The situation along Israel’s northern border remains highly tense. While the IDF is working on one hand to uphold the framework of the agreement and the diplomatic pilot program, forces on the ground continue to operate determinedly to clear the area along the yellow line. This is based on a clear strategic understanding that as Israel and Lebanon continue implementing the agreements, Iran and Hezbollah will seek to undermine them and destabilize the situation.
Against the backdrop of the volatile security situation, the 402nd Artillery Battalion, known as Reshef, completed a large-scale battalion exercise in the Golan Heights this week, a complex exercise of a kind not held since the beginning of the war. As early as next week, the battalion will return to its operational mission in Lebanon.
Gallery
IDF artillery training in the Golan Heights. 'We pushed the soldiers to the limits of their capabilities'
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson)
“I received a battalion that had gone through an intensive week of cohesion-building and a complex series of operational events,” said Col. R., commander of the 215th Artillery Brigade, who came to meet the battalion’s battery commanders. “It was important to the battalion commander to hold this battalion exercise despite the years that had passed since the last one. I saw soldiers displaying deep camaraderie and battery commanders leading from the front with determined command as if they had been doing it for decades.”
Col. R. noted the level of commitment among the career soldiers, citing a commander who took part in the exercise at a sensitive time while his daughter was hospitalized. “This is the human foundation on which the Reshef Battalion rests,” he said.
The exercise, which ran from Monday through Wednesday night, simulated a maneuver in the northern theater and included long movements during the day and night along mountainous routes, deployment in difficult and built-up terrain, high-rate artillery fire, complex logistical responses and handling extreme scenarios involving mass casualties.
'We trained the troops to be smarter and better prepared for the next round'
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson)
For Lt. Col. P., commander of the 402nd Battalion, the exercise represented an operational limit designed to prepare the soldiers for every extreme scenario.
“We are in the midst of a very challenging week for the battalion,” he said. “We began with training at the smaller-unit level and progressed to a battalion exercise with frequent operational changes, while maintaining a continuous operational tempo without rest. Day and night movements through difficult terrain, along with shortening artillery firing ranges to destroy the enemy deep in its territory, pushed the soldiers to the limits of their capabilities.”
In practice, this was an unusual event for the battalion’s soldiers. Artillery batteries are generally positioned along the border and fire from there in support of maneuvering forces deeper in enemy territory. But the deepening of the maneuver in Lebanon, the crossing of the Litani River and the deployment along the Yellow Line, on the outskirts of Nabatieh, led the battalion’s soldiers to cross the border with their battery in order to reduce the firing distance to the enemy.
'We developed new techniques, conducted movements under fire and the battalion demonstrated tremendous resilience'
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson)
One of the main challenges emphasized during the exercise was the threat posed by explosive-laden drones. According to Lt. Col. P., the battalion drew significant lessons from past incidents, particularly from Operation Roaring Lion, during which it faced dozens of explosive-drone attacks.
“The drone threat requires us to operate according to precise procedures, and today we know how to deal with it much better than we did a few months ago,” he said. “We developed new techniques, conducted movements under fire and the battalion demonstrated tremendous resilience in the face of a large number of drones.”
With the battalion set to return to Lebanon, commanders on the ground stressed that there is no room for complacency toward Hezbollah.
“We are an operational echelon and we are preparing for the most intense scenario,” Lt. Col. P. said. “Intense fighting against a determined enemy that must not be underestimated could resume at any moment. We trained the troops for a deep maneuver in Lebanon so that we will be smarter and better prepared for the next round, which will look completely different.”