It was early one November morning in the IDF war room in the southern Gaza city of Rafah that word came in that over a dozen figures were seen running from a tunnel in the sand dunes.
The Israeli ground forces, guided by a drone and backed by tanks and an air force combat chopper, gave chase to what would turn out to be a group of Hamas terrorists who had been trapped in the tunnels under the city since the Oct. 10, 2025, ceasefire went into effect, with over half of the coastal strip, including the Rafah area, falling under Israeli control.
“It was the beginning of the closing of a circle for us,” said S.R., a 35-year-old father of three and reserve commander of an elite unit which was involved in the chase, and who had been fighting Hamas in Gaza for most of the two years of war triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
A new ‘post-war’ reality in Gaza
The November incident would, in fact, lead to an even greater success for the IDF.
Over a dozen Hamas terrorists were killed that day, with several more seeking to escape the tunnels in the coming days. Two Hamas terrorists were also apprehended in the initial encounter, revealing that scores more were still underground.
It was about a week later that a top Hamas battalion commander from the city and his deputy, who were also hiding out in the tunnels, came out and were killed by Israeli forces, with the former carrying a stolen IDF weapon and the latter a still unidentified Israeli pistol, the Israeli reservist commander said.
“Seeing the stolen Israeli weapons on their dead bodies brought back all the memories of Oct. 7,” B.A., a 42-year-old father of three and elite fighter in the unit who has also spent most of the last two years fighting in Gaza, told JNS in an interview. “It makes you understand what you have been doing for two years and that there is still work to be done.”
Dozens more Hamas terrorists who have been holed up in the tunnels have since been killed in the two months, including four who exited and opened fire on Israeli forces just on Monday.
From Gaza to New York
During more than 18 months of fighting in Gaza, elite Israeli reservists witnessed firsthand the IDF’s October 2024 killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, uncovered massive smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border large enough for trucks, and evacuated mortally wounded soldiers following a January 2025 accident.
Now, the veterans of Israel’s top special-operations units are launching a private security firm, Tripod Security Solutions, aimed at serving Diaspora Jewish communities and Christian supporters of Israel.
“Today to be a Jew or a Zionist in any place in the world is to be in a sort of front of the battle,” B.A. said. “In some ways, the front moved from Gaza to Jewish communities around the globe.”
He noted that the image of New York Jews in fear of an attack on their community, which stayed with him from a brief visit right after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, which triggered the two-year war, stayed with him during this whole time.
“We decided that we wanted to take our experience from scores of years combined in security together with what we went through in the war in order to help defend those on this other front,” he said. “We will not let the feeling of autumn 2023 repeat itself.”
Amid the burst of antisemitism triggered by the war, which continues unabated even after the ceasefire, the elite Israeli combat reservist expressed frustration that so many in the world cannot differentiate the good from the bad.
“We intend to defend not only the residents of southern Israel and the people of Israel as we have until now, but all people who stand with us, so that they should be allowed to speak out without fear,” he said.
