On the morning of October 7, the commander of IDF Unit 217, commonly referred to as ‘Duvdevan’ (Hebrew for ‘cherry’), was woken by his friend, the commanding officer for personnel in the Southern Command.
“Bring everything you’ve got,” he was told.
Duvdevan is a counter-terrorism unit famous for its undercover work among Arab populations. It is also one of the IDF’s top fighting forces.
But even the commandoes of Duvdevan were taken aback by what awaited them upon entering the hellscape of the Gaza periphery on that Black Shabbat.
In an interview this week with Channel 14 from his new command post in a captured house deep in the heart of Khan Yunis, Col. D. recalls arriving in Kfar Aza that morning and immediately being greeted by 40 heavily-armed Hamas terrorists. He and his men fought for three days to clear the area of Hamas forces, and then prepared for the inevitable invasion of Gaza.
During this time, his wife gave birth to a daughter. “On the third day of fighting, they called me for a status report, and then concluded the call with ‘congratulations, you have a daughter.’ I sat on the sidewalk, raised my eyes to heaven and spoke with myself and with the Creator. Then it was back to war.”
Since entering Gaza, he speaks of non-stop intense fighting: “At point-blank range terrorists are emerging from tunnel shafts and firing RPGs and detonating explosive devices. We are engaged in face-to-face combat.”
At one point in the conversation, Col. D. is asked how he interprets what happened and is happening to Israel. He responds: “It will be a time of trouble for Jacob,” quoting Jeremiah 30:7. But the passage concludes by affirming that “he will be saved out of it.”
For Col. D., what’s important now is how he conducts himself in the midst of these biblical events. “I ask myself how I can help in this situation. And it’s not just me, but the entire unit,” he stresses. “We are here for as long as is necessary. Our mission is to defeat the enemy. Onward to victory.”
It gives people the shivers if you tell them this war will end with Israel signing a seven year peace treaty, what the Lord has said, will, happen.
“For Col. D., what’s important now is how he conducts himself in the midst of these biblical events.” I pray for Col. D., that he will be encouraged with the words of Hebrews 1:1-3, that God is speaking to us today by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who loves us and is with us.
It is not by chance that all eyes are upon Israel today.
In the midst of these biblical events, I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ who goes before us and behind us, will be exalted–that He will be recognized by the nations of our world as their Lord and Savior.
What about the Shoah? 6 million? 1.5 million children? Wasn’t Israel eventually saved out of it after 2/3 thirds had died for the remaining 1/3?
Fascinating. There is not a single verse about the Shoah in the Tanakh; and people believe this. What the verse 6?
“Can men give birth to children? Why, then, do I see all the men with their hands on their stomachs like women in labor, with every face turned pale?” (Jer 30:6).
Jeremiah foresaw his brethren’s bloated stomachs due to starvation, picturing the unspeakable conditions in Buchenwald, Dachau and Mauthausen, and in all the other Nazi camps.
But it doesn’t sell.
What do people think the skeletons in Ezek 37 represent? People who kept a strict diet??
One correction: 2/3 of European Jewry died on behalf of the Jewish people worldwide.