Hebrew → English transcript

Seventy- two hours after the ceasefire took effect,

we entered for the first time, as an Israeli media crew, into southern Lebanon.

The ceasefire is fragile, and the ceasefire is

fragile both in Iran and in Lebanon, and each side is standing with its finger on

the trigger.

Therefore, if heaven forbid the ceasefire collapses while we are inside there,

the meaning is a return to fighting. The sudden ceasefire cut

short here a significant advance of the forces and left them on the front lines,

with the understanding that everything can change in an instant.

A soldier knows that when he goes out on a mission, he can open fire,

destroy any enemy that crosses his path. He is not torn between a purple line,

a yellow line, allowed or not allowed. Any figure he

identifies here, as far as we are concerned, is a terrorist. In the deepest points,

15 km from the border,

Division 162 is maneuvering with armored vehicles.

Here, on the outskirts of Aita ash- Shaab,

you can clearly see the fighting that took place when the offensive began.

Nahal fighters advanced forward against Hezbollah.

When Hezbollah comes down here in one of the first days,

it basically splits itself into small cells.

Several cells in every village, made up both of Radwan forces and of operatives.

In Division 162 they are making an effort to eliminate specifically the locals,

specifically the commanders who know the terrain, and then when they are gone,

the Radwan force does not know the route and tries to retreat.

And then they are hunted down one after another, after the third,

15 such commanders and many more cells of Radwan that fled back.

The forces note that most of the terrorists fled when the

forces entered or were killed in the battles.

One of the toughest encounters was in Beit Lif, a few kilometers from the

point where I am standing now with the commander of the Nahal Reconnaissance Unit,

who lost four of his fighters in a face- to- face encounter.

In the end we lost four excellent people,

and when that happens, then your heart stops its beats for a moment and your eyes

are not dry, but it is also part of our job. We know this is something

that is really an essential part of it. We move forward, and that is what we

did even after the incident. We kept fighting, cleansing the area,

closing the circle on the terrorists who hurt our people and eliminating them.

Even though the fighting here is done almost without phones, for fear of tracking,

the commando commander manages to find a phone for a few calls and chooses

to call specifically the families of the fallen.

After a few days I finally got such a kosher phone,

that you can talk on without worrying the enemy will track you,

and I spoke with the families. And I informed them,

and I think that even within the hardship they were bearing and are bearing,

I am sure, until now, maybe there was a moment of… a tiny, tiny sigh of relief,

even for a few seconds,

knowing that the bastards who hurt their loved ones most of all were destroyed.

Three weeks later the forces stood on the NUNTAT positions and began

cleansing the area

and eliminating the cells located to the north, until the moment they were halted,

and as we hear from the fighters in the field,

feelings about the cease- fire are mixed.

Every time it is to go in and out, to go in and out, and every time we

go in we take more lives of people, Even in places we have already been. And this…

I think this is a serious mistake, but I am a small cog in the system.

Any time they call me,

I will come, because I am fighting for a better future for my children.

Look, it is moving to be here and see

Hezbollah retreating and fleeing from IDF fighters,

and hopefully the quiet will return to the north,

and from here I

truly say to all the residents of the Upper Galilee: stay strong,

and soon, it is close…

their hand will be on top. In the end we want to create a kind

of situation that you can live in, that you can maintain…

You know, so that everyone will go back to studying properly. The universities,

the school, everyone. And for that we need

to bring real quiet here,

and not say that we are stopping here when we still see more

terrorists a few more kilometers ahead of us here, and say: no, it will be fine.

Like the residents of the north, so too the veterans of the sector.

Those who fought here in 2006 and in the security zone,

they know the terrain very well,

and for a moment it seems that history repeats itself.

Every point here in the area tells a story, Even this house,

which served as the forward command squad’s post of

those who abducted the soldiers here in 2006 at one of the bends.

If we look down here,

we can even see uniforms of Hezbollah operatives.

From this spot, Hezbollah forces went out into the security zone,

into the dense terrain, and here sat Hezbollah’s forward command squad,

from here they ran this operation. For me, that closes the circle.

While Hezbollah operatives still hold territory north of the yellow line,

the IDF is positioned at the furthest possible point and both sides are threatening

to renew the fighting at any moment,

it is too early to predict what this tense calm in the northern sector will bring.

Every such pause is…

it is a significant slowdown and basically lets the other side recover.

How long it will last,

none of us knows. But we are prepared for it, our morale is high.

The wind is also at our backs, which is after

all the most important thing. Aside from the rocket launches that have stopped,

There are still terrorist cells here, targets for elimination,

and these are also expected to continue in the near future. In the meantime,

you could say there is a ceasefire with more fire than cease.

Yinon Shalom, Yatakh, southern Lebanon.