If the orders are handed down, the Golani Brigade is ready for anything, including advancing its ground forces to take over Beirut, IDF Golani Brigade Battalion 13 Commander “M” told The Jerusalem Post in an interview on Thursday.
Next, he discussed having recently taken over the Wadi Saluki area of southern Lebanon from Hezbollah, how it makes Israeli northern civilians safer, and how it pushes back Hezbollah drone and rocket launching lines, while noting that the FPV drone threat remains.
M has been in the IDF for 15 years and served in Gaza during “Chariots of Fire parts I and II” in 2025 in Khan Yunis and Rafah, after which his unit was among the first to enter Lebanon when the IDF invaded in early March of this year.
Since they were among the first to invade, M said, they encountered periodic Hezbollah resistance and engaged in close-range fighting.
In total, three soldiers from his battalion were killed, while the IDF has killed around 50 Hezbollah fighters in the general area.
Later, his battalion also found and seized or destroyed Hezbollah weapons and tunnels.
Included in the items they found were materials from Iran explaining military strategy, as well as military maps from Iran.
“There is a lot of strong spirit,” M said about his battalion’s feelings about its accomplishments.
Taking over Wadi Saluki
M and Battalion 13 took over the Wadi Saluki area around two weeks ago, in parallel with other Golani units taking over Beaufort Castle.
At the time, when M finally received orders to take over the Wadi Saluki area, his units had been waiting for weeks to do so. Until then, they had carried out repeated in-and-out penetrations in that area, but had not attempted to hold onto any areas.
Providing additional details, he said, “When we got the order that we can stay there and take over areas, our officers formulated our battle strategy and rules. Then we went out at night and penetrated through the Saluki area.”
“Next, we went beyond to the West, cutting through parts of the river. The river has some large increases in the water depth and is extremely difficult to cross through even when it is uncontested by the enemy,” he recalled.
M complimented the air force, tanks, and artillery units for helping pave the way for their advance with significant firepower against Hezbollah forces right before they made their move.
He also complimented his tactical field intelligence collection units.
“We were raised on the stories of the IDF battles at the Saluki from 1997. Now it was easier to get there,” he noted.
Soldier recounts 'most difficult battle' while in Lebanon
One anecdote he said involved their most difficult battle during “face-to-face combat over a house. My forces went in, and the terrorists opened fire. We killed them eventually, but their initial attacks wounded some of our soldiers. When Tuvia Lifshitz ran in to help his fellow wounded soldiers, the Hezbollah fighters shot him and killed him. Later, the IDF fighters surrounded and isolated the terrorists within the house until they killed them.”
In another instance, in a village near the Saluki area, his battalion marched through seven kilometers in the rain, and some of his soldiers were wounded by Hezbollah mortar fire.
He said that most of his forces continued to advance, while a specific rescue unit came to take care of the wounded soldiers until they could be evacuated by helicopter to medical centers.
M acknowledged, as many IDF officials have, that the military entered the Lebanon invasion without being fully ready for Hezbollah’s new FPV drone threat
M admitted that even if his advance is preventing Hezbollah from launching drones into northern civilian villages to some extent, the threat remains, especially against the soldiers in southern Lebanon.
However, he stated that using nets, special guns, and greater awareness of observing threats and listening for sounds from the air has helped somewhat reduce Hezbollah’s drone threat effectiveness.
He said that he trusted the defense establishment would eventually develop more complete solutions, though this could still take months.
M stated that he wanted the northern villagers to be able to live normal lives and his son to grow up to be able to live a peaceful life.
“There needs to be patience… This is guerrilla warfare. It’s not going to be ‘one operation, and we are done.’ You cannot just attack one area, and it is over. You need to act systematically. But we prevent attacks and invasions, and penetrations into our [northern civilian] villages. That will not and cannot happen,” he said.
“They cannot attack with anti-tank missiles, no short-range mortars or rockets, and now need to work on other things. This was our main mission. And you cannot do these things with just the air force – you need invading ground forces,” he noted.
M’s battalion is now being given a period of weeks to refill and fix their equipment and other soldiering needs, as well as some time off to refresh at home, before returning for the next mission.
He thanked all the different kinds of soldiers, including reservists and commissioned and non-commissioned officers.
M, who is married and has one child, has commanded the battalion for around one year and calls his current position a lifelong dream.