2023-11-24 17:38:00
On October 27, after an intense bombing campaign initiated just hours after the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, the IDF began the land component of Operation Iron Sword by entering the Gaza Strip. The inhabitants of Gaza City, a little over a million people, were warned of the imminence of the military intervention and asked to leave the northern half of the enclave.
On the front lines, armored bulldozers opened the way, clearing obstacles and creating secure routes for the tanks and troop transports that followed. “Genius played a preponderant role,” underlines Pierre Razoux, author of IDF, new history of the Israeli army (Perrin, 2006).
“The IDF is not in an all-out, massive attack, it is rather in a strategy of nibbling and punch operations, supported by phenomenal firepower,” adds the academic director of the Mediterranean Studies Foundation. strategic (Fmes).
“We always activate the air force”
Israeli forces are therefore advancing cautiously and methodically in order to minimize their losses. “Every threat in our path is eliminated,” explains an IDF lieutenant colonel in a report fromI24news. Then once the fire decreases in intensity, I judge the most appropriate means so that we can continue to advance and eliminate the enemy in the best possible conditions for my men. »
The IDF advances from the north along the coast, and from the east to cut the Gaza Strip in two. His troops pushed as a priority to the Al-Shifa hospital, reached on November 15, below which they suspected the presence of an important Hamas command center. An officer belonging to the parachute troops explains to the I24news journalist the tactics for advancing in the city: “We always activate the air force and attack from the sky, at 5 a.m. targets were attacked where we are. »
#Gaza map update:
The #IDF have advanced deeper into the centre of Gaza City from the Southwest.
The IDF have also advanced up to the Indonesian Hospital and the Northern edge of the Jabalya camp. pic.twitter.com/FAEeKUQ7o6
— War Mapper (@War_Mapper) November 22, 2023
“One might think that the airstrikes would stop with the entry of ground forces; However, this is not the case, which shows good ground-air coordination,” notes Héloïse Fayet, researcher at the Ifri Center for Security Studies. In total, 58% of homes throughout the enclave were destroyed as a result of bombing and fighting, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. According to a latest report from the Hamas government, 14,854 people have been killed in Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip since October 7, including 6,150 children and 4,000 women. Unverifiable figures.
Snipers and tunnels
Proof of a certain control of the terrain, command posts of Israeli units are installed within the Gaza Strip itself. Despite everything, the threat of snipers in the rubble or Hamas fighters emerging from the tunnels remains present.
“We encounter small squads of two or three terrorists, generally we manage to eliminate them,” an IDF paratrooper told the news channel. “Urban combat has its own grammar that must be mastered, analyzed, on LinkedIn, Pierre Schill, Chief of Staff of the Army (Cemat). It is mainly based on moral force, continuous training and appropriate joint cooperation. »
#Gaza images of combat #Hamas in the rubble, the last sequence of a “Balistic paw” sticky shaped charge landing on the door of the Namer troop transport probably reached the passenger compartment. Risks of evolution without infantry. pic.twitter.com/PiHulM8SJx
— Wassim Nasr (@SimNasr) November 22, 2023
In several Hamas videos, its fighters emerge from tunnels and target the sides or rear of vehicles with RPG rocket launchers. “Hamas must have few modern anti-tank missiles,” judges Pierre Razoux, “an RPG against a Merkava [un char israélien, NDLR] latest generation remains ineffective. » They end up placing explosive charges on the armor. A tactic which is in no way new when faced with armored vehicles in an urban environment but which requires a “reservoir” of expendable men, given the dangerousness of the action which is akin to a suicide mission.
Underground, “the IDF has not yet engaged in the battle of the tunnels,” estimates the academic director of the Fmes, and is perhaps waiting to control the entire city of Gaza. Reducing and destroying the tunnels is not in itself difficult for the Israeli army, which has developed a specific arsenal, but the likely presence of hostages inside would force soldiers to explore them, with the risk of combat. with a more than uncertain result.
Deterring Iran and Hezbollah
“The strategic objective has already been achieved,” judges Pierre Razoux, “the IDF has been able to reestablish a credible dissuasive posture in particular against Iran and Hezbollah. » The opening of secondary fronts in Lebanon and the West Bank did not occur. But the operational results are more mixed. Hamas’ military potential seems largely reached, without knowing how many of the 25,000 to 30,000 of its fighters have been killed or wounded.
In addition, “the rocket attacks against Israel continue, even though stopping them was one of the IDF’s stated objectives,” adds Héloïse Fayet. Finally, Israeli forces did not release any hostages among the 240 held in the Gaza Strip. Only diplomacy and the four-day truce which came into force on Friday November 24 allowed the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Will the Israeli army, after the north of the Gaza Strip, go to fight in the South? “I don’t think so,” considers Pierre Razoux. Israel must use it as a means of pressure during negotiations. If the Jewish state considers that the conditions of a ceasefire or agreement are not favorable to it, it will threaten to expand its operations in the South. » For Héloïse Fayet, of Ifri, “The IDF has every interest in maintaining the effort to show that it can hold up over the long term”.
Since October 7, 390 Israeli soldiers have died, the majority during the Hamas attack and in the following days to eliminate the last terrorists present on Hebrew territory. “As of November 20, Israel recognizes more than sixty people killed in the Gaza Strip. If we extrapolate, the number of injured must be between 300 and 500,” calculates Army General Pierre Schill.
A significant toll, but which remains bearable for soldiers with high morale, supported by an Israeli society which, in the vast majority, approves of the operation. “We are witnessing the return of open, harsh, uncompromising war, requiring every nation to have the capacity to defend itself and to cultivate its determination to do so,” concludes Cemat.
#belligerents #month #land #offensive