Israeli military experts, an Israeli commander, and a Hamas source revealed how the Palestinian movement is using its stock of weapons and taking advantage of its knowledge of the terrain and the large tunnel network to turn the streets of Gaza into a deadly maze.
The movement uses weapons such as drones equipped with grenades and anti-tank weapons with double explosive devices that explode in two stages in quick succession.
Since the start of the Israeli ground campaign in late October, about 110 Israeli soldiers have been killed when tanks and infantry soldiers penetrated cities and refugee camps, according to official Israeli figures, and approximately a quarter of this number were tank crews.
This number compares to about 66 soldiers who died in the 2014 conflict, when Israel launched a limited ground incursion that lasted three weeks, but the goal at that time was not to eliminate Hamas.
“The scope of this war cannot be compared to 2014, when our forces’ operations often did not exceed one kilometer inside Gaza,” said Yaakov Amidror, a retired Israeli general and former national security adviser who now works at the American Jewish Institute for National Security.
He added that the army “has not yet found a good solution for the tunnels,” a network that has expanded significantly in the past decade.
The Israeli attack began after Hamas militants penetrated across the border on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostage, some of whom were later released.
Since the outbreak of the war, nearly 19,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, sparking international demands for a ceasefire and calls from the United States to change the Israeli strategy in the war and launch more precise strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel will wage war “until clear victory.” Israeli officials said it could take months before the war is over.
“It was a challenge from day one,” said Ofir Falk, Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, adding that the attack had a “heavy price” among Israeli forces.
“We know that we will likely have to pay an additional price to complete the job,” he added.
Fierce fighting
Hamas published video clips showing fighters carrying cameras moving among buildings to fire shoulder-fired missiles at armored vehicles.
In another post, a camera appears emerging from a tunnel in what looks like a periscope to survey an Israeli camp where troops are resting. The post stated that this site was later subjected to an underground bombing.
A Hamas source who spoke to Reuters from inside Gaza said that the fighters were getting as close as possible to set up ambushes, “taking advantage of their experience in the field and the land that they know like no one else knows.”
He added: “There is a gap between the means of power we have and their arsenal. We are not laughing at ourselves.”
An Israeli commander who fought in 2014 said the expansion of the operation indicated there were more troops on the ground, giving Hamas “the advantages of the defending party,” so greater troop casualties were to be expected.
In imitation of its methods used in 2014, the Israeli army is posting photos on social media showing roads made by bulldozers so that troops can avoid existing roads that may have land mines.
Fierce fighting is still ongoing in some areas in northern Gaza, where many buildings have been reduced to rubble.
#Hamas #turn #streets #Gaza #deadly #maze #Israeli #soldiers