When the Peace Ends: 12 Months as a UN Observer – MAJ Mick Evans and CAPT Rhys Turner

‘You can’t discern where [the rockets were] actually landing and by night, the noise is enveloping.’ In this week’s episode, we talk about the conflict in Israel, Lebanon and Syria with two people that were on the ground on October 7th, 2023. Our guests – MAJ Mick Evans and CAPT Rhys Turner – talk us through their deployment on OPERATION PALADIN and what it was like being there when thousands of rockets started flying.

OPERATION PALADIN is the Australian Defence Force support to the UN Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO), whose activities are spread across Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syrian Arab Republic. Both guests deployed for a lengthy 12-month stint, with MAJ Mick Evans spending his time in Syria and CAPT Rhys Turner spending his time in Israel and then southern Lebanon. We explore the geo-political situation in one of the most complex regions and conflicts in the world, attempting to unpack everything that they both learnt over their long deployments.

We talk to the training they received at the Peace Operations Training Centre, their infiltration into what was intended to be a ‘normal’ deployment, what happen on and after October 7th and the varying conditions within each country. Rhys observed the Israeli mobilisation where thousands of troops were mobilised and moved throughout the country. Mick was at an Observation Post that had rockets flying over the top of his position, dropping short some 600m from their position.

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