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| 84th "Givati" Brigade | |
|---|---|
| חֲטִיבַת גִּבְעָתִי | |
 Brigade patch | |
| Active | 1947–1948, 1982–present |
| Country |  Israel |
| Branch |  Israel Defense Forces |
| Type | Infantry |
| Part of | 162nd Armor Division, Israeli Southern Command |
| Mottos | "With me to Givati", "Any Place, Any Time, Any Mission", "The most combatant, Givati" |
| Colors | Purple berets, purple and white flag |
| March | "Mi She-Halam Givati" ("Those who dreamt Givati") |
| Mascot | Fox |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander | Colonel Liron Betiteo |
| Notable commanders | Effi Eitam,Imad Fares,Amos Yarkoni,Ofer Winter |
| Insignia | |
| Flag |  |
The"Givati" Brigade (Hebrew:חֲטִיבַת גִּבְעָתִי,lit. '"Hill Brigade" or "Highland Brigade"') is the name of twoIsrael Defense Forces brigades: the 5th Brigade, aninfantry brigade formed in 1947; and the 84th Brigade, an infantry brigade formed in 1983.
During the1948 war, the 5th Brigade was involved incapturing Palestinian villages in operationsHametz,Barak, andPleshet.
Before Israel's2005 withdrawal from Gaza, the 84th Brigade was stationed within theGaza Strip.
84th Brigade soldiers are designated by purple berets. The Brigade's symbol is the fox, alluding toShualei Shimshon (שועלי שמשון,lit. "Samson's Foxes"), a unit in the1948 Arab–Israeli War.
84th Infantry Brigade "Givati"
Givati was formed in December 1947 and placed under the command ofShimon Avidan. At the start of the1948 Palestine war, the brigade was charged with operations in the central region of Israel, participating in operationsHametz,Barak andPleshet. During Operation Barak, the brigade perpetrated a massacre in the village ofAbu Shusha, killing around 60 residents.[1][2] As the war entered itssecond stage, Givati became the5th Brigade, was moved to the south, and concentrated mainly aroundGedera,Gan Yavne andBe'er Tuvia. One battalion fought on the Jerusalem front, participating inOperation Nachshon and theBattles of Latrun.
When Israeldeclared independence, Givati consisted of 5 battalions, with notable commanders such asJehuda Wallach (51st Battalion),Ya'akov Pri (52nd Battalion),Yitzhak Pundak (53rd Battalion),Tzvi Tzur (54th Battalion) andEitan Livni (55th Battalion). A sixth battalion (the 57th) was founded on May 30, 1948 fromIrgun veterans, in preparation forOperation Pleshet. The brigade or parts thereof subsequently participated in theBattle of Nitzanim,Operation An-Far,Operation Yoav, etc. It was converted into a reserve brigade in 1956 and its 51st "HaBokim HaRishonim" infantry battalion transferred to theGolani Brigade.
Givati was reestablished as a mechanized infantry brigade and then proceeded on to amphibious warfare in 1983. At the time it was intended that the Brigade serve asmarines, but this has not been effected. In 1986 the brigade's purple beret was officially approved.[3] Since 1999 it serves under Israel'sSouthern Command.
The Givati Brigade served under the Southern Command and was deployed in the Gaza Strip. The brigade was awarded a medal of honor for its service in the Gaza Strip during the last two years of theAl-Aqsa Intifada, when under the command ofImad Fares. Under Fares' command, Givati carried out thousands of operations in the Gaza Strip.
The brigade continued its operations in the Gaza Strip under the command ofEyal Eisenberg and the new head of Southern Command,Dan Harel. Givati's Recon Battalion, theDolevcombat engineering platoon and theBedouin scouts battalion, won arecommendation of honor, mainly for their activities againstRafah's tunnels. Givati forces, combined with a special combat engineering tunnels unit, andIDF Caterpillar D9armoured bulldozers, managed to suppress most of Rafah's tunnels.
On May 11 and May 12, 2004, twoarmored personnel carriers of Givati'sDolev engineering battalion were destroyed by Palestinian militants. The two separate skirmishes, inGaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood and thePhiladelphi Route nearRafah and theEgyptian border, claimed the lives of 11 soldiers.Islamic Jihad militants captured some of the remains, causing outrage in Israel.[4] Following international pressure and further Israeli operations in Zeitoun, the bodies of soldiers were returned to Israel.
In the Zeitoun incident,UNRWA ambulances were used as transport by healthy Palestinian militants.[5][original research?] In an interview withHaaretz, Israel's Defense MinisterShaul Mofaz also said that UNRWA's ambulances were used by Palestinian militants in order to bring some of the remains of IDF soldiers killed in Zaitoun neighbourhood in Gaza on May 11, 2004.[6] UNRWA has described the May 11 incident as a hijacking.[citation needed]
After two more soldiers were killed inRafah,Israel launchedOperation Rainbow. This involved Givati forces reinforced byGolani Brigade soldiers withIDF Achzarit HAPCs, a battalion of officers from the class-commanders school and severalIDF Caterpillar D9armoured bulldozers. The stated aim of Operation Rainbow was to destroy the terror infrastructure of Rafah, destroysmuggling tunnels and stop illegal missile shipment.
The brigade'sShaked battalion, under the command of a Lt. Col. "Ofer" (surname not publicized) was rocked by scandals in the second half of 2004 while stationed in the southern Gaza Strip. Two of the battalion's four company commanders were removed, although one was later exonerated. Captain "R", aDruze officer was tried for killingIman al-Hams, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, in Rafah in October 2004.[7] Captain "R" was acquitted of all charges by a military court.[8] Another officer, Captain "N", was removed after Palestinian gunmen infiltrated theMorag settlement and killed three soldiers[9] in September 2004.
On September 12, the Givati Brigade left the Gaza Strip as part ofIsrael's unilateral disengagement plan, one month after the forceful removal of approximately 8,000 Jewish settlers living in 22 communities in the Strip. It marked an end to the 38 year IDF presence in the Gaza Strip. Today, two battalions are stationed outside the Strip, while the third battalion is positioned on the northern border.
On June 27, in response to Hamas' kidnapping of CorporalGilad Shalit, the IDF started an offensive in the Gaza Strip to repel the continuous rockets being fired into the Israeli town outside of Gaza and to pressure Hamas to release Shalit. Givati, together with the Golani Brigade, Engineering Corps and the Armored Corps, participated in Operation "Summer Rains."[10][11] However, Israel failed to achieve the release of Shalit, and a November 26 ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian groups forced Israel to withdraw its forces.
Captain "R", the former Misayat Shaked company commander who was accused in "confirming kill" of 13-year-old Iman al-Hams in Rafah in October 2004, and was acquitted in court, received NIS 80,000 in compensation from the state, according to a December 14 Ha'aretz report.[8]
Givati was the first brigade to receive the newIMI Tavor TAR-21 assault rifle, in August 2006.
As of 2007, the Givati brigade is organized into three main battalions: Shaked, Tzabar, and Rotem, in addition to associatedreconnaissance,engineering, and other units.
The Givati Brigade participated inOperation Hot Winter.It also participated in the ground phase ofOperation Cast Lead, when of all IDF brigades, it penetrated deepest into Gaza City. The brigade's reconnaissance battalion entered the Tel el-Hawa neighborhood in search ofHamas operatives two days before the cease fire went into effect. An estimated 40 Palestinian operatives were killed as dozens of apartments were swept. Hamas reportedly decided to fire the commander of the Gaza City Brigade after its forces fought against Givati.[12]
In November 2012, the Givati Brigade participated inOperation Pillar of Defense.
In the summer of 2014, the Givati Brigade participated in the Israeli offensiveOperation Protective Edge. During a 72-hour ceasefire, elements of the brigade's reconnaissance company engaged in a brief skirmish with Hamas militants in the southern Gazan city ofRafah, near the border with Egypt. Three soldiers, including the commander, Benaya Sarel, of the Givati Reconnaissance Company (Sayeret Givati), were killed in the ensuing firefight subsequently dubbed"Black Friday."[13] Lieutenant Hadar Goldin was captured by Hamas militants and taken into a tunnel, and the assistant company commander took a small group of soldiers with him into the tunnel in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to rescue Goldin.[14][15]
After learning of Goldin's capture, the IDF initiated theHannibal Directive and carried out a relentless air and ground attack on residential areas ofRafah.[16][17] In the summer of 2015, aUnited Nations independent commission inquiry, as well as a joint report byAmnesty International andForensic Architecture, found that Israel's indiscriminate violence against all human life on Black Friday amounted to war crimes.[16][18][19][20] The reports detail the massive Israeli bombardment that killed between 135 and 200 Palestinian civilians, including 75 children.[17][21][18]
The IDF Rabbinate later declared Goldin deceased for the purposes of Jewish burial and grieving rituals and buried the remains.[22] The assistant company commander was later awarded Israel's highest military honor, and the soldiers that accompanied him into the tunnel were also awarded military commendations. The Givati Brigade was the most highly decorated brigade in the IDF in 2014.[23]
In January 2015, a convoy belonging to the Tsabar Battalion of the Givati Brigadewas attacked byHezbollah inShebaa Farms.
In November 2022, the Givati Brigade was involved in "a series of incidents" of alleged abuses towards civilians in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Within the space of a few weeks, Givati Brigade soldiers were accused of spitting at an Armenian Christian archbishop leading a pilgrimage (two soldiers were detained by police), beating Israeli human rights activists in Hebron (two soldiers were suspended), and assaulting a Palestinian man (three soldiers were suspended).[24] While IDF Chief of StaffAviv Kohavi contended that "Incidents such as these tarnish the unit in which the soldier serves, the IDF and the State of Israel," Israeli MK and national security minister-designateItamar Ben-Gvir urged the IDF to "think twice" about whether to punish the soldiers, questioning whether they had been "provoked" and contending that disciplining them "weakens the hands of the soldiers and does not strengthen them in the fight against terrorism".[25][26]
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The Givati Brigade has lost 89 soldiers and commanders during the war, including on the October 7, 2023, onslaught.[27][28]
In the village of Abu Shusha in the District of Ramla a unit of the Givati Brigade committed a massacre in which 60 villagers were murdered.[permanent dead link]
חלפו עוד שנתיים, עד פברואר 1986, עד שהכומתה אושרה סופית ומפקדי החטיבה וחייליה יכלו לחבוש אותה בגאווה.
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