Ghassan Alian

Ghassan Alian (Arabic: غسان عليان‎, Hebrew: רסאן עליאן‎; born 21 March 1972), is the executive officer of IDF's Central Command, Brigadier general by rank. Alian is one of the highest ranking Druze in the IDF and has served since 1990.[1]

Ghassan Alian
Native name
רסאן עליאן
Born (1972-03-21) 21 March 1972
Shefa-'Amr, Israel
Allegiance Israel
Service/branchIsrael Defense Forces
Years of service1990–
Rank Tat Aluf
UnitCentral Command
Battles/wars

Biography

Ghassan Alian is from Shefa-'Amr.[2] His wife, Shirin, works as a Hebrew teacher in a local school. They have three children.[3]

Military career

Alian was Chief Infantry and Paratroopers Officer and commanding officer of the Golani Brigade.[1] He is the first non-Jewish commander of the brigade[1][4] and the second Druze officer to command an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade; the first was Imad Fares, commander of the Givati Brigade.[5] Alian was previously the commander of the Duchifat Battalion, a reserve unit commander with the Alexandroni Brigade,[5] and commander of the Menashe District Brigade near Jenin in the West Bank.[2] He had taken officer training at the same time as Naftali Bennett, Minister of the Economy, who praised Alian's selection as Golani Brigade commander by calling him "a brother".[2] Prior to his appointment to the post of commander, Alian served as the brigade's deputy commander along with other appointments.[2] In October 2013 Benny Gantz, the IDF's chief of staff, made the appointment.[5]

Alian was wounded in a battle on 19 July 2014 during overnight clashes in the northern Gaza Strip as part of Operation Protective Edge.[1] He was lightly injured in his eye, but his vision was not affected.[1] He was evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and while being treated he reportedly stated, "I have a lot of soldiers over there and I need to get back to them".[1] He later returned to his soldiers after being treated.[6]

gollark: NVMe, even; it can do a few gigabytes per second.
gollark: My laptop has a fairly fast SSD.
gollark: For compression.
gollark: Since I needed textual data in bulk.
gollark: I decided that the best way to get data was to unpack my ebook library into "files".

See also

References
  1. Jones, Ryan (20 July 2014). "IDF Brigade Commander Wounded Leading Troops into Battle". Israel Today. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  2. Fiske, Gavriel (24 October 2013). "In first, Druze officer to lead Golani Brigade". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  3. Avraham, Rachel (20 July 2014). "Wife of Wounded Golani Brigade Commander: 'I worry but he's brave'". Jerusalem Online. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  4. "IDF Brigade Commander Injured in Fighting". The Jewish Press. 20 July 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  5. Zitun, Yaov (24 October 2013). "IDF: First Druze to command Golani Brigade". Y Netnews. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  6. Pfeffer, Anshel. "In Gaza, a war of two narratives". Haaretz. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
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