Nahal Brigade fighter finds shirt he gave to trainee 13 years ago in Gaza wardrobe

Nahal Brigade fighters found a shirt belonging to the 2007 graduates of the Nahal Brigade in a wardrobe in Gaza. This is the story of how it got there.

While searching for weapons in a suspicious apartment in Beit Hanun, reservists located an unexpected item: a faded tank top belonging to a member of the Nahal Brigade Class of 2007.

The reservists thought that it might be possible to obtain information about those kidnapped or murdered from the October 7 massacre through the shirt, but the search for the owner led to a reserve soldier – and to the story of how it got into the wardrobe of a resident of Gaza.

"We were fighting in Beit Hanun and did searches every time we went from house to house," according to Israel Shalak, the 29-year-old IDF soldier who found the shirt. "When we entered one of them, which looked like a dentist's [office], we found Fatah flags and started opening the drawers and looking for firearms."  There, he found the tank top folded in a drawer.

"I showed it to the commander of the force that was with us; we began to think that maybe it was related to the abductees or October 7," he said. "We had no way to verify or refute that it belonged to the abductees, so we said it was best to take it with us and figure it out later. And if [it did] not, surely someone has a sentimental attachment to it, so it shouldn't stay there."

A few days later, Shalak and his friends went out on leave. "I took the shirt with me in my bag and gave it to my partner to take it home. We went back in [to the Gaza Strip] for another month, and when I left, I contacted the Nahal Brigade Association to find out who it belonged to. They got excited and tried to check who it belonged to," he said, describing the chain of events.

How did the shirt get there?

This is where a combat doctor in the Multidimensional Unit (a combined special operations task force), who is also currently in Gaza, enters the picture. "I'm from the November 2007 class of the Nahal Reconnaissance Battalion, an engineering team, as it says on the shirt," said "Ayin" (a Hebrew letter representing his full, undisclosable name).

"When I was released, I worked with an American youth, and when we parted ways, we exchanged shirts," he said.

"There was a trainee that I really liked, who was active in peace groups and the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Ayin recalled. "Even after that, he continued to participate in various meetings with Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank. He told me that he gave the shirt to a Palestinian from one of the groups; I did a double take and I realized that it was probably mine!"

It has now been 13 years since he gave it to his apprentice, and the sentimental tank top has now been returned to its owner.

"The [Nahal Brigade] Association published the post about the tank top and I said straight away that it was mine. I was shocked; it's crazy that they found it. For the last two months, I was in Gaza, fighting, and suddenly this story came," Ayin said.

"The tank top will be returned to the patrol and we are going to frame it and hang it in a house nearby – in the company of the Nahal Brigade."