The fight over judicial reform is long forgotten in the almost 100% reserve unit running the IDF’s targeting command operations for the Nahal Unit in Gaza.
IDF Maj. “Y,” who works in a start-up using robots and as a mountain running training instructor, has left his family behind and is committed to seeing the Gaza war to its end, even if that takes another six months, he told The Jerusalem Post during a recent visit to the targeting center near the southern border
Blue, green, red, brown, and many other different colors flashed on Y’s screen signaling different sets of forces in the field, sensitive sights, or likely ambushes and tunnel spaces.
The targeting command is a critical part of the IDF’s integrated revolution to help select the exact right attack mechanism: from artillery, to tanks, to drone, to aircraft, to naval vessels, as well as the exact right munitions, depending on any nearby sensitive sights and civilians, versus the need to ensure that a wider area of terrorist targets are killed or destroyed.
Y explained how different kinds of infrastructure, flagged on his electronic map, can tip off IDF troops regarding tunnel locations. This can be a reference point for Y to communicate certain data to Nahal forces in the field in Gaza. Such information can be crucial both in terms of preliminary maneuvers and in terms of zoning in and taking out a target under Y’s approval.
For example, on Monday night IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari mentioned that part of how the IDF traced connections between Hamas’s underground command center near Rantisi Hospital and the above-ground hospital itself, was following various wires that ran below ground.
At one point, mid-sentence, Y, switched from talking with the Post to forces in the field through his earpiece.
Y and the IDF field officers quickly clarified a few items that the Post cannot repeat, and within about 30 seconds, Y approved an attack on Hamas terrorists nearby the advancing Nahal forces about as fast as you can say “ready, aim, fire.”
With some decades of experience on most of the younger mid-level officers in the targeting command center, Y still manages to banter with them, command them, and fit in.
Who else is at the IDF targeting center near Gaza?
IDF Capt. “OI” is studying engineering at Ariel University. Previously, he did a degree in computer science at Haifa University.
OI’s previous experience was during his mandatory service from 2016 until March 2021 – just missing the May 2021 Gaza conflict with Hamas.
He returned to the reserves starting in July 2023, including various serious drills. Previously, he had worked primarily for targeting commands on the North with Hezbollah and regarding the Syrian civil war targeting and surveillance.
This rich comparative experience helps him think out of the box to solve targeting issues, though he did need to make some adjustments for Gaza’s intense urban density.
IDF Capt. “OR” worked on the May 2021 Gaza conflict, so he was quite familiar with the characteristics of targeting issues in Gaza, but in the past had been tasked with special forces, and now is tasked to work with Nahal forces.
One tactic the IDF is currently using effectively in Gaza is approaching Hamas layers and ambush points, but seeking to maintain a 200-250 meter distance from them so as to be able to continue to use the IDF's aerial, artillery, and tank power advantages.
This is forcing more and more Hamas forces to hide in the tunnels, where the IDF says it has other methods for keeping up the pressure and the attacks.
Y said that the distances for the forces and for the munitions are always varying as well depending on how involved the fighting gets.
In addition, Y said he is in constant touch with the IDF operations unit, which has even greater micro-level contact with rank-and-file forces in the field as well as with the intelligence collection unit, a unit the Post visited earlier this week. The targeting center is also supported by the artificial intelligence unit that the Post visited this past spring, which altered the speed of finding new targets sometimes from weeks to minutes.
He said, “There is a huge world of intelligence collection – it has increased a lot,” in the many years since he began his service.
One example which Y told the Post where his unit was involved in the targeting included four Hamas terrorists approaching a civilian residence.
Next, he said that they watched them via a Zik drone and saw three of the terrorists arrive at a specific designated spot. “We struck it and there was our first explosion,” he said pointing at a video replay, and then he noted “a delayed much larger second explosion - it turned out afterwards that they had hidden significant explosives in tunnels underneath” the civilian residence.
This double explosion was a prime example of the countless number of times that the IDF has found Gaza City to be filled to the hilt with weapons and explosives in the vast majority of civilian locations.
In another instance, Y described killing six terrorists, using multiple attacks from multiple platforms to take them out, some as part of the initial attack, and some as they tried to escape.
Despite its incredibly powerful deadly effectiveness, the targeting command is governed by strict directives which are not only posted on the wall next to the dozen or so computers where the 20 or so staff sit, but also have overall supervision from the IDF international law division.
Y said that on a daily basis there are regularly attacks, too numerous to keep a constant memory of, which he and others call off in order to avoid hitting nearby Palestinian civilians, to observe both basic morality and international law.
But flipping back to the other side, in the current war, he said that the IDF’s surveillance, tools, and targeting center capabilities are so vast, that usually adjusting an angle or waiting for another later point, enables IDF forces to eventually take out the Hamas target in question.
Although having a targeting center is not new, the vastness and lethality following the mix of combining it with the IDF AI center along with a complete integration of the air and naval forces as IDF troops march through Gaza, have led to stunning result of under 50 IDF deaths in Gaza compared to many thousands on the side of Hamas.