Reservists have joined forces with regular soldiers in the war against Gaza terrorists after training at a fake Arab town, and learning last-minute lessons in tactics of how to storm terrorists' houses.
The government last week approved the call-up of nearly 10,000 reservists. In order to avoid a debacle similar to the Second Lebanon War, in which soldiers were untrained and unequipped, the IDF has thoroughly trained them at Fire Mountain, a training camp that looks like an Arab town, complete with Arabic graffiti on walls.
The reservists entered Gaza to back up and relieve brigades of regular soldiers (soldiers who are still doing their mandatory three year stint which usually begins at age 18) who have been fighting in the Cast Lead counterterrorist offensive for more than two weeks.
Ground fighting has advanced slowly but surely and now has reached parts of the densely populated Gaza City.
At Fire Mountain, the reservists, many of them young fathers, left behind their jobs as gardeners, lawyers and artists and prepared for war, "I'm so not into thrill seeking, but I'm here to protect my people," former Californian Gregory Ross told TIME magazine.
The war effort is reaching another critical stage: Israel's leaders will decide whether to intensify the counterterrorist campaign to "stage three" or to wind down the fighting while diplomats agree to a ceasefire, which both Israel and Hamas have rejected so far.
"Either reach a cease-fire in two to three days, or start a big military operation that will take at least two weeks," former National Security Council director Major-General Giora Eiland was quoted as saying in the TIME article. "We've been beating around the bush for a week, and we need to make a decision now."