The Operation

Noam belonged to the company (plugah) named Maslool August 2008.  All of its soldiers had entered the army in August 2008.  The company was one of several companies within the battalion (gadood) named Duchifat.  Duchifat, in turn, is one of several battalions of the army brigade named Kfir.  There is a very short entry in Wikipedia on the battalion.

Noam was both the medic of his company and the senior medic in charge of continuing training of new medics.  He had been selected to serve with the commanding officers of the company in a group called the charpak.  In this recounting of the event, the senior officer of the charpak, who was the commander of the company, is referred to as the MP.  The next in command is referred to as the SMP and the communications soldier involved is referred to as the CR.  The MP was 24 years old.  The SMP was 23.  Noam was 21.  The CR was 19.

On Sunday, May 03, 2009, the company began preparing for a counter-terrorism operation to take place in the village of Bir Ziyt.  Bir Ziyt is famous for its university and for its particularly militant student body.

These operations often begin with information gained from Army Intelligence regarding individuals, often students, who are in contact with sources opposed to Israel’s existence.  Intelligence, obviously, wants to know the degree of threat constituted by the individuals and the implications of the information they may have received.  Often, houses are searched for documents and propaganda and, as long as an operation is under way, neighborhoods are mapped so that, in the event of a war, the army has up-to-date information on the urban environment within which the fighting will take place.

This operation was to involve the entire company, that being about 80 soldiers.  Operations of that kind are the ongoing work of these soldiers and are always preceded by a period of preparation.  The soldiers learn the layout of the neighborhood they will be entering, they review methods of entering homes, go over what can occur and how to respond, etc.

After four days of preparations, shortly after midnight on Thursday 07 May 2009, that is 13 Iyyar 5769, about 80 soldiers divided into three active groups, each with its own sub-commander.  The charpak was split in two.  The MP, his driver, a communications officer and a medic would remain in an armored jeep and patrol the neighborhood.  The on-site commanding unit was comprised of the SMP, the CR, and Noam.

Before departing, Noam told the CR that he’d had a dream that one of them would not return.

After about a 20 minute drive, they entered the neighborhood of Bir Ziyt.  (A Google Earth picture of the neighborhood appears below.)  Because of the seniority of the SMP, Noam, the CR, and the SMP were assigned to the group with the least experienced sub-commander.

The commanding unit in the armored jeep patrolled the neighborhood.  There are several alleys in the neighborhood but access to all the alleys is only via the entrance alley.  That alley is also the only way out of the neighborhood.  After entering the neighborhood, a group of the neighborhood’s residents, students, succeeded in blocking the alley with burning tires and the likes.  The jeep was trapped within the neighborhood.

The students remained within stone’s throw of the alley and, when the jeep returned, began to throw things at the jeep.  The MP instructed the threesome of the SMP, Noam, and the CR to sneak-up on the group and arrest its leader.  Note that the distance between these students and the jeep was literally a stone’s throw.

The sneaking-up process took about 45 minutes.  Progress was slow—not because of the distance—but to ensure that the three weren’t noticed.  There was a lot going on, including students on roofs.  As they progressed, the SMP was able to peak between houses, identify the leaders, and determine the students who were to be arrested.

Once in place, the SMP told the MP to create a distraction with the jeep.  Then, the SMP began the actual arrest by running towards the leader and shooting in the air.  The shots in the air are startling and cause most of the students to hesitate and then flee.  That is exactly what occurred.  The CR followed the unit commander and Noam followed last.  The SMP succeeded in grabbing the leader of the group who was considerably bigger than the SMP and who struggled to avoid being arrested.  The CR assisted in the arrest but somehow—during the initial two or three seconds of the struggle, that is, before the CR arrived—a bullet had been fired from the SMP’s rifle.  Noam was dead.

During those two or three seconds, the CR had noticed that something had happened to Noam.  During Shiva he told us that he’d thought that he’d seen Noam facing-down another student.  Though that remains possible, I suspect what he saw was the angel-of-death gathering Noam.

The CR told the SMP to go back and check-up on Noam, which he did.  He called to Noam, nudged him, but did not immediately notice any injury.  Thinking that maybe he’d fainted, he tried to move Noam’s body and when he tried to raise the head he then noticed a trickle of blood.

The SMP called the MP and told him to come quickly.  The jeep was, in fact, just a stone’s throw away and the MP arrived beside Noam’s body within seconds.  He too, tried to wake him up and saw the trickle of blood.  He took out a bandage and when he went to put the bandage on the wound, only then, noticed the severity of the wound.

The MP called the jeep and told the medic to come.  The medic was an 18 year old, eight months in the army, and just out of his medics course.  He was, in fact, one of Noam’s “students”.  He arrived and tried to revive Noam.

By fluke, a second vehicle that was scheduled to be in the area had arrived.  The soldiers moved Noam’s body into that vehicle and he was evacuated to tsomet Bir Ziyt.  A paramedic was there.  The doctor from Ateret was also there but did not declare death.  A helicopter from the 669 unit arrived and landed on the road.  The doctor from 669 declared the death. 

From there Noam’s body was taken to the hospital.