Бригада «Гивати»: история и операции израильской пехоты.

Israeli military infantry brigade

The 84th "Givati" Brigade (חֲטִיבַת גִּבְעָתִי) is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade formed in 1947. During the 1948 war, it was involved in capturing Palestinian villages in operations Hametz, Barak, and Pleshet. Before Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, the Brigade was stationed within the Gaza Strip. 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.

Givati was formed in December 1947 and placed under the command of Shimon Avidan. At the start of the 1948 Palestine war, the brigade was charged with operations in the central region of Israel, participating in operations Hametz, Barak and Pleshet. During Operation Barak, the brigade perpetrated a massacre in the village of Abu Shusha, killing around 60 residents. As the war entered its second stage, Givati became the 5th Brigade, was moved to the south, and concentrated mainly around Gedera, Gan Yavne and Be'er Tuvia. One battalion fought on the Jerusalem front, participating in Operation Nachshon and the Battles of Latrun. When Israel declared independence, Givati consisted of 5 battalions, with notable commanders such as Jehuda Wallach (51st Battalion), Ya'akov Pri (52nd Battalion), Yitzhak Pundak (53rd Battalion), Tzvi Tzur (54th Battalion) and Eitan Livni (55th Battalion). A sixth battalion (the 57th) was founded on May 30, 1948 from Irgun veterans, in preparation for Operation Pleshet. The brigade or parts thereof subsequently participated in the Battle of Nitzanim, Operation An Far, Operation Yoav, etc. It was converted into a reserve brigade in 1956 and its 51st "HaBokim HaRishonim" infantry battalion transferred to the Golani Brigade.

Givati was reestablished as a mechanized infantry brigade and then proceeded on to amphibious warfare in 1983. At the time it was intended that the Brigade serve as marines, but this has not been effected. In 1986 the brigade's purple beret was officially approved. Since 1999 it serves under Israel's Southern Command.

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, when under the command of Imad Fares. Under Fares' command, Givati carried out thousands of operations in the Gaza Strip.

The brigade continued its operations in the Gaza Strip under the command of Eyal Eisenberg and the new head of Southern Command, Dan Harel. Givati's Recon Battalion, the Dolev combat engineering platoon and the Bedouin scouts battalion, won a recommendation of honor, mainly for their activities against Rafah's tunnels. Givati forces, combined with a special combat engineering tunnels unit, and IDF Caterpillar D9 armoured bulldozers, managed to suppress most of Rafah's tunnels. On May 11 and May 12, 2004, two armored personnel carriers of Givati's Dolev engineering battalion were destroyed by Palestinian militants. The two separate skirmishes, in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood and the Philadelphi Route near Rafah and the Egyptian border, claimed the lives of 11 soldiers. Islamic Jihad militants captured some of the remains, causing outrage in Israel. Following international pressure and further Israeli operations in Zeitoun, the bodies of soldiers were returned to Israel. In the Zeitoun incident, UNRWA ambulances were used as transport by healthy Palestinian militants. 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 bring 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 battalion of officers from the class commanders school and several IDF 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 killing Iman al Hams, a 13 year old Palestinian girl, in Rafah in October 2004. Captain "R" was acquitted of all charges by a military court. Another officer, Captain "N", was removed after Palestinian gunmen infiltrated the Morag settlement and killed three soldiers in September 2004.

On September 12, the Givati Brigade left the Gaza Strip as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, one month after the forceful removal 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.

On June 27, in response to Hamas' kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit, the IDF started an offensive in the Gaza Strip to repel the continuous rockets being fired into the Israeli town outside of Gaza and to pressure Hamas to release Shalit. Givati, together with the Golani Brigade, Engineering Corps and the Armored Corps, participated in Operation "Summer Rains." However, Israel failed to achieve the release of Shalit, and a November 26 ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian groups forced Israel to withdraw its forces. Captain "R", the former Misayat Shaked company commander who was accused in "confirming kill" of 13 year old Iman al Hams in Rafah in October 2004, and was acquitted in court, received NIS 80,000 in compensation from the state, according to a December 14 Ha'aretz report.

In November 2012, the Givati Brigade participated in Operation Pillar of Defense.

In the summer of 2014, the Givati Brigade participated in the Israeli offensive Operation Protective Edge. During a 72 hour ceasefire, elements of the brigade's reconnaissance company engaged in a brief skirmish with Hamas militants in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, near the border with Egypt. Three soldiers, including the commander, Benaya Sarel, of the Givati Reconnaissance Company (Sayeret Givati), were killed in the ensuing firefight subsequently dubbed "Black Friday." Lieutenant Hadar Goldin was captured by Hamas militants and taken into a tunnel, and the assistant company commander took a small group of soldiers with him into the tunnel in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to rescue Goldin. After learning of Goldin's capture, the IDF initiated the Hannibal Directive and carried out a relentless air and ground attack on residential areas of Rafah. In the summer of 2015, a United Nations independent commission inquiry, as well as a joint report by Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture, found that Israel's indiscriminate violence against all human life on Black Friday amounted to war crimes. The reports detail the massive Israeli bombardment that killed between 135 and 200 Palestinian civilians, including 75 children. The assistant company commander was later awarded Israel's highest military honor, and the soldiers that accompanied him into the tunnel were also awarded military commendations. The Givati Brigade was the most highly decorated brigade in the IDF in 2014.

In January 2015, a convoy belonging to the Tsabar Battalion of the Givati Brigade was attacked by Hezbollah in Shebaa Farms.

In November 2022, the Givati Brigade was involved in "a series of incidents" of alleged abuses towards civilians in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Within the space of a few weeks, Givati Brigade soldiers were accused of spitting at an Armenian Christian archbishop leading a pilgrimage (two soldiers were detained by police), beating Israeli human rights activists in Hebron (two soldiers were suspended), and assaulting a Palestinian man (three soldiers were suspended). While IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi contended that "Incidents such as these tarnish the unit in which the soldier serves, the IDF and the State of Israel," Israeli MK and national security minister designate Itamar Ben Gvir urged the IDF to "think twice" about whether to punish the soldiers, questioning whether they had been "provoked" and contending that disciplining them "weakens the hands of the soldiers and does not strengthen them in the fight against terrorism".