The IDF's Givati Brigade played one of the most significant roles during Protective Edge, Israel's most recent operation in Gaza. The brigade saw most of its action around Rafah in the southern part of the Strip. The city's Hirbat Haza neighborhood, where the IDF fought for the first time in years, was the focus of a great deal of attention from the time ground forces went in until the final cease-fire. At first glance, Hirbat Haza looked like a completely normal neighborhood. Even a little too tranquil. But a closer look revealed a totally different reality: terrorists embedded in dense population centers with many "uninvolved" civilians; living spaces adjacent to caches of rockets, mortars, and other weapons; and children's bedrooms next to Hamas command and control centers. At street level -- everything looked innocent, while underneath lay a network of terror tunnels that became a real threat during Protective Edge. During the operation, Givati soldiers captured weapons, exposed the tunnel shafts, and killed terrorists who sought to use the tunnels to penetrate Israel, while difficult and painful incidents were taking place all around them. We need only to recall the deaths of Maj. Benaya Sarel, Lt. Hadar Goldin, and Staff Sgt. Liel Gidoni, who were killed by Hamas terrorists when they surrounded a suspicious structure in Rafah. After the operation, the army decided to set up a special training facility to better prepare troops for the next round and built a model neighborhood that features all the threats combat soldiers faced in Gaza. It includes closely built structures, tunnel shafts, bunkers, terrorist command centers and booby traps. The first troops to use the simulated Gaza neighborhood were Givati Brigade fighters drafted in March of 2014, currently in the final stages of their combat training. The first drill of its kind began as a surprise one afternoon and ended in the middle of the night. The troops marched through open territory, practiced working with combat engineering and armored forces, and encountered a "Gazan" neighborhood in every respect: graffiti on the walls, banners of terrorist groups, burning tires, and background noise that included Arabic songs, muezzin calls, and explosions. The troops practiced fighting Hamas, played by male and female soldiers from the IDF's Caracal Battalion, who also acted the parts of the Palestinian denizens of the neighborhood.
