What Israel sees as the second phase of its operations against Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has begun. It is the beginning, without the “D-Day” attack, but with the “Fallujah” nightmare of what Israeli leaders said could be a long and difficult war in which the rescued hostages destroy Hamas and a would form a new group to govern the Palestinian enclave. Israeli troops are in the Gaza Strip, a conflict that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls the “second war of independence.” Taken after the horrific Hamas attack in Israel on October 7th.
The Israelis refused to clarify whether the expanded operations marked the start of the expected major ground assault. The first steps, even the short-term goals, of the Israeli military’s ground operation remained, emphasizes the Washington Post, in the dark. The term “gradually” was very popular. According to the United Nations, ground operations now include the “strongest Israeli airstrikes and artillery strikes” since the conflict began more than three weeks ago. And a general picture is emerging as Gaza reports a death toll of over eight thousand in less than a month.
The images published by Israel
The IDF released black and white images showing tanks, armored vehicles and troops in the Gaza Strip. There are no revelations about how many soldiers have entered Gaza, how far they have penetrated or what positions they are in. These are not the “targeted” attacks that the IDF confirmed last week.
And instead of a massive attack, according to military analysts in Israel, it appears that the IDF is moving slowly and carefully, looking for Hamas booby traps to destroy, tunnels around the Gaza Strip, a small strip of land, and in preparation of “corridors” for the rapid deployment of tanks and troops on the outskirts of Gaza City.
Currently – says Michael Milshtein, head of the Forum for Palestinian Studies at Tel Aviv University and with experience in Israeli intelligence – Israeli troops operate mainly on the edges of this piece of land, in camps and in places vacated by residents. around the Erez border crossing in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Fallujah
And if Israeli forces enter Gaza City and the surrounding refugee camps, several analysts – including Milshtein – fear fierce and bloody fighting in the urban context and speak of “Fallujah”. Thoughts go back to 2004, to the war in Iraq, to the attack that ended with at least 95 American soldiers killed and more than a thousand Iraqis dead.
Yoel Guzansky, a former member of Israel’s National Security Council and now a member of the Institute for National Security Studies, explained that the troops deployed by Israel – likely elite infantry and military engineering units (the number of which is unknown) – are stationed in the border areas’ northern and eastern edges . And according to Guzansky, there are two tactical goals: to identify and eliminate booby traps, IEDs and other obstacles (natural or man-made) to the entry of larger numbers of troops and to understand the “enemy,” the “new Hamas.” with his skills and weapons.
For Kobi Michel, a researcher at the Israel Institute for National Security Studies, the offensive begins to create a “safe path” for operations in the Gaza Strip, with “deeper and deeper raids every night” while “all roads from the border are cleared.” to Gaza City.” The “massive ground incursion” is the “third phase of the operation,” he says, speaking of the “graduality” of this conflict. “We will not fight in the tunnels, 30 to 40 meters underground,” he said. “I assume that we have creative means and methods that will allow us to destroy these tunnels over the heads of the Hamas terrorists who are hiding in them.”
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