One thing in urban combat in Gaza is not like it is in the films: you do not kick in doors. You blow them up instead.
“You put rockets in through the sides of houses or the walls or you blow up the door,” said Benzi Sanders, a former soldier, speaking from his experience of the last war in the enclave. “You go in, weapons firing. Everyone is supposed to have left.” All that is supposed to wait for you, supposedly, is booby-traps and militants.
For Sanders, 32, there was no time to be afraid, as you blasted your way into the unknown. “You are trying to stay alert,” he said. “You are in confident survival mode but you don’t have fear because you don’t have time to reflect. If you feel fear coming you say ‘not now’ to yourself.”
