Most IDF combat soldiers will pass through the IDF’s Urban Warfare Training Facility in Tze’elim at some point during their training.
Also known as “Little Gaza,” the facility at the base is outfitted to resemble a small Palestinian town, complete with mosques and murals of leaders such as Yasser Arafat and Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin.
A group of enterprising soldiers based at Tze’elim, however, decided to spruce up the walls of the facility with a twist. Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas in Gaza and architect of the October 7 massacres in which 1,200 Israelis were murdered, has been depicted as a mouse hiding in a tunnel.
The IDF is focusing its military efforts in Gaza on the tunnel system below the southern city of Khan Yunis, based on the Israeli military’s belief that senior Hamas leaders, including Sinwar, remain hidden in the vast underground complex.
@rotemzamir_ הפרוייקט המשותף שלנו במל״א- הלשביה הכי גדולה בצהל. החלטנו לצייר בצורה הכי מבזה את האוייב ולתת מוטיבציה ללוחמים שלנו ואפילו להעלות להם חיוך בי אישית הציור העלה אמוציות, מה דעתכם על הציור? #צייריםצבאיים #ציירתצבאית #חרבותברזל #israel ♬ מי משוגע - דודא גאנג
“We, a team of four military artists, painted this mural,” 20-year-old Rotem Zamir, who came up with the idea, told Channel 12 News. “Usually, each one of us paints on different bases according to our command, but this time, we decided to do something together. We received a request from the base sergeant major, and because it was during the war, we tried to think of something that would boost morale and make our fighters smile.
“The Urban Warfare Training Facility is the largest in the IDF, and all combat soldiers pass through it, so we had a real dilemma about what to do, “Zamir said. “Usually, in intelligence units, they paint terrorists to create an atmosphere of combat against the enemy. There are plenty of paintings of [Hezbollah leader] Nasrallah, [Hamas military leader] Mohammed Deif, and others. We were supposed to paint terrorists, and usually, we don’t choose what to paint, but this time we said, ‘No more.’ We are not willing to paint terrorists after what happened on October 7.”
However, when in November, a group of Christian cowboys came to Israel to volunteer and began distributing decks of playing cards with photos of the most wanted Hamas terrorists to IDF soldiers, including Sinwar depicted as a mouse, Zamir had an idea.
“I saw it and said to my team, ‘This is what we’re painting,’” Zamir said. “We knew it would motivate every soldier passing through here; that was our goal.”
The giant mural, which stands seven meters high, was painted by Zamir over four consecutive days, along with her partners Noam Shaked, Meir Ben Moshe, and Agam Moshe.
'Sinwar - keep hiding like a mouse in a tunnel'
“We painted Sinwar as a mouse in a tunnel, aiming to make our fighters smile,” Zamir told Channel 12. “Underneath, we wrote a slogan in Arabic – ‘You can keep hiding like a mouse in the tunnel, but we will reach you.’”
“When our officer came to see it a few days later, he was impressed,” she added. “Senior commanders also passed by, and everyone who saw the painting liked it. It has become a symbol of the facility at the base. Every soldier passing through here takes a picture next to the mural.”