The Israeli Defence Forces face booby traps, snipers, tunnels and casualties in a potential ground offensive to root out Hamas militants.
to help dismantle the extensive tunnels that Hamas had dug to hide its fighters and sneak into Israeli territory.
Hamas has amassed a formidable rocket arsenal since Israeli soldiers last entered Gaza in 2014. It has also built hundreds of kilometres of tunnels, nicknamed the “Gaza Metro”, to move fighters and weapons around undetected, and trained for urban combat. At least 66 Israeli soldiers and six civilians died in the 2014 conflict. Among Palestinians, 2133 people were killed of whom 1,489 were civilians, according to the UN. A further 500,000 people were displaced, as swaths of Gaza were turned into rubble.
Israel’s army will deploy its so-called “doctrine of victory”, which requires the air force to have a deep bank of pre-vetted targets destroyed in rapid order. It is already in play, with fighter jets intensely bombing large swaths of Gaza, pausing only to refuel, often in mid-air. One military technique is to enter buildings by breaking through side walls to avoid booby trapped doors. Once inside, soldiers blast through interior walls to avoid any sniper fire on stairwells or open spaces on the street.
Before Israel’s forces can reach Hamas’s urban strongholds, they have to breach a series of defensive lines that will include mines, ambush sites and mortar targets, according to a recent review by Nadav Morag, a former Israeli security adviser.
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