Richard Hecht: The Scot explaining the Israeli military's position to the world

Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht is originally from Newton Mearns

A Scot who moved to Israel from a Glasgow suburb 40 years ago is the international face of Israel's military as fighting continues following a major assault from Gaza at the weekend.

Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht is the Israel Defence Forces’ (IDF) international spokesman, having relocated to Israel from Newton Mearns in the 1980s with his family.

More than 700 Israelis have died, while almost 500 Palestinians have also been killed in retaliatory attacks after Saturday’s major assault by Hamas, the Islamist group which controls Gaza.

Israel has said it is “at war” following Saturday’s attacks and has responded by bombarding Gaza.

Lt-Col Hecht, who grew up in a traditional kibbutz, where he and his siblings had to sleep in the children’s house, away from their parents, said in an interview with broadcast media this morning, that the assault was “the worst massacre of Israeli civilians in our history”.

He said: “We are still fighting on the ground. There are still communities in Israel where there are terrorists, masked gunmen, fighting in the civilian community...we are still fighting back, basically.”This has been the worst massacre of Israeli civilians in our history in such a short period of time.”

Lt-Col Hecht said in a video posted to IDF's X feed yesterday that Hamas did not go for military targets and "went for children, grandmothers" instead. He said the IDF would respond "very very severely".

"This is our 9/11," he said. "In a way it is more than that."

Lt-Col Hecht, who joined the IDF at 18, has had a long career in the IDF: before a brief stint working in business development for an Israeli defence company, took up his position as international spokesman the day before Operation Breaking Dawn – a three-day Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip – in 2022. He spent earlier part of his military career moving between foreign relations posts and combat positions.

Speaking to Jewish News last year, Lt-Col Hecht explained why his family left Scotland.

"Our parents wanted to make a new start, I think they were tired of the diaspora. But it was traumatic: we left a very comfortable lifestyle to live in spartan Israel in the 80s”.

Israeli army artillary are positioned towards Gaza near the border with the Palestinian territory in southern Israel on Monday. Israel continued to battle Hamas fighters on October 9 and massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy armour around the Gaza Strip after vowing a massive blow over the Palestinian militants' surprise attack.

After Kibbutz El-Rom, where the family lived, was privatised, Lt-Col Hecht said his parents left and went to live in Zichron Ya’akov, a small township in Israel’s north. His mother, Valerie, worked in the Golan Heights and Carmel wineries, while his father Albert was an agricultural writer.

He now lives in Tel Aviv, with his wife, Zohara, a financial planner and their two daughters.