2023-12-17 12:11:13

Hamas turns the streets of Gaza into a deadly maze for Israeli soldiers

The number of deaths among the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip has risen to nearly double, compared to the losses it incurred in its ground attack in 2014, which reflects the scale of its incursion into the Strip and the effectiveness of Hamas’ use of guerrilla warfare and its large arsenal of weapons.

Israeli military experts, an Israeli commander, and a Hamas source revealed to Archyde.com how the Palestinian movement uses its weapons stockpile and benefits from its knowledge of the region, its nature, and the large tunnel network to transform the streets of the Gaza Strip 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.

The Israeli army said today (Sunday) that 121 of its soldiers have been killed since the start of the Israeli ground campaign on October 27, when tanks and infantry soldiers penetrated cities and refugee camps in the Gaza Strip.

This number compares to regarding 66 soldiers who died in a previous wave of conflict in 2014, 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, according to what Archyde.com reported.

The Israeli attack began following Hamas militants crossed the border on October 7, killing 1,200 and detaining more than 200, some of whom were later released.

Since the outbreak of the war, nearly 19,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, which has increased international demands for a ceasefire and calls from the United States to change the Israeli strategy in the war and direct more precise strikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel would wage war “until clear victory.” Israeli officials said it might take months before the war is over.

“It was a challenge from day one,” Ofir Falk, Netanyahu’s foreign policy advisor, said in statements to Archyde.com, adding that the attack had a “heavy price” among the Israeli forces.

“We know that we will likely have to pay an additional price to complete the job,” he added.

Fierce fighting

The Hamas movement published video clips on its Telegram channel this month, showing its members carrying cameras and moving among buildings to fire shoulder-fired missiles at armored vehicles. One of these clips was published on December 7 from the Shujaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City, an area that both sides said had witnessed intense fighting.

In another post dated December 5, 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 Archyde.com from inside the Gaza Strip, but refused to reveal his identity, said that the movement’s members are 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.”

Hamas did not mention the number of deaths among its ranks. The Israeli army said it killed at least 7,000 militants. The movement previously rejected the number announced by Israel, saying it included civilians.

Hamas spokesmen outside the Gaza Strip did not respond to requests from Archyde.com for comment.

An Israeli commander who participated in the war in 2014 said that the expansion of this operation indicates the presence of more forces on the ground, which gives Hamas the advantages of the “defending party,” so greater losses among the forces were expected. The commander requested that his name not be mentioned because he is still among the reserve forces in this war.

The Israeli army does not announce the numbers of participating forces or any other details regarding the operations.

Footage broadcast by Israeli Channel 12 showed an army reserve unit cautiously shooting at the wall of a building, entering a room and discovering an ammunition cache.

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 continuing in some areas in the northern Gaza Strip, where many buildings have turned into rubble.

Increase forces

“Hamas has taken some big steps to build its power since 2014,” said Eyal Benko, a former senior official in Israel’s security services who now works at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University.

He added that Iran, an ally of Hamas, helped smuggle some advanced weapons, such as Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles, to the movement.

But he pointed out that Hamas had mastered making other weapons in the Strip, such as RPG-7 rockets, and that the militants now had a larger reserve of ammunition.

The movement said in its publications that its weapons include anti-tank shells containing two explosive charges to penetrate armor, which Benko also said were in the fighters’ arsenal.

Video clips published by Hamas often show large explosions occurring when armored vehicles are hit. Israeli military experts said that the explosion did not mean the destruction of the vehicle because it might have been caused by defensive systems that exploded to stop incoming shells.

The Israeli army published a video this month, which it said showed militants emerging from a tunnel under a bombed building before being targeted with missiles.

“Hamas may be deploying its new weapons and methods, (but) fundamentally, it remains a guerrilla-style resistance movement,” said Alexander Greenberg, a former Israeli military intelligence official who is now at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.

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