Shillong, October 17: Israel stands on the brink of a military incursion into the Gaza Strip in response to recent surprise attacks by Hamas terrorists, resulting in the tragic loss of hundreds of innocent lives.
Despite the Israeli Defense Forces’ formidable training, equipment, and numerical advantage over Hamas, the impending battleground in Gaza presents formidable challenges, the Daily Mail has highlighted concerns.
The Palestinian Islamist fighters navigate a labyrinthine network of fortified tunnels, some reaching depths of up to 40 feet underground. These tunnels serve as potential ambush points, booby-traps, or worse, explosives-rigged passages that could cave in on Israeli forces.
While Israel can conduct airstrikes and employ bunker-busting munitions to eliminate some tunnels, fully eradicating Hamas from the “Gaza Metro” requires the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops.
In 2011, Hamas claimed to have constructed over 300 miles of tunnel systems. While experts suspected the figure’s accuracy, it’s clear that the network has expanded significantly since then.
Military experts and analysts are expressing deep concerns regarding the potential toll on Israeli forces if they engage Hamas on the insurgents’ home turf. These concerns were reported by the media.
Leading military and defense analyst, Sam Cranny Evans, who is an Associate Fellow at RUSI, cautioned that Israeli forces face a grueling battle, likening it to the most intense urban warfare witnessed during the Iraq conflict. He also raised the prospect of Hamas mining the tunnels and deploying improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to hinder IDF operations in clearing the underground passages.
Above-ground conflicts are anticipated to be equally brutal, with Hamas using civilian structures to their advantage, forcing Israeli military units into intense, close-quarter urban warfare.