“Canst work i’th’ earth so fast? A worthy pioneer!” (Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5, lines 161-162)
The one man most responsible for detecting, studying, and destroying the vast array of underground tunnels built by Hamas in Gaza is Maj.-Gen. Dan Goldfus. His remarkable work is discussed here.
There is a reason that incoming Northern Corps and Multi-Domain Joint Maneuver Array Maj.-Gen. Dan Goldfus is considered one of the rising stars of the IDF.
Israel Defense Forces Brig.-Gen. Itzik Cohen of Division 162, along with Brig.-Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa of Division 36 (also becoming a major general but in a less upwardly mobile position), Brig.-Gen. Barak Hiram of Division 99, and Brig.-Gen. Moran Omer of Division 252 have all played important roles in the invasion of northern Gaza. So what is so special about Goldfus?
One of the reasons that South African-Israeli Goldfus – promoted from brigadier general to major general in May – is joining the high command (others to hold his next post have gone on to become IDF chief, IDF deputy chief, and IDF intelligence chief) is that he is both the hero of Hamas’s defeat in Khan Yunis and the general who broke up the terrorist group’s network of tunnels.
How did Dan Goldfus overcome Hamas’s tunnel networks and defeat them in Khan Yunis?
The Magazine has learned that Goldfus considers that his breakthrough in overcoming Hamas’s tunnel warfare is not about a single moment in which he had an epiphany but the result of hard, exhaustive, and continuous work.
If, at first, the soldiers in his Division 98 – considered almost a special forces unit – had to slowly and clumsily feel their way around in the dark of the Hamas tunnels, they eventually became, in his view, the first army in modern history to carry out large-scale, full-unit invasions, maneuvering throughout the Hamas tunnel network.
The Magazine learned that in the initial stages of the war, Goldfus’s forces were required to focus on basics, such as recording the size of the tunnels, their volume, and their depth. Likewise, they just needed to get used to the aspect of the tunnels and to dig into them, gather photos, and study them. Over time, this systematic approach began to help build more confidence….
EVENTUALLY, GOLDFUS realized that the Hamas tunnels were not separate systems but one massive decentralized network. This conclusion was reached when he and his top advisers found a convergence of trends.
The next step, diagnosing the convergence, was reserved for Special Forces. Division 98 started assuming slightly greater risk by entering the tunnels to maximize the benefit of taking over given areas above ground.
These Special Forces and engineers then began to diagnose the components of each particular tunnel on a deeper level. Goldfus would be the first to admit that this stage also took a long time.
Finally, early in January, the Division 98 commander and his forces had a breakthrough….
One more remarkable IDF officer — there are so many — Major-General Dan Goldfus has learned how to locate and destroy, tunnel by tunnel, the vast underground network that Hamas spent years, and billions, building. He realizes that not every last tunnel will be destroyed, but a great many have been, and more will be, and the network has been left a shambles. It is now no good to the Hamas operatives who had for years been using it to move themselves and their weapons underground, or simply to rest in, without being detected. As Hamlet notes in the Shakespearean sense, Dan Goldfus is “a worthy pioneer!”
Tatanka says
Good man. Respect!
OLD GUY says
Yes and I wish him great success and safety for him and his men and women that carry out this work.
Ben says
I wonder what would happen if Israel detonated a massive amount of explosives underground of Gaza. Wouldn’t that trigger an earthquake ??? Causing all tunnels to collapse burying all the terrorists hiding in them ????
James Lincoln says
With a Trump / Vance victory in November, perhaps the United States could hire Maj.-Gen. Dan Goldfus to lead the destruction of all of the tunnels on our own southern border – used by the drug and human traffickers.
Keys says
Excellent idea, James Lincoln!
Makes me think we could also hire the Israelis to assist in setting up missile defense systems (Iron Dome, etc,) in key areas in the USA.
No doubt the Democrat Party administrations (who lead from behind and think males can identify as females) have neglected homeland defense systems, as well as space offensive and defensive systems.
James Lincoln says
Thank you for your informed reply, Keys.
Brigitte from Germany says
Hallelujah.
This man is a real hero.
Thank you DAN
gravenimage says
The IDF’s Tunnel Man
………………………………….
Bravo Maj.-Gen. Dan Goldfu!
Hudders. says
What a hero. Israel & the world owes him & his brave colleagues & debt indeed.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Major General Dan Goldfus is a hero no doubt. But I keep getting back to the same question whenever I read post mortem descriptions of successful Israeli operations: why do we – the general public of the “international community” – need all the details of what they did? It reduces the chances of success of future operations
drew webb says
And what we are going to do
࿗Infidel࿘ says
It’s not about what we’re going to do. It’s that Hamas or any successor jihadist group, once it regroups, will learn lessons from what Goldfus did to uncover their layouts, and make it much more difficult for him, or others like him, to crack those in future invasions. It’s one reason why in the spy business, sources and methods are classified. Here, the Israelis seem to be giving them out w/ no concern about how their enemies could use this against them
drew webb says
And what we are going to do
dumbledoresarmy says
Word to what ‘infidel’ said above. We do NOT need to know the details. We don’t! We are in the beginning (or if one counts from the start of the Mohammedan jihad against humanity, the ongoing weary struggle) of a war for the survival of non-Mohammedan humanity.
The exact means by which *any* non-Islamic group manage to overcome mohammedan tricks, traps, weapons, etc, do NOT need to be revealed. Keep the bastards guessing! Keep them off-balance and on the hop.
ALL we needed to know, here, was that Goldfus figured out a way to successfully fight Hamas.
We didn’t need to know ANYTHING else.
We shouldn’t have been shown ANYTHING about how the IDF was fightng – and defeating – Hamas.
About all we needed to see, for example, was the multiple copies of Hitler’s Mein Kampf – in Arabic translation – that the IDF came across in Gaza, because THAT served to signal that the assimilation of Israel to the Nazis was an out-and-out reversal of reality; that it was the people in Gaza who were admiring and studying Hitler’s toxic tome.
And THAT could have been linked with a history lesson about the Grand Mufti who was so friendly with Hitler; and about all the escaped Nazis who, after the fall of the Third Reich, found refuge NOT in Brazil or Argentina but.. in the Dar Al Islam… in places like Egypt, Syria and.. Gaza.. where they were welcomed with open arms; and where many or most converted to Islam. The name of Johann von Leers’, Hitler’s Islamophile and Jew-hating ‘scholar’, could have been mentioned.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Thank you, DDA! Reading about these reports, which obviously were made available by the IDF, I tend to think that Israel tends to treat information it uncovers in a very cavalier fashion. I’m impressed by what they did. I don’t need to know how that sausage got made (yeah, yeah, I know that Jews don’t do sausages, but you get the point!)
Just move on to the next operations, whether it is taking out Kharg Island or Iran’s nuclear sites. The latter is probably tougher, since Iran now has them spread out all over the country