An Epic Battle Awaits the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, Both Above and Below Ground

The next time you find yourself walking through an urban streetscape, pause for a moment and imagine you’re leading an infantry platoon in an assault against hostile forces. You peer down the street, looking for possible places the enemy may be hiding. But the list is endless.Every ledge; every window; every rooftop; and every doorway may hide men with guns who are waiting to kill you. The concrete walls of buildings and sewers running beneath the streets are immune to even the most sophisticated 21st-century surveillance technology.And there’s no place to maneuver. Your movements are funneled through streets and alleyways, which means the enemy knows where you’ll be coming. This means that, in addition to being ambushed by those men with guns, you can expect to encounter booby traps, mines, and IEDs galore.Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket” and Jean Jacques Arnaud’s “Enemy at the Gates” were works of Hollywood fiction. Yet both war films manage to convey house-to-house combat with verisimilitude.After October 7, Israel is unlikely to be satisfied with anything less than the destruction of Hamas. Achieving that objective will require boots on the ground.As Israeli infantry and armored forces commence their assault on Gaza, they’ll face all the dangers listed above — and more. That prospect stems from the network of tunnels Hamas has dug over the years by pilfering building supplies donated foreign governments.Advancing Israeli units will have to worry not only about the enemy above ground, but also about Hamas terrorists materializing out of tunnels to shoot IDF soldiers in the back.The air offensive conducted by Israel has done damage to the military infrastructure of Hamas. As the United States Marines learned at places like Tarawa, Peleliu, and Iwo Jima, though, artillery and aerial bombardment can do only so much. At the end of the day, American Marines had to flush Japanese soldiers out of their caves at the business end of a bayonet or flame-thrower.Likewise, it’s a certainty that many thousands of well-armed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists are sitting out Israeli air strikes in that tunnel network beneath Gaza. The presence of 220 Israeli hostages within those same tunnels complicates the situation.So how will the IDF deal with the these dangers? By means of a slow and methodical combined arms offensive — comprising the coordinated use of infantry, tanks, combat engineers, artillery, and aircraft. Key to this will be tools created by Israel’s hi-tech industry that shorten the “sensor to shooter” chain.’Israeli forward air and artillery observers posted to frontline ground units will be able to summon fire support mere seconds after IDF troops receive incoming enemy fire. Israeli fighter aircraft, attack helicopters, and armed drones will loiter above, ready to strike targets with pinpoint accuracy. The IDF’s tunnel warfare units will bring innovative technology to their task, some of which we’ve heard about. One example is the so-called “sponge bomb” that seals a tunnel with expanding foam that hardens within seconds to a concrete-like consistency.These sponge bombs will enable Israeli tunnel-clearing teams to block side shaft, thereby preventing Hamas terrorists from emerging to their rear. Those combat engineers could be the first Israeli troops to encounter the hostages held by Hamas underground.The ground campaign in Gaza will be long and bloody. Despite the IDF’s best efforts to spare civilians, Hamas’ tactic of using women and children as shields will exact a toll. For Israel, there is no alternative. Three weeks ago, the Jewish state learned that coexistence is not what its neighboring jihadi terrorist proto-state seeks.

An Epic Battle Awaits the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, Both Above and Below Ground

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