How an Israeli Soldier Kept the Aid Flowing to Gaza during OperationPillar of Defense

A guest post by Sergeant (Res.) Evan Pelz

As an IDF soldier, Sergeant (Res.) Evan Pelz helped transfer aid to Gaza during Operation Pillar of Defense. One year later, he tells his story on the IDF Blog.

In 2011, a few months after immigrating to Israel, I furthered my dedication to my new home when I enlisted as an IDF a soldier in the Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza (CLA), a unit that acts as a liaison between the IDF and the civilian population in the Gaza Strip to ensure routine daily life for local Palestinians. During Operation Pillar of Defense, exactly one year ago, the mission of my unit proved more important and meaningful than ever.

Sergeant (Res.) Evan Pelz

Last November, the IDF was forced to launch Operation Pillar of Defense after Gaza militants attacked southern Israel with rockets. At the time, I was based at the Gaza CLA, just a few kilometers from the Gaza border and not far from Israeli communities absorbing constant rocket fire, including Kibbutz Sa’ad, where I was adopted as a lone soldier. In the face of these dangers, my unit worked tirelessly to monitor the entrance of humanitarian aid, as well as to identify sensitive locations such as hospitals, schools and mosques in order to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza. We invested the military’s resources and risked our lives by serving in an area showered with rockets, all in order to preserve what we could of routine life for Palestinian civilians.

During Operation Pillar of Defense, the IDF continued to facilitate the transfer of goods into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

As I worked from a bomb shelter, talking on the phone with the Red Cross and United Nations agencies on one phone and with the relevant IDF bodies on another, I represented the cooperation that is not seen or reported. While the world watched the operation as a continuation of Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes, it did not see our endless conversations with Palestinian and international workers of the Red Cross as we tried to take lists of necessary medical supplies and protect the movement of ambulances. The world did not see UN officials sleeping in our base, working personally with soldiers during each minute of the operation. The world did not see our base’s officers who were ready to enter Gaza in the case of a ground operation with ground forces to monitor the military’s actions and ensure the IDF worked in accordance with civilian needs.

Throughout my IDF service – whether rockets were falling on Israel or not – we worked on a daily basis with our Palestinian counterparts in the Gaza Strip, with common goals of entering as many supplies and people as possible through Israeli crossings. This is because the unit’s mission is always focused on humanity, on ensuring that even while maintaining necessary security precautions, it can look out for the interests of the civilian Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.

An IDF soldier coordinating the entrance of ambulances into the Gaza Strip.

The IDF uses many resources to train soldiers like me, soldiers who embody the IDF’s ethical code to value all human life and to address the many humanitarian needs of civilian populations trapped in a location of violence. The unit works solely for civilian needs in Gaza: it sends Israeli electrical teams to make sure power lines entering Gaza function; it coordinates the transfer of Palestinians requiring medical care from Gaza to Israeli hospitals for treatment and it transports exports from Gaza throughout the world through Israeli borders and ports to boost the Palestinian economy. On a daily basis, the unit connects the military to various bodies within Gaza, including international organizations such as the Red Cross and UN Agencies, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health and Palestinian media, as well as various Palestinian officials.

Palestinian patient enters Israel for emergency treatment.

At all times, the unit’s main mission is to keep the peace – to connect the IDF forces to our Palestinian representatives in order to maintain calm on a hostile border. But even during the harsh conflict of last November – when militants attacked Israel from positions located within civilian areas– we kept the aid flowing to Palestinians. In my view, this is the IDF’s greatest strength – its ability to root out terror while ensuring the health and well-being of Palestinian civilians in hostile surroundings.

Sgt. (Res.) Evan Pelz immigrated from the United States to Israel and served as a lone soldier from 2011 to 2013. He now lives in Jerusalem and studies law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.