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401st "Iron Tracks" Brigade

Butts of Steel 401" was one of the 3 brigades that make up the Israeli Armored Forces. An Israeli armored brigade was established in 1967, with the aim of strengthening the Israeli defense lines at the Suez Canal during the Six-Day War . Since its establishment, it has played a central and decisive role in all of Israel’s wars, on all fronts: Sinai , Lebanon, the Golan Heights , the West Bank , and the Gaza Strip . He participated in the aggression launched by Israel against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, and carried out mass killings and destruction of buildings and infrastructure, and attacked hospitals , crossings , international relief offices, and camps for the displaced. During the battles, he suffered losses among his soldiers, amounting to about 25 dead and more than 650 injured.

The 401st Brigade, or “Butts of Steel,” was established in 1967, during the Six-Day War, to strengthen Israeli defensive lines on the Suez Canal. In its beginnings, it served as a reserve brigade specialized in operating American M60 Patton tanks. "Butts of Steel" was considered one of the 3 brigades that make up the Israeli Armored Forces. It was affiliated with the 162nd Armored Division, and represents its strongest priority. It falls under the management of the Southern Command. It was one of the most prominent military divisions that the occupation army relies on in field battles, due to its possession of armor and its strength and ability to move. Its headquarters was located at the Yishai base near the Holy City, while the units that make up the brigade are stationed throughout Israel, performing vital tasks in various sectors.

Before joining this brigade, the recruits undergo an 8-month training course, at the end of which they receive the Armored Corps badge. As for the outstanding ones, they are sent to the Shizfun military base in the Negev to undergo supplementary training for an additional period of 4 months. In its military activity, the brigade relies on the operation of Merkava Mark 4 tanks , which are one of the most advanced tanks in the world, and the most important in the Israeli army. They combine superior firepower, accuracy, mobility, armor, and advanced technology. They are also equipped with the “Trophy” active anti-missile protection system.

The 401st Brigade was considered one of the most important military brigades that participate in the Israeli army’s ground invasions. It includes a group of units: armored battalions, infantry divisions, and companies. The most prominent of these units are:

• 9th Isht Armored Battalion
• 46th Shilah Armored Battalion
• 52nd Happo Kim Armored Battalion
• 601st Assaf Armored Engineers Battalion
• Reconnaissance 401
• Eyal Signal Company 298

Since its establishment, the 401st Brigade has had a central and prominent role in all the wars that Israel has fought. It has participated on all fronts: in Sinai, Lebanon, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Its first military activities were in the June 1967 war, and it fought under the wing of the 162nd Battalion, which inflicted losses. She was a major figure in the Egyptian army, and was one of the reasons for its defeat.

The brigade participated in the battles that took place in Sinai during the War of Attrition, and was responsible for maintaining the defensive line of the Suez Canal, which was 160 kilometers long. It remained in Sinai until the October War of 1973 , when it was exposed, as part of the Israeli military divisions in Sinai, to an unexpected attack by The Egyptian army accepted, which led to its defeat before it.

The division also fought on the northern front, and participated in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which Israel called Operation “Peace for Galilee,” as it invaded southern Lebanon, until it reached Beirut and besieged it for two months, forcing thousands of members of the Palestine Liberation Organization to leave Lebanon. It was followed by Bloody massacres committed by the occupation in Palestinian camps.

The brigade's teams were then stationed in what Israel called the "security belt" in Lebanon. It remained in the border area until the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. At that time, the brigade’s brigades also moved between the Golan Heights and many places in the occupied Palestinian territories, and carried out routine security operations in the Jordan Valley , near the Gaza Strip, Hebron , and areas inside the West Bank.

The 401st Brigade was active in the Israeli operation against the Palestinians during the Second Intifada , between the years 2000 and 2005, and raided cities and towns with Merkava Mark 4 tanks. After the intifada stopped, it moved again to the northern front, where it participated in the second war on Lebanon in 2006, and fought a violent battle with Hezbollah. In the Bint Jbeil area. In that battle, he received a painful blow from the resistance.

This brigade later transferred to the Gaza Strip, where it was stationed in the region under the command of Colonel Yigal Slovic, and was provided with an additional number of tanks, during the Israeli aggression on Gaza at the end of 2008, which the occupation called Operation “Cast Lead.”

The brigade headed the incursion of the occupation forces through the central Gaza Strip, reaching the coast of the Mediterranean Sea , which led to the isolation of the northern part of the strip from its southern part. The occupation carried out sabotage and destruction operations under the pretext of eliminating the infrastructure of the resistance. In that attack, 33 of the brigade’s soldiers were wounded. While no deaths were reported. During Operation Protective Edge - which the occupation launched against Gaza in 2014 - the 401st Brigade operated in a wide area of ??the Strip, and was stationed between Gaza City and the Nuseirat camp . The Armored Engineers Battalion participated among the military units and used its heavy Puma combat vehicles, which were exposed. Anti-tank missile attack.

The 401st Brigade participated in the Israeli operation in Gaza following the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle launched by the Palestinian resistance on October 7, 2023 against the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip . The brigade - under the leadership of Colonel Benjamin Aharon - was strongly present in the ground operations of the Israeli army throughout the Strip, beginning in Beit Lahia , then Al-Daraj and Al-Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City. On November 10, 2023, it raided the Badr site, west of Gaza, and about 150 Palestinians were killed in the attack. The occupation authorities claimed that they were “terrorists.” The 401st Brigade destroyed the infrastructure and buildings, under the pretext that they were command centers belonging to the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) and weapons production sites. , missile launch pads, and underground tunnel networks. The same month, this brigade participated in the attack launched by the Israeli army on Al-Rantisi Hospital, based on the occupation’s allegations that there were tunnels under its buildings. It also later participated in the attack on Al-Shifa Medical Complex .

In February 2024, the 401st Brigade was part of a raid targeting the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees ( UNRWA ), the largest provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza. The Israeli army announced - in early March 2024 - that it had ended a two-week raid in the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City, during which forces from the 401st Brigade and additional forces from the 162nd Division destroyed a total of 35 sites and killed more than 113 Palestinians, claiming that they were resistance activists.

On April 18 of the same year, soldiers of the 401st Brigade - according to statements by the occupation army, in cooperation with the forces of the “Yahalom” unit - destroyed more than 100 sites and killed more than 40 Palestinians under the pretext of being “terrorists.” The same brigade participated in the incursions that targeted the Jabalia camp , and its members stormed homes, claiming that they found long-range missiles, launching columns, ammunition, and tunnel passages belonging to Hamas.

On May 7, 2024, this brigade took control of the Rafah crossing , after the occupation authorities ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from large parts of the city of Rafah , including the areas of the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings. The attack led to the closure of the two crossings, which represent the lifeline of the Strip. The Israeli army claimed that it took control of the Rafah crossing after receiving intelligence information that it was “being used for terrorist purposes.”

In early March 2024, Israeli media revealed that 650 soldiers from the 401st Brigade had been injured since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, some of them seriously. The Israeli forces also announced a list of their soldiers killed in the war, and among them were about 25 dead soldiers from the brigade. . The Hamas movement highlighted - in a video published in late May 2024 - the names and pictures of soldiers and officers belonging to the 401 Brigade who were killed in Gaza.