Channel 12's Interview with the Paran's Brigade All-women Tank Crews — Translation and Transcript

9-min read

Undefined soldier: To the tanks!

[…]

Soldier 1:  We understand that this is a war.

Soldier 2: We’re moving fast.

Undefined soldier: To the right.

Soldier 3: You just run over the terrorists and move on. Then attack. And fire machine guns to make sure all was destroyed.

Soldier 2: Our company took out about 50 terrorists.

Interviewer: This is Hagar, Hila, Tal Sarah, Michal, Karni, Ophir, and Tamar. Just 20 years old, but these tank crew members and their company made history on October 7. These are the first women in Israel, maybe in the world, that fought in an armoured battle. A heroic battle in which they took out dozens of terrorists and saved an entire kibbutz.

In this clip, showed here for the first time, you see Karni’s tank, the company commander, storming through the gate of Kibbutz Holit, on the way to purge the kibbutz of terrorists.

Their battle begins on the morning of October 7, the holiday of Simchat Torah. As terrorists break through the border fence, these tank crews are far from there, in another sector, on the Egyptian border, at their base, in Nitzvana. They take 2 vehicles, a tank and an armoured HMMWV, and head north.

The tank is racing in an unusual manner on the road, in route 232, on the way to the communities near the Gaza Strip. Near a Sufa post they encounter dozens of terrorists rushing towards them and advance towards the border fence. On that border fence, they see the breach the terrorists made and leave one tank to stand guard. The platoon commander, Paran Brigade Commander Col. Shemer Raviv’s tank, is now holding off the Gaza people from coming through to Israel or Gaza.

The rest of the fighters continue to Holit. Platoon commander Michal is driving to Sufa to assist with the fighting going on there.

For 6 hours they fight along with SWAT, Golani and Shaldag fighters. They take out many terrorists and purge the communities from killers running loose.

This week, a month and a half later, we met them to hear about that battle that will go down in history.

Soldier 4: At 6:30, Tal arrives to my room to tell me there is a terrorist attack. We don’t really understand the magnitude of the event.

Paran Brigade Commander Col. Shemer Raviv: I’m at home, we have 2 tanks on standby to guard the Egyptian border. I order them to drive on roads to… towards Egypt, to the border fence, and tell them that we’ll meet there.

Interviewer: It’s very unusual that tanks…

Paran Brigade Commander Col. Shemer Raviv: Very unusual. Very unusual.

Interviewer: Leave the sector and drive on the road heading north.

Paran Brigade Commander Col. Shemer Raviv: Right. This is very unusual. But as reports arrive at 6:30–7:00, we understand that this is something of a different magnitude.

Soldier 3: I decide to get Michal’s tank on the Philadelphi Corridor, telling her to drive on the border guard route north bound, and to await further orders.

Soldier 3: We’re driving towards Sufa. We see our first incident, an APV that was hit by a charge with wounded, still conscious. Our commander climbed on the APV and operated the machine gun.

Soldier 1: When we got to Sufa, we saw a smashed APV with wounded laying next to it, then and there I realized that we are at war. You hear massive gunfire, they tell us these are terrorists firing, this is war.

Soldier 5: I get to the fighting zone, see the brigade commander, 2 vehicles and people… There were wounded people there, I start hearing gunshots north of the road.

Paran Brigade Commander Col. Shemer Raviv: I see dozens of terrorists, on pick-up trucks, on bikes, with RPGs. I pull up next to them, there are moments of silence, I even fire one shot in the air to make sure these are not friendlies, and a 30-minute shootout starts. We’re outnumbered and they’re coming towards us. The tank that was out of the sector driving all the way arrived, and I get on the tank.

Soldier 5: The brigade commander comes into my tank, saying they had an attack from the north and that there are terrorists all over. In the trees north of us. We need to scan the area, I load the guns, and the crew spots the terrorists. We start shooting. We start with machine gun fire on the terrorists close by, then move to heavy projectiles to the ones farther from us.

Interviewer: You see the hits?

Soldier 5: I see the hits. I see them falling.

Soldier 4: Hila and I were on the APV, Tal was on comms to get a status report, and help the brigade commander communicate. Hila and I drive on Road 232. I’m driving, Hila is on the APV, operating the machine gun, telling me she’s spotting terrorists, to open her safety so she can fire. We saw them falling.

Soldier 2: None of us were trained to operate this APV. This weapon system is… you need to have special training; none of us had that. In about 10 minutes we’ve become experts in the system, operating it, shooting it, fixing issues with it, and…

Soldier 1: You figure it out as you go.

Soldier 2: Yes.

Soldier 1: How to handle a situation.

When 50 terrorists pass you by, and you see the videos and know that they have anti-tank missiles and RPGs, and there are so many of them, you’re saying to yourself that you’re next.

Interviewer: At that moment, as they fight and kill dozens of terrorists, platoon commander Karni calls for a third tank from Nitzana, led by Seargent Ophir. Now there are already 3 tanks there with all female crews.

Soldier 3: What tipped the weight was seeing 50 terrorists coming my way to the vehicles. That’s when Michal made contact, taking down RPG squads and shooting heavy projectiles.

Soldier 6: Once Karni told me to drive north on the Philadelphi Corridor, I realized it was serious, this is not a daily thing. Adrenaline’s rushing, the crew is pumped, prepping for the real deal, the thing we’re training for.

Soldier 5: After 2 hours, my sergeant’s tank arrives from the south. The platoon commander goes into the sergeant’s tank and both tanks fight together. We head towards the fence.

Interviewer: What do you see in front of you?

Soldier 5: We see the trees, where the terrorists were, are now burned. We see the terrorists’ bodies. We shoot them to make sure everyone’s dead. We arrive at the breach in the fence.

Soldier 3: I’m going on the offensive. Machine gun fire, making sure everyone is dead. If we thought the 50 terrorists were the end, it was only the beginning. We starting hearing about Holit. We hear that there’s a hostage situation, terrorists in the community. I can’t stop thinking about the breach, I leave one tank to guard it, telling her to to shoot everyone coming in. “You have my go-ahead, if you have a positive ID, anything coming from the north, fire at will.”

I head off with a brigade commander along with a SWAT team towards Holit.

My driver spots 2 terrorists on the road and reports it. I tell her to run them over. She simply runs over the terrorists and moves on, preventing another infiltration.

Interviewer: You were running over terrorists?

Soldier 3: Yes.

We arrive at the entrance of the community and the gate is closed shut. A soldier comes to me, a bit panicked, saying, “Terrorists! Come in, now!”

We break into the community, crash the gate, and follow his directions. The soldier points and tells me, “Shoot there, the terrorists are there.” I ask him, “Are there civilians there?” He says, “I don’t know, just shoot.” I decide not to shoot, this is an Israeli community. I fire my machine gun at a house.

Paran Brigade Commander Col. Shemer Raviv: We are in a battle inside Holit. There’s also fire from the fields and in the community. We fire projectiles and machine guns. Also in the community. This is a very complex situation. The terrorists did not fight the tank once the tank arrived, they either ran or died. They killed dozens of terrorists.

Soldier 3: They were fighting until 20:00, until we were sure it’s clear, that Holit was purged, and you can extract the civilians.

Interviewer: This is the first time shooting at people, at terrorists.

Soldier 7: Yes. I feel like this is what I was trained for. I followed the drills, my brain and hands knew exactly what to do.

Interviewer: Eventually, you saved many lives in Holit, and in the area.

Soldier 3: Yes. When you’re in the moment, you don’t think that you’re saving people, saving homes. You think of the terrorist and how to kill him before he arrives to the communities.

Interviewer: How many hours did you fight?

Soldier 3: Around… 17 hours.

Interviewer: Inside the tank?

Soldier 3: Yes. That’s mad.

Paran Brigade Commander Col. Shemer Raviv: These all-women tank crews stopped the attacks on these 2 communities where the tanks fought terrorists. Most of the terrorists were killed. The ones who didn’t die ran, knowing they don’t stand a chance. And these women warriors, with 3 tanks, fought brilliantly in ways they were not trained to fight. They battled in Israeli communities, drove on plain roads. And thanks to their activity, further, southern attacks were prevented. The Shalom are communities were safe from terrorists thanks to Paran Brigade forces, and the women tank crews, who were so crucial in this stage.

Interviewer: This is the first women-led armoured battle, it’s history in the making.

Soldier 2: It doesn’t matter to us. Did the terrorists know these were women tank crews? No. Did they see Michal’s hair blowing in the wind? No. Boys, girls, what difference does it make?

Soldier 7: You’re saying “heroes” and “history.” I don’t feel like a hero. I feel like a soldier following orders and doing her job. And I believe anyone would have done the same.

Paran Brigade Commander Col. Shemer Raviv: These are the only combat women tank crews in the world, highly trained, highly professional.

Interviewer: No other armies with…

Paran Brigade Commander Col. Shemer Raviv: No. No other western armies with women tank crews. This is a piece of history, this is huge, for women in tanks and women in combat. They charged, covered, functioned, tended the wounded, in the most inspirational way.

Interviewer: So this debate is over?

Paran Brigade Commander Col. Shemer Raviv: I think it’s irrelevant. After this war, it’s clear, both the need and proof of combat ability.

Interviewer: Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, found time in his busy schedule to meet these all-women tank crews that made history. He also knows that after what they did on October 7, women can clearly be tank fighters. These women have proven their worth. They are legitimate fighters.

Soldier 2: This turns the tides. Risking your life is not worth something you prepare for, until it arrives. With all the drills and training, it’s a feeling you can’t simulate. You go in, seeing the burned down communities, your Instagram feed is blowing up, and you realize the magnitude of the event. You realize you’re not fighting humans. These were not human beings, and your goal is to protect civilians. Their goal was to murder civilians.

Interviewer: Seeing the terrorists go down, one by one…

Soldier 2: Great fun.

Soldier 4: Honestly, it’s not something we’re used to, but we had to rise to the occasion, and we did.

Interviewer: Weren’t you afraid? They were trying to kill you.

Soldier 4: There was no fear. You think about the people sitting at home, the people who need us, and understand that there is no room for fear.