On the 24th day of the war between Israel and Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed this Monday, October 30, that the army of the Jewish state is “progressing methodically, step by step” in the Gaza Strip. A somewhat different strategy from the large-scale ground military offensive promised for several weeks.
“Permanent harassment” but no dazzling progress yet. Since October 7 and the bloody attacks by Hamas in Israel, officials of the Jewish state have promised their people that the terrorist organization in power in Gaza since 2007 would be “annihilated”.
Initially, this promise was manifested by incessant bombings on the Gaza Strip where the humanitarian situation is “disastrous”, according to the UN, for the 2.4 million inhabitants deprived of water, food and electricity. But since Friday, Israel has intensified its bombings on Palestinian territory and its soldiers are also operating on the ground there.
“The big offensive that everyone was expecting is not the strategy employed at the moment,” General Jérôme Pellistrandi commented on our antenna. According to BFMTV’s defense consultant, the IDF mainly operates via a strategy of “punching, punching, permanent harassment”.
This is why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that he expected a “long and difficult” war in Gaza, referring to “a second stage of the war”.
“Step by step”
This Monday, the statesman assured that his army has “extended its land entry into the Gaza Strip, it is doing so in measured and very powerful stages, progressing methodically step by step”. A gradual increase in intensity whose aim is to “destroy” Hamas and “bring the hostages home” – more than 230 people held for more than three weeks.
Violent ground fighting therefore pitted Hamas fighters against the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, whose tanks carried out an operation on the edge of Gaza city.
In this context, “more than 600 targets” have been struck in Gaza in the last 24 hours, the Israeli army announced. Among these are “weapons depots” and dozens of anti-tank missile launch positions, according to the same source.
“We are moving into a slightly more generalized phase with the use of armored forces,” General Bernard Norlain analyzed on our antenna.
But, according to the former commander of the combat air force, the Israeli army will soon be confronted with a new obstacle: “If, until now, the armored vehicles have returned relatively easily to Gaza city, they will now come up against urban battles which will become much more difficult.”
Gaza and its underground labyrinth
Having become a battlefield in ruins, Gaza City presents a particularity which could halt the progression of the IDF. In the 41 kilometers long and 10 kilometers wide of the Gaza Strip, more than 500 kilometers of tunnels are hidden, mainly under its eponymous city.
Hamas uses these hundreds of underground tunnels, nicknamed “the Gaza metro”, to try to rebalance the balance of power. They are used to store equipment, weapons, food, fuel, motorcycles… Some even have rails for the most important transports. Galleries are also hiding places for Hamas leaders which Israel has promised to eliminate.
To neutralize this anthill, General Jérôme Pellistrandi mentioned two methods to be put in place thanks to the “human and electronic intelligence” accumulated: one aerial and one terrestrial. “The IDF can hit them with gravity bombs that can be dropped from planes and which will go deep and explode about ten meters deep.”
On the ground, the role of armored bulldozers could be decisive: “They will rake the ground and, as soon as there is a hole, drop explosives to create a blast effect in the tunnels.”
The Israeli army also claimed on Monday to have killed “dozens of terrorists who had barricaded themselves in buildings and tunnels and tried to attack them” during the night.