Post 8: A Half-Mile From Gaza

Black Arrow Monument in Israel. Photo: Menachem Shimon

We pulled up at the Black Arrow Monument located barely a half-mile from Gaza.

Black Arrow isn’t an October 7 memorial but the site bridges the past and the present. Gaza is only a 10-minute walk across a dry field. Standing at the observation point beyond the stone columns and plaques at the back of the memorial, we could see Gaza, so close. You realize how vulnerable this border has always been. It’s terrifyingly easy to picture how terrorists broke through the border fence and raced toward Israel armed with weapons ready to kill on October 7.

View of nearby Gaza from Israel.

This monument marks a turning point in Israel’s defense strategy from passive to active. In the early 1950s, when Gaza was under Egyptian control, Palestinian guerilla fighters launched relentless attacks on Israeli civilians and military. Israel had to defend itself. It launched Operation Black Arrow, a retaliatory strike against an Egyptian army outpost. That defeat humiliated Egyptian President Nasser who then made a massive Soviet arms deal that triggered the 1956 Suez Crisis, which my father fought in.

The Black Arrow Monument honors the eight Israeli soldiers who lost their lives in the attack, and is located near the Gaza border where the operation took place.

Looking toward Gaza, I thought about my dad as a young soldier.

Different generation. Different war. Same land. Same border. Will there ever be change?

View of Gaza/Israel border.