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As of 2004, the Givati brigade is organized in three main battalions: Shaked, Tzabar, and Rotem, in addition to associated reconnaissance, engineering, and other units.
The Givati Brigade serves under the Southern Command and currently is deployed in the Gaza Strip. Recently, the Givati Brigade won a medal of honor for its service in the Gaza Strip during the last two years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada under the command of Aluf-Mishne Imad Fares . Under Fares command, the Givati Brigade built itself an excellent reputation of professional and warm infantry brigade. It carried out thousands of CT operations in the Gaza Strip with great success and low casualties.
The brigade continued its counter-terror operations in the Gaza Strip, under the command of new Brigadier General Eyal Eizenberg and the new head of Southern Command Dan Harel . Givati's Recon Battalion, attached with Dolev combat engineering platoon and the Beduin scouts battalion, won a recommendation of honor ( TZALASH ) on their activities against terrorismTerrorism refers to the use of violence against noncombatants for the purpose of achieving a political, religious or socio-economic goal. Terrorist acts can be carried out by individuals or groups, and are sometimes sponsored by governments as an alternat, mainly their activities against RafahRafah (Arabic: Hebrew: ) is a town in the Gaza Strip, on the Egyptian border, and a nearby town on the Egyptian side of the border, on the Sinai Peninsula. Over the ages is has been known as Robihwa by Egyptians, Rafihu by Assyrians, Raphia by Greeks and's smuggling tunnelsSmuggling tunnels are secret tunnels, usually hidden underground, used for smuggling of goods, illegal weapons and people. Smuggling tunnels in Rafah, Gaza Strip Smuggling tunnels connect Egypt and the Gaza Strip, bypassing the international border establ. Givati forces, combined with a special combat engineering tunnel's unit, and Caterpillar D9Caterpillar D9 General Characteristics Engineering vehicle type: Heavy bulldozer Propulsion: Caterpillar tracks Engine model:3408 HEUI (D9R) Gross power:354 kW (474 hp) D9R Flywheel power:306 kW (410 hp) D9R280 kW (375 hp) D9N 343 kW (460 hp) D9L Operatio armoured bulldozers, managed to suppress most of Rafah's tunnels.
On May 11May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (132nd in leap years). There are 234 days remaining. Events 330 Byzantium is renamed Constantinople during a dedication ceremony. 1502 Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyag and May 12May 12 is the 132nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (133rd in leap years). There are 233 days remaining. Events 1191 Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre. 1264 The Battle of Lewes, between King Henry III of England and the rebel Si, two armored personnal carriers of Givati's Dolev engineering battalion, were desyroyed by Palestinian miltants. The two separate attacks, in Gaza City's Zeitoun neigbourhood and the Philadelphi Route near Rafah and the Egyptian border claimed the lives of 11 soldiers. Palestinian terrorists of Islamic Jihad, who captured parts of the remains mutilated the bodies and disgraced them. [1] That caused an outrage in Israel, eventually leading to a massive operation in Zeitoun's neigbourhood and Rafah. [2],[3] After international pressure and aggressive Israeli operation in Zeitoun, the bodies of soldier killed in Zeitoun were returend to Israel and were properly buried.
In the Zaitoun incident, a UNRWA ambulances were used by terrorists to smuggle themself away, and maybe even body remain of the Israeli soldiers. A Reuters video is showing armed terrorists boarding and being transported by a UNRWA ambulance. In his interview with Haaretz, Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz also said that UNRWA's ambulances were used by Palestinian militants in order to smuggle some of the remains of IDF soldiers killed in Zaitoun neigbourhood in Gaza on May 11, 2004. UNRWA confirmed the incident and offered the explanation that the terrorists forced the driver to take them.
After two more soldiers killed in Rafah while securing their commerads who searched after the remains of Rafah's fallen, and were shot by terrorist when they assisted old Palestinian women, Israel launched Operation Rainbow in which Givati forces reinforced by Golani Brigade soldiers with IDF Achzarit HAPCs, a battlion of officers from the class-commanders school and serveral armoured Caterpillar D9 bulldozers. The aim of Operation Rainbow was to destroy the terror infrastructure of Rafah, destroy smuggling tunnels and stop illegal missile shipment.
The brigade's Shaked 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 southern Gaza. Two of the battalion's four company commanders have been removed. One, a Captain "R," is a Druze officer under investigation for "confirming the kill" (i.e. shooting an incapacitated person at close range) of Iman al-Hams, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl, in Rafah in October 2004. Another, Captain "N," was removed after Palestinian fighters infiltrated Morag settlement and killed three soldiers in September 2004.