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SLAP! was
the only sound as the bullet hit the concrete wall. A saucer-shaped
indentation appeared exactly where my head should have been. Soldiers
standing nearby were stung by flying bits of concrete and copper
bullet-jacket. Sniper - Take Cover! was about all I was able to yell
before being drowned-out by the roar of the jeep's engine as my driver
peeled-out.
I was in the Gaza
Strip, the sweaty, crusty, crab infested crotch of the Middle East. This
stretch of ocean front property is the traditional border between Egypt’s
Sinai Desert and Israel. Hostile since Biblical times, it is best known as
the sight of Samson's final victory over the Philistines. The PLO's
complaint to the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague alleging "an ancient
Israelite war crime," is still pending.
Since hostilities
between Egypt and Israel ended in 1979, the international boundary between
the two countries is the Gaza Strip‘s southern edge, principally the city
limits of Rafah. A half paved, half sand twenty-five yard wide security
road separates Palestinian Rafah from Egypt. A high, reinforced concrete
wall along most of Rafah forms one side of the road, a wire security fence
with electronic sensors and closed circuit TV/video runs the length of the
other side.
In 1995 per the Oslo
Accords, the Israeli military withdrew from significant portions of the Gaza
Strip, including Rafah, which automatically became part of the “autonomous
areas” of the Palestinian Authority. Israeli civilian settlements and
military positions within the Gaza Strip remained Israeli, under the control
of Israel's military. The IDF’s degree of control is about the same as was
the U.S. military’s over one of its Fire Bases in the middle of a Viet Cong
jungle stronghold. Terrorists based in the PLO controlled area routinely
infiltrate and attack Israeli civilian and military targets. The terrorists
use small arms, grenades, mortars, RPG anti-tank and Kassam rockets. They
plant and detonate remote controlled roadside bombs with great success, even
taking-out Israel’s premier Merkava III main battle tanks. They also fire
Kassam rockets at towns in Israel’s northern Negev repeatedly hitting
civilian targets.
The Kassam rockets,
mortars and mortar bombs, explosives, roadside bombs, vehicle bombs and the
vests worn by homicide/suicide bombers are manufactured in Gaza Strip
workshops. But in comparison to commercially made products the home-made
explosives, rockets and mortar bombs are crude and relatively ineffective.
So the terrorists spare no effort smuggling commercial/military explosives,
along with small arms and ammunition, mortars and RPGs into Gaza.
Terrorist smuggling
attempts via the Mediterranean Coast are for the most part unsuccessful.
Israel’s navy has repeatedly intercepted, sunk or captured PLO arms ships
such as the Karine A and Santori. Similar successes have been
achieved interdicting arms and munitions dropped overboard by smuggler craft
for later retrieval by PLO Police and fishing boats. Consequently, “a land
route from Egypt under the Security Perimeter into Rafah became critical for
terrorist re-supply,” explained Major “N,” the IDF’s Officer responsible for
the southern Gaza Strip and my host for this morning's visit to the IDF's OP
closest to Rafah.
While Israel’s military
administered the Gaza Strip, the tunneling was modest, mostly in furtherance
of drug smuggling. The tunneling expanded exponentially once the terrorists
were left unchecked. It quickly turned into the principle route for getting
weapons and munitions to the vast networks of Gaza Strip terrorist
organizations. Part of its institutionalized practice of bribery and
smuggling, Egypt turns a blind eye to the tunneling originating in its
territory. The rare exception is when a tunnel is “discovered” because the
Press need a Photo-Op and Egypt needs some favorable press.
Israel’s
Interdiction Efforts
I was
visiting the Major’s Command to learn about IDF Search & Destroy Missions
aimed at the terrorist tunnels and those who excavate them. Israel guards
the border via a series of observation positions from which its military
continuously scrutinizes and patrols the Security Perimeter. The patrols
look for sign someone has crossed the sand and for indication of
tunneling. This work is the special province of the IDF’s Bedouin Trackers
whose ability to “read the ground” is deservedly legendary. The Trackers
patrol on foot, accompanied by specially armored APCs. The patrols regularly
take fire from terrorist AK-47s and M16s. Heavier fire, anti-tank rockets
and grenades are directed at the IDF Combat Engineers’ armored D-9
bulldozers and huge power shovels. The heavy equipment and its operators
literally become stationary targets while “digging” wherever the Trackers
locate “sign.”
“The closer they work to
a tunnel, the more frantic the terrorist fire. Right now it sounds like he
is getting close, but isn’t on top of it, yet. If he was you would be seeing
anti-tank rockets,” explained Major “N” pointing to the D-9 under fire 500
meters away. The exchange of fire momentarily interrupted the Major’s
explanation about the tunnels and how his troops search for and destroy
them. We were “up top” in the PO's Observation Tower, overlooking Egypt, Rafah
and the Security Perimeter in between. It is the Major’s favorite location
for conducting interviews. He enjoys watching visiting journalists gasp for
breath after trying to keep up with him as he sprints up the nine flights of
stairs…without a pause.
Deep Inside Indian
Territory
Earlier today the
Major’s aid, “D,” collected me from the Kissufim Border Crossing in an IDF
Israeli made and armored Jeep. Driving around the Gaza Strip in my unarmored
car is unhealthy. The drive to the Base went through a landscape out of a
Golan/Globus movie. The roads were flanked by small single-story Arab homes
randomly spaced among flat expanses of green weeds intersected by bare
yellow sand dunes. We passed acres of hot houses. Squalor was everywhere
except around Khan Yunis which contained its share of modern, multi-story
buildings. Israeli OP/Pillboxes were everywhere. The danger of roadside
bombs and ambushes was ever-present.
We picked up the Major
at HQ. He had just finished debriefing last night’s operation. Minutes later
the Mediterranean lay straight ahead. The jeep made a sharp left onto a
black-topped road, more covered with sand than not. For about ten minutes we
drove along the ocean. Sand dunes, beach, scrub brush and Arab shacks
bordered the road. “Many bombs planted along this road?” I asked. “All the
time. We discovered one just yesterday. A 70 gallon drum filled with 100
kilos of TNT. All the high explosives come in through the Egypt-Rafah
tunnels.” The Major’s tone of voice sounded as if every kilo of explosive
not intercepted was his personal failure.
The road ended. We’d
reached the Egyptian Border. A quick left and we were driving on the
Security Perimeter. Ahead an armored Command Car was “fence riding,” driving
slowly looking for sign of incursion from the Egyptian side. We followed
behind, both vehicles driving on the paved half of the road. Sign was
located in several locations; cut fence and hollowed out troughs. Reaching
the outer perimeter of the OP the road was blocked by a large transport. It
was loaded with the damaged blade from a D-9 wounded last night. Parked 30
yards away were two specialized, IDF armored assault/patrol vehicles used in
the same operation. They reminded me of the Monitor and Merrimack.
Last Night’s
Search & Destroy Mission
Inside the OP
several APCs were parked in a ready-to-go formation. I was surprised at the
large number of female soldiers in the OP. The Givati Brigade armored
infantry reservists who had participated in last night’s mission were
lounging around. Just hours earlier they had located and destroyed two
tunnels and captured 8 terrorist tunnel “engineers.” The reservists were
happy to provide the details the night’s action.
“It was a standard
operation in the Rafah Refugee Camp. Mista’arvim (Border Police
undercover unit) moved into the target neighborhood after dark. They’d
completed a Recon Patrol of the area sometime earlier. We mounted up in our
armored vehicles. A squad from the Combat Engineers joined us. They brought
along an armored D-9 bulldozer and held an armored power shovel in reserve.
A number of Merkava III tanks met us as we approached Rafah. The tanks
supply cover fire if needed. Members of the Bedouin Tracker Unit guided us.
They discovered several bobby traps before we drove over them. The 100 kilo
one they missed damaged the D-9 and wounded its driver. As usual the
terrorists had anticipated our route. They know where their tunnels are. If
they don’t already have a good idea where we’re going, it doesn’t take them
long to figure it out and get the reception organized.”
The tired Givati
troopers continued. “At Zero Hour the Mista’arvim secured the homes
suspected of containing tunnels and captured their builders. Our combined
column of armored vehicles and tanks began moving. Simultaneously the
terrorists started shooting. We moved as quickly as possible first through
city streets and then narrow passageways to the homes that hid the tunnels.”
Terrorist Use of
the Civilian Populace
“As usual it quickly became a shooting gallery, with us as the targets. The
terrorists fired from residential areas, using homes for firing positions
and the families living inside for cover. They used AK-47s and M16s.
Grenades rained down. Had their sniper team predicted our coming and was
set-up for us, the danger would have been mortal. It took longer for the RPG
anti-tank rockets to start coming at us. That caused a situation where the
tanks had no alternative but to provide accurate cover-fire to the source of
the fire directed against us. That is exactly what the terrorists wanted.
News they could distribute to the foreign press of our tanks firing at
civilian homes, killing the women and children inside, the women and
children the terrorists wouldn’t let leave.”
Back to Tunnel
Hunting
“We reached the suspect
houses. Terrorists were blindfolded and taken away for questioning.
Residents were escorted to ‘safe rooms’ to keep them out of harms way and
from interfering with us. We began searching for secret, hidden passageways
to the tunnels. We found entrances under a baby’s bed, behind a kitchen wall
and of course under the flooring. The bulldozer dug in suspicious areas and
opened up a building’s false wall. At that point our Sappers came in. They
planted 150 kilo explosive charges in the tunnels we’d located. We evacuated
the building and the nearby homes we believed were endangered. We blow the
tunnels’ entrances and 25 meters of it collapsed. Then we mount-up and
headed home.”
“You didn’t search
the tunnels,” I asked. “No. This isn’t Viet Nam. These tunnels have no vast
network with living quarters, storerooms, bunkers, etc. They are for moving
guns and munitions and are not much larger than what you need to crawl
through on hands and knees…and they are bobby trapped."
My interview of the
reservists concluded, now came my non-stop sprint to the upper reaches of
the OP’s observation tower. The view of Rafah City/Refugee Camp, Egypt and
the Security Perimeter was panoramic. As I caught my breath, the Major
educated me about the smuggling. “We encounter both over and underground
smuggling. Occasionally a terrorist carrying a load simply goes under or
through the fence and across the patrol road at a run. He may try to reach
Rafah or he may leave his load ‘to be collected’ by others and runs back to
Egypt.”
And The Tunnels
“Tunnels come in two
types. There are those built by professionals who have perfected their
technique over the last 30 years. It is their family business. They rent the
basements of homes, in both Egypt and Rafah. They dig their tunnels deep,
down 10 meters, sometimes deeper. Most are shored-up with wood and have
rails along which carts are pulled. They work clandestinely making every
imaginable effort to disguise what they are doing. They know we have
extensive intelligence sources. For them the more secret, the more safe.”
The tunnels dug by the
professionals may begin as far as 200 meters away from the border. Because
they are booby trapped, neither Trackers nor Combat Engineers enter more
than several meters and only to plant explosive charges. Detonations are
watched closely. They do more than simply collapse the entrance and 25 to 30
yards of tunnel. The charge propels a noticeable cloud of dust and smoke out
the tunnel’s other opening. The explosion may also cause ground signs -
shaking, sagging or changed surface texture, along portions of the tunnel
that didn’t crater.
The other type of
tunnel is more sinister, Major “N” explained. “It is not for moving guns and
explosives. Only about a meter below the surface, it is intended for use a
single time, for one of two purposes. It is to move terrorists unseen to
their embarkation point for an attack. Or it is for planting a 100 kilo
bomb, to be exploded remotely when a tank or other high profile target
drives over it. That is how they have ‘taken out’ our tanks.”
The Major motioned to
the source of the continuing fire-fight. “See the D-9 on the Security
Perimeter? He is digging an 8 meter deep hole. We’ll place an explosive
charge in it. If there is a tunnel close by the explosion causes a change in
the surface of the sand which our Trackers can read. Intelligence provides
our best source for locating tunnels. OK, that is the tour. Back to HQ. I’ve
got to get some sleep.”
I knew that there was
at least one highly proficient PLO Sniper team operating in the Gaza Strip.
Reportedly the team had learned Russian tactics and field craft at one of
the private, free enterprise schools run by retired Spetznatz snipers
in a former Soviet Republic. They had also been taught American federal
government close protection practices and military urban warfare sniping
strategy by CIA subcontractors in a mid-Atlantic state. I suspected they
also possessed practical experience and seasoning from time spent in
Chechnya.
These snipers were real
smart and able to figure where they could set up and draw the IDF into an
ambush. They went to great pains to plan every shot, which they executed
with precision. They set up in locations from which they could shoot with
total anonymity. They left no sign and where gone before anyone could figure
from where the fatal round was fired. They had killed several of the Major’s
men.
I had already asked
Major "N" about his more recent experiences with PLO snipers. He related how
a soldier on guard duty was killed by a single shot through an observation
slot the soldier opened on hearing a burst of AK-47 fire. The Major also
noted the death of a high ranking officer, riding in an armored vehicle to
the sight of where a tunnel had just been unearthed, killed by a single
round.
But no bullets had been
zipping around us or the OP. I figured if the sniper team was around, we
were not what they were hunting. So with the Major's permission, I went up a
stairway lacking both cover or concealment and into the OP's "sniper den."
There I found a Barrett .50-caliber semi-auto sniper rifle. I crawled out
snipers' position and walked down the open, exposed stairs, continuing all
the way to the ground. We were back at HQ having lunch a quarter hour
later. I had to ask what it was that we ate. The cooks had learned to
disguise the food, but not to improve it since I’d last eaten in an IDF mess
hall. Time to head back to my car.
Danger
Terrorist Snipers at Work
Just outside the fence
at the Base’s entrance, a half dozen soldiers were standing in a concrete
block enclosure waiting for a ride. We stopped to see if any of the guys
were heading for Jerusalem. If so, I’d give them a ride. The enclosure was
on my side of the jeep. I was opening the jeep’s door to ask if anyone was,
“Going to Jerusalem?” when we heard what sounded like a blasting-cap go
off, definitely not the sound of rifle fire.
The soldiers jumped and
winced. It took a moment for my brain to process what my eyes had just
taken-in. The soldiers hadn’t jumped, reacting to the sound. They had been
sprayed with little bits of concrete blasted out of the wall. I saw the
pockmark in the freshly painted yellow concrete. A good three seconds had
passed, perhaps more, since the bullet slapped into the wall. It took that
long to understand we had been shot at. “Get Down! Take Cover!
SNIPER!” I yelled.
“We’re Taking Fire
At The Main Gate…Repeat We’re Under Fire At The Main Gate” barked “D”
over our jeep’s communications radio. One hand on the steering wheel, the
other on the radio’s mike, he swiped the gear shift popping the jeep’s
clutch. We lurched forward as I tried to snap a photo of the pockmark that
had materialized at head height in the wall a yard ahead and to the right of
me. My “wait I want to get a good picture” was ignored. The look on “D’s”
face conveyed the message that he thought I was out of my f…ing mind. His
conduct exhibited the common sense mine lacked. He wasn’t about to hang
around and test our jeep’s armor was for the sake of a photo. We were out of
there.
Being shot at was so
common place that the “incident” barely warranted discussing during the ride
to my car. I thought the jeep might have been hit by the ricocheting bullet
so I asked “D” to wait a minute while I checked the passenger side. I
expected I might find a strike pattern from multiple bits of copper jacket
and lead. Instead I discovered a single oblong, jagged hole in the plastic
bumper above the jeep’s rear tire. A thank you to “D” and he sped-off. As I
began the long, relaxing drive home, my mind started processing the day’s
events.
S-I-L-E-N-C-E-R!!!
They used a silenced rifle. I called the Base on my cellular phone. “They’re
using a silencer. They didn’t quite have a shot at the soldiers inside the
concrete blocks. We were in the armored jeep. So they shot, trying to draw
someone out and into their cross-hairs. I’m uncertain if what we heard was
the bullet’s supersonic crack or the slap of it hitting the wall. In either
case you have a deadly team in your area.”
I got back to Jerusalem
while it was still business hours in Idaho. I immediately called my good
buddy Rick Garcia at TriTech Training. His company is heavily into "High
Performance Muzzlebrake Technology" (silencers) and Rick teaches police and
military snipers how to use them. He knows all about “baiting shots.” He
gave me some life-saving education “as the target,” which I passed along to
the IDF's Gaza Command ASAP.
Using Rick’s
experience and the facts I had, we figured that if the sound I heard came
from the bullet hitting the wall, we were dealing with a sniper using
subsonic ammunition. His shot had to have been from under 200 meters, more
likely less than 150, probably using a 7.62x54R caliber SVD (Dragunov Sniper
Rifle). SVDs with thousands of rounds of quality ammo were part of the
cargo captured on the Karine A. If what I heard was the bullet’s
supersonic crack, then we were dealing with a silenced rifle using normal,
match ammunition. The shot had to have been taken from over 800 meters away
most likely with a .300 Mag. or .338 Lapua. |
