists of Islamic Jihad, who captured parts of the remains mutilated the bodies and disgraced them. [1] That caused an outrage in Israel, eventually leading to a massive operation in Zeitoun's neigbourhood and Rafah. class="external">[1List of Israeli military operations during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that the Givati Brigade participated in
Current Status
2002-2003
The Givati Brigade serves under the Southern Command and currently is deployed in the Gaza Strip. Recently, the Givati Brigade won 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 built itself an excellent reputation of professional and warm infantry brigade. It carried out thousands of CT operations in the Gaza Strip with great success and low casualties.2004
The brigade continued its counter-terror operations in the Gaza Strip, under the command of new Brigadier General Saul Eizenberg and the new head of Southern Command Dan Harel. Givati's Recon Battalion, attached with Dolev combat engineering platoon and the Beduin scouts battalion, won a recommendation of honor (TZALASH) on their activities against terrorism, mainly 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.
In the Zaitoun incident, a UNRWA ambulances were used by terrorists to smuggle themself away, and maybe even body remain of the Israeli soldiers. A Reuters video is showing armed terrorists boarding and being transported by a UNRWA ambulance. In [http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/427679.html his 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 neigbourhood in Gaza on May 11, 2004. UNRWA confirmed the incident and offered the explanation that the terrorists forced the driver to take them.
After two more soldiers killed in Rafah while their securing their commerads who searched after the remains of Rafah's fallen, and were shot by terrorist when they assisted old Palestinian women, Israel launched Operation Rainbow in which Givati forces reinforced by Golani Brigade soldiers with IDF Achzarit HAPCs, a battlion of officers from the class-commanders school and serveral armoured Caterpillar D9 bulldozers. The aim of Operation Rainbow was to destroy the terror infrastructure of Rafah, destroy smuggling tunnels and stop illegal missile shipment.
See also
External links & References