Israel is relying on the rapid transfer of information in its war against Hamas. Military success and low Israeli casualties appear to validate the tactic.
Gaza – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) stormed the Al-Shifa hospital complex in the northern Gaza Strip for the second time in 24 hours. The IDF is thus continuing its ground offensive in the war in Israel, in which it is advancing further into the Gaza Strip and destroying numerous Hamas militia facilities.
This action on the ground had been delayed for a long time because it was feared that a ground invasion could lead to many dead soldiers, in addition to a high number of civilian casualties. A 2014 estimate put casualties between 500 and 1,000 Israeli soldiers in an IDF ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. This is reported by the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post.
Turbo tactics are successful – fewer than 40 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the ground invasion so far
Nevertheless, the Israeli armed forces have so far managed to keep casualties within their own ranks relatively low. So far, fewer than 40 IDF soldiers have been killed in the invasion, the newspaper said. This is due to a new mix of new tactics, reconnaissance work, speed and passing on information. The core of the new tactic is the rapid forwarding of intelligence information. Within a few seconds, the commander can integrate new information from the field and seamlessly pass it on to another field or air unit. This system enables the IDF to kill numerous Hamas fighters in a single battle, sometimes without suffering a single loss.
This means that fears that Hamas could neutralize the IDF’s technological advantages by operating from tunnels and civilian facilities have not come true. The IDF has been working on an “integrated approach” for a long time. However, so far this has only been used by the Israeli Air Force; possible advantages for the land forces were purely speculative. However, according to the IDF, recent progress shows that the “new level of integration between the various intelligence units and the naval, air and land forces” is a success.
The new tactic is militarily successful – will this also be the case in southern Gaza?
Even if the operation so far has been militarily successful and the Israeli leadership has expressed satisfaction, it exacts a high price. According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, over 11,200 civilians have been killed so far, the vast majority of them women and minors. Thousands of homes have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people have fled to the southern Gaza Strip, where they live in catastrophic conditions.
Despite claiming that Palestinian civilians are safer in the southern Gaza Strip, Israel has continued to carry out airstrikes on Hamas targets there, killing many civilians. The situation could become even more difficult if Israel turns its attention to the south, according to the news agency AP News writes. “There is no place in the Gaza Strip that we will not reach,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli troops on the Gaza Strip border on Wednesday (November 15). “There is no hiding place, no protection, no refuge for the Hamas murderers.”
Advance into the southern Gaza Strip is imminent – high number of civilian casualties expected
Amir Avivi, a retired general and former deputy commander of the army’s Gaza division, said calling off the operation was now not an option. “You can’t really destroy Hamas without taking the entire Gaza Strip,” Avivi said. However, an advance into the southern Gaza Strip will present Israel with major challenges, he said AP News. With most of Gaza’s population crammed into public accommodation or private homes and Hamas’s presence in neighborhoods, heavy street fighting in the south is likely to result in high civilian casualties.
The Palestinians were offered the opportunity to move to a “humanitarian zone” that Israel is trying to set up in the southwest of the Gaza Strip, or even better to neighboring Egypt. This is “the safest place for them,” says Avivi. However, each of these scenarios is problematic. Egypt has repeatedly made it clear that it does not want masses of Palestinian refugees on its territory. Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli general and head of the National Security Council, said it was almost impossible for the war to end without Hamas surrendering. Since Israel is expected to need another two to three months to complete the offensive, a worsening of the humanitarian emergency is “inevitable,” said Eiland.
Hamas should use civilians as human shields – including in Al-Shifa hospital?
Israel blames Hamas for the civilian casualties and accuses the militia of using civilians as human shields. But the international community – even Israel’s closest ally, the United States – has become increasingly concerned about the number of civilians killed. The debate about civilian casualties increased again with the attack on the Al-Shifa Hospital on Wednesday (November 15). The hospital is the largest and most important in Gaza and was treating hundreds of patients with serious illnesses, including about three dozen premature babies, at the time of the Israeli raid.
Israel rejected Palestinian claims that the raid had endangered patients. It was previously claimed that the hospital was a “command and control hub” for Hamas. On Wednesday, Israel unveiled a collection of weapons and military equipment it had found, but provided no evidence of underground bunkers or sophisticated command centers. Hospitals and medical personnel have special protection under Article 18 of the Geneva Convention, but lose this if they are used for military purposes, such as military operations. B. can be used to store weapons. Whether the evidence found justifies the attack, which violates international law, still needs to be examined. (tpn)