Israeli soldiers march through a fighting-torn street in the Gaza Strip; a photo released by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces, Israeli Army) to show the site. Complicated: 24 soldiers have been killed since the invasion began.
Every alley can hold many surprises, it becomes a corridor of death, as the soldiers themselves found out in the battles of the past. There are several threats to those moving forward. The mines are now hidden under the rubble. Activated by pressure or by a thin wire stretched between two ends from the remote control. Decades of hostility have taught Palestinians the techniques, “mixtures,” power, armor resistance, and countermeasures of their opponents.
On the upper floors, behind gutted windows, the presence of riflemen, elements equipped with simple RPG anti-tank missiles and grenades. A seemingly uninhabited building may house the entrance to a tunnel, the mujahideen’s hideout. The house itself becomes a trap when militants fill it with explosives and blow it up once it is occupied by the enemy. Tactics commonly used in the Syrian Civil War. In some cases, to avoid exposing themselves, soldiers and insurgents open gaps between one house and another, creating a security route.
The strip, like many urban areas, is not homogeneous, after agglomeration an open space can open up and thus a point where snipers can attack a target from a distance. Alternatively, “lookouts” pass on the coordinates for mortar and anti-tank fire. The army also needs to take care of a simple and universal weapon: drones converted to drop bombs. The al-Qassam Brigades used it to damage the towers around the wall, hit a Merkava tank and troop concentrations.
Hamas highlights the tactics of its attackers in a video, and the Israeli defense shows a train with a dog equipped with a small camera. If necessary, they send it further and the device sends the images back to the controller: this is important in the event of a break-in or when the presence of a person in an environment needs to be verified.
With this task in mind, the Oketz dog unit was founded and involved in extensive operations, where interventions always lead to unexpected events. In December 1988, commandos reached the caves of Nameh, a site on the Lebanese coast that housed a base for Ahmed Jibril’s terrorists. They were spotted by a guard, the dog with the explosive charge did not obey orders, but most importantly there was no specific target.