‘Hamas in Gaza is like Messi in Argentina’ – Journalist who fought in Gaza gives amazing testimony

After the traumatic images of the Hamas invasion on Oct. 7, thousands of Israelis left their jobs and their families to join their reserve units in the army and defend their country.

One among the thousands is Roi Yanovsky, who is known in peacetime as a journalist and the head of investigations on Channel 13 – but for the last months, he commanded soldiers as a major in the Israeli reserve forces.

Whenever he found the time or received a break from the fighting, Yanovsky gave interviews and shared his insights into the fighting from an insider’s perspective.

Now being released after 100 days of reserve duty, Yanovsky summed up his experiences while fighting in the Gaza Strip in a powerful thread that went viral on X (formerly Twitter) and is brought to you here in a full translation.

“1. Gaza is seen as a backward area, ‘the most densely populated in the world’ which has been under Israeli ‘siege’ for years. There is no bigger lie than this. Gaza is a modern, beautiful and developed city - with large and well-equipped houses, wide boulevards, public spaces, a promenade by the sea and parks.”

“It looks much better than any other city Arab from the Jordan to the sea, much more similar to Tel Aviv than to Kfar Kassem or Umm al-Fahm. And of course, it is very far from being ‘the densest in the world’.”

“2. If this is a siege, let me live in a siege – the houses are bursting with goods and food from all the countries of the Middle East, the latest furniture, advanced electrical equipment and whatnot. There are also luxury estates that wouldn't embarrass Savion and Kfar Shmaryahu. There is absolutely no shortage of wealth in Gaza.”

#Watch: Gaza’s open prison prior to October 7th. @imshin pic.twitter.com/LDODg4vFAe

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 14, 2024

“In general, most of the houses I’ve been in were much bigger than the apartment that I live in, in Tel Aviv. The sentence, ‘If only they had a chance for a good life, they wouldn’t fight Israel’ is simply not relevant to Gaza.”

“3. The most common thing in Gaza’s homes: A map of the Land of Israel with the title ‘Map of Palestine.’ There is no mention of Israel or of Israeli settlements in general. And it is found in almost every home, in every school, and in every public institution, the goal of erasing the State of Israel is neither hidden nor restrained, it is almost everywhere.”

“The historical distortion of this map that is taught from age 0 (mandatory borders of territories that were never destined for an Arab state) is a topic for another discussion that only emphasizes the distorted perception of reality by the residents of Gaza.”

“4. In all the neighborhoods we were in, there are ready-made Hamas battle stations - weapons, tunnels, charges, launch positions, all inside residential houses, some of which were also prepared with openings in the walls for passing between buildings and whatnot.”

מטענים. קשה למצוא רחוב בלי בית שמחזיק אצלו כמה מוכנים להפעלה. גם ווסטים, מדים וציוד לחימה לא רע בכלל pic.twitter.com/Rx0FoUzA80

— רועי ינובסקי (@Roi_Yanovsky) December 11, 2023

“The residents of the Gaza Strip who live in the combat zones know this, they have received countless notices to evacuate. Long before the IDF entered. The Israel Defense Forces’ announcements are still everywhere. Those who decided to stay in the fighting zones are either Hamas members in various positions or people who consciously decided to stay in the areas used by Hamas for fighting, it’s their decision.”

“5. Hamas members rarely walk around armed. They are neither stupid nor suckers. They know they won’t be shot if they go in ‘civilian’ guise. They prepare weapons ahead of time at the entrances to the buildings and arm themselves just a moment before they attack.”

“That is why the fighting is much more complex than any other arena and anyone who tries to judge from the outside why soldiers shot X and not Y should enter Gaza for a week or two and return with insights.”

“6. The surrounding that enables the activity of Hamas is much larger than its tens of thousands of terrorists. The ideology of Hamas is found in almost every home, in pictures, in propaganda materials. Hamas in Gaza is like Messi in Argentina.”

“7. The strengthening of Hamas to this level requires active assistance of the population. There is no way that the residents of the compounds where we located rockets and weapons did not know that the place is used as a launching site where they try to murder Israelis every day.”

וכאן שאר חודשי השנה pic.twitter.com/XKjrZxYPw3

— רועי ינובסקי (@Roi_Yanovsky) December 11, 2023

“And I find it hard to believe that the parents in the kindergarten where there was a tunnel shaft in one of the places we were, don’t know this. Who chooses to send their children to a kindergarten that serves as a terrorist infrastructure?”

“8. Hamas’ strongest weapon is lies and propaganda. It’s their fuel. This is how you maintain the lie of the ‘siege’ for years, this is how they’re doing it now with the photos of the innocent victims and the killing of the ‘journalists’ who turn out to be terrorist operatives. Gaza is the only place in the world where 500 deaths are reported half an hour after an explosion.”

“Even in earthquakes and disasters, it takes the rescue forces a few days to identify and estimate the number of dead, but the Palestinian Health Ministry already knows what the damage is a minute after the explosion. This is ridiculous and that the world media cites the numbers as ‘the words of the living God’ is pathetic. I would attribute the same level of credibility to the reports this week of ‘hunger’ in Rafah.”

Yanovsky published this series of tweets two weeks after his unit was temporarily released from reserve service.

On the day he was released, he wrote on X: “We had the privilege to fight the most just and most important war that the State of Israel has had and we did it in a big way… Now back to real life.”