This week, most of the IDF forces left the Gaza Strip. Division 98, which held forces in Khan Yunis, left the strip, and only forces from Division 162, which guard the Netzer corridor, remained in the strip. According to the IDF, the departure is preparation for entering Rafah after Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr celebrations, a sort of unofficial ceasefire, in the background of which attempts are being made to reach a new hostage deal. The departure of the IDF was a big surprise both in Israel and in Gaza.
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Before leaving the Strip, the IDF ended the operation in western Khan Yunis, at Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals. The operation helped the IDF arrest terrorist operatives, but it was not as great a success as the operation in Gaza City, and it seems that senior Hamas officials fled from Khan Yunis to Rafah already a month ago. Another operation that ended just before the withdrawal was the capture of the town of Carrara north of Khan Yunis. The IDF delayed the occupation of the town for four months, and the estimates of army intelligence officials were that senior Hamas officials and hostages were hiding in the town, however, after the occupation of the town, neither senior Hamas officials nor hostages were found.
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After leaving the Strip, Hamas fired rockets at the enclave of Gaza, some from the area facing the north of the Strip and some from the safe area, the Moassi, west of Deir al-Balah and west of Khan Yunis, an area that the IDF did not enter and which is full of refugees. In addition, the IDF blew up three tunnels, one of which Mahan crossed the fence near Ein HaSholoshah, and the IDF claims that surveillance has taken place in recent years, but various reports indicate that at the beginning of the war, a terrorist came out of the tunnel’s shaft and killed an IDF soldier.
Various experts, including engineers from the Technion, believe that the IDF does not really have a solution to the problem of the tunnels and that the IDF does not really succeed in destroying the tunnels, just as the United States Army remained helpless in the face of the same problem in the Vietnam War. According to the American “Wall Street Journal”, the IDF is currently destroying the tunnels using a gel-like explosive, which is injected into the tunnels through pipes connected to trucks carrying huge containers. The IDF also used it in Operation Northern Shield against the Hezbollah tunnels in the north.
The destroyed Hamas tunnel (photo: IDF spokesman)
Experts doubt the IDF’s claim that the tunnels are “destroyed”, and explain that the crushing of the tunnel was done point-wise – in the places that the IDF blew up, but it is not possible to completely collapse the entire route of the tunnel. According to them: “What you see in the videos of the IDF spokesman is a release of the pressure directed to the shafts, which does almost no damage but only kills those inside the tunnel.”
There are alternative and more effective solutions, the experts explain: the expensive solution – to fill the tunnels with concrete, or a cheaper solution – to fill them with construction waste, which is not lacking in the Gaza Strip as a result of the unprecedented destruction caused by the IDF in its repeated attacks. The experts estimated that the IDF prefers ” A magic solution” that will impress the Israeli audience more, since the explosion of the shafts is photographed better than the pouring of concrete or waste.
Directorates (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)
Additional forces are conducting local operations: the Netzah Yehuda Battalion continues the operation in Beit Hanon and East Jabaliya aimed at continuing the construction of the security strip. Additional forces continue to build the security strip in the neighborhood of Shaja’iya in Gaza, east of the refugee camp Bureij and Mo’azi in the central camps, probably a battalion from the paratrooper brigade.
These promotions are simple and targeted. In addition to them, there are forces that guard the axis of traffic north of Khan Yunis, with the aim of maintaining the ability to send operations to the central or Khan Yunis camps. The IDF fears that Hamas will launch an attack on the Netzer axis in the future, if the negotiations do not succeed and the IDF does not help the axis.
War of Iron Swords (Photo: Gaza war unit tracking)
Photos and videos coming from the Gaza Strip indicate that Hamas is restoring its military and civil control in Khan Yunis, and also in the north of the Strip, there is a restoration of civil infrastructure, electricity and water lines. The introduction of large amounts of humanitarian aid due to international pressure, in addition to lowering the tax burden on the part of Hamas, succeed in lowering food prices and flood Gaza with aid.
Israel contributes to this by bringing in a large amount of aid trucks, both from Egypt, both through the Netzer route and through a new route from the north, and not through the Erez crossing so as not to confront activists who are trying to block the crossing. A large part of this aid fell into the hands of Hamas and helps the terrorist organization restore its sovereignty in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s attempts to build an alternative civilian leadership to Hamas by Palestinian Authority activists led by the head of Palestinian intelligence Majed Faraj failed, and Hamas executed some of the activists and arrested others.
War of Iron Swords (Photo: Gaza war unit tracking)
As a response to this, Israel is trying to eliminate the civilian leadership in the Strip. A few days ago, Hatem al-Amari, the mayor of the Moazi refugee camp, who was also the chairman of the Hamas government emergency committee in the central camps and a military operative, was eliminated. The IDF also eliminated money changers and other people who belong to the civil leadership in Gaza.
Since leaving the Strip, the IDF has been trying to cover up the lack of foot forces with dozens of attacks every day: military sites, launchers, tunnel shafts and other terrorist infrastructure. However, there is no substitute for a presence on the ground and local operations.
Killing of a senior member of the Radwan force (photo: IDF spokesman)
In the meantime, the negotiations for the abductee deal are not progressing anywhere, and the information coming from Arab networks shows that Hamas is not interested in the deal despite Israel’s concessions. The proposal talks about the release of 40 hostages in exchange for about 900 terrorists, a hundred of whom were sentenced to long life sentences, that is, terrorists with blood on their hands, and the return of 150,000 residents to the north of the Gaza Strip during the ceasefire.
Hamas rejected this proposal, arguing that it does not have 40 abductees alive of the type that Israel is asking for (old men, women and young women), it is not prepared to complete the amount from another category of abductees (men of reserve service age or soldiers), it is not prepared for Israel to check those returning to the northern Gaza Strip (and thus wants to allow the return of terrorists to the north of the Strip), is not ready for Israel to deport some of the terrorists with blood on their hands abroad, and demands that Israel stop the fighting, withdraw all IDF forces from the Strip, and that on each day of the ceasefire there will be no air flights over Gaza for 8-12 hours.
War of Iron Swords (Photo: Gaza war unit tracking)
As time passes, Hamas piles up more and more difficulties for the deal, Arab reports revealed that Hamas offered the bodies of the Bibbs family members in exchange for the release of a hundred heavy terrorists. The Israeli government does not report to the public the details of the negotiations, but information received from Arab networks indicates that Israel is relenting and Hamas is not backing down from its initial demands.
The IDF left the Strip with the majority of senior Hamas officials at both the military and political levels alive, including some senior Hamas officials who are outside the Strip. Netanyahu often talks about entering Rafah, eliminating Hamas and returning the abductees, but in the meantime the situation on the ground shows that none of the goals have been achieved. that at the current rate, the Israeli leadership does not want to advance in the war in the Gaza Strip, even though more than six months have passed since Black Sabbath.