For more than three months, the Israelis have been trying to eliminate the terrorist organization Hamas with attacks in the Gaza Strip. However, the Islamists’ transition to guerrilla tactics is causing increasing problems for Israel’s ground forces…
As the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a senior Israeli officer, Israeli soldiers would now be attacked from cells consisting of just two to five Hamas fighters before diving into their tunnels.
Hamas also operated from civilian sanctuaries and used women and children to gather information and transport weapons, the report said. Hamas also keeps weapons in hundreds of vacant houses. This allows their fighters to move freely, disguise themselves as civilians and grab their weapons at the last moment before an attack.
The death toll among Israeli soldiers is increasing
According to the Israeli army, fourteen soldiers were killed this weekend alone in fighting in the south and center of the closed coastal strip. A total of 153 soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive began in late October, the Times of Israel reported.
The rising numbers have led to internal criticism that Israel is endangering its soldiers by scaling back the use of force in response to US demands to limit civilian casualties, the Wall Street Journal reports.
However, Israeli security officials and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied that a change in tactics had been made under American pressure. According to the officer quoted by The Wall Street Journal, who commands a battalion in the hotly contested southern city of Khan Yunis, it could take months for Israel to do so. The army would take control of the city in the same way it had done in northern Gaza.
Source: Krone
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