On Oct. 7, 2023, an Israel Defense Forces commander led her company on the border of Gaza to save civilians from Hamas terrorists. Two years later, she told the story at the Edlavitch DCJCC on Oct. 9 to help those not living in Israel understand the complicated situation.
“I think [people need] to understand that news reflects one side only,” the IDF commander, Karni Guez, told Washington Jewish Week in an interview after the talk. “We have to look and think [and give] second thought about a lot of things we see.”
At the EDCJCC, Guez described her trip along the Gaza envelope on Oct. 7, 2023, to a kibbutz while trying to reach her team.
“I find myself riding [in a tank along the Gaza Envelope],” Guez said. “I heard the [nearby kibbutzim had Hamas activity] but I didn’t see even one terrorist.
“I didn’t want to take the tank inside of the villages, inside the kibbutzim,” Guez added, saying that driving the tank through the village could cause unwanted alarm. “So, I [walked] through the villages and [the tank commander I was with waited] and I saw this,” she said, sharing a picture of a stopped tank.
Guez explained that one of the soldiers was attacked and was being taken care of by two others while the other three soldiers defended them.
Although she didn’t see the people who attacked them, she said, “I get him back to my Hummer, and I told my crew, [prepare] the weapons,” she explained. “Two minutes [later], I got a phone call from the brigade, and they told me that my commander of the brigade is under attack.”
Guez went to help the brigade by herself, driving one of the tanks, leaving part of her company with the wounded soldier.
Guez explained, as she approached the brigade after being under attack, “when I opened my door of the Hummer, I see [another IDF soldier in my company]. [He] had two bullets in the chest and [was] unconscious. So, when I open [the door] and see this, I told myself, ‘OK, it’s not [time to focus on him], I need to focus on [stopping] the attack.”
“I try to reach everyone. I call the brigade, I call the battalion, I call everybody that I can call,” she added. “I get a panic attack in every call that [answered].”
Soon, Guez said she realized her company was alone in the fight and said, “When you understand that you’re alone, it’s not a bad thing. It makes you realize that you depend only on yourself and what you have, and what I have is [my] company.”
Guez explained that she decided to order her company to go to the border and “bring all the company north.” Guez said she had a “tiny little moment of fear, and [a feeling of being] tiny in the world.”
She then told her company to turn around because a hole they had found earlier in the border “didn’t leave my head.”
The hole, part of the fence split open, was just outside the kibbutz. When Guez and her company returned to the kibbutz, she said that it looked like a typical Shabbat afternoon.
“I have to say it was … like a typical quiet Shabbat, 2 p.m., quiet,” Guez explained. “I didn’t see the whole picture because the adrenaline and your mind [saves] you from seeing the truth. I didn’t see the fire at the end of the kibbutz. I didn’t see the body in front. I didn’t see those things until one soldier, after a minute and a half, came from inside and shouted, ‘Terrorists around the kibbutz. Terrorists around the kibbutz. You have to get in.’ So, I decided to go through the hole [in the fence].”
“My position was to protect and push out all the terrorists, because I was the tiger,” Guez added, using a tiger as an analogy for her tank. “[The other soldiers] go in, house to house, bunker to bunker, rescue the civilians, and we operate together for six hours. … We just think how we can do it most gently and not hurt any of our people during these six hours.”
Guez continued explaining what she felt after the battle was over.
“At 9 p.m., I think it’s the first time I go out of my tank and look around, and I feel [like I’m in an] apocalypse,” Guez said. “I never thought it [was] real. … I got out and I saw civilians [pack] their life [into] a single bag and evacuate quickly… so it was a hard moment, but you continue forward and at 1 a.m. we [are] back to the Egyptian border.”
After Guez finished her command of her company, she took on the position of operational officer in a battalion made up of only men. She explained that she was the first woman to hold that role.
Now, Guez said she wants to become a doctor and work in a hospital emergency room.
