Units of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) infantry, tanks and armoured personnel carriers fighting in the Gaza Strip may have their brief of encircling the densely-populated Gaza City cut out but on Thursday, Israeli military casualties were mounting in the ‘close combat’ zone amid indications that there was more in store.
Till Wednesday, the IDF had counted 11 IDF soldiers to have lost their lives in the Ground Zero of the ongoing Israel-Hamas fight amid the looming threat of the conflict spreading far and wide.
On Tuesday, the IDF announced the death of its two soldiers in ‘hand-to-hand’ combat in northern Gaza while on Wednesday, the death of nine more soldiers was announced.
The IDF seems to have followed the typical battle strategy of heavily bombing the adversary’s assets and territory into submission before sending in the ground forces for territorial takeover and force consolidation.
But what could prove difficult here is the likely urban guerrilla warfare where tanks and other heavy military weapons are rendered ineffective due to narrow spaces in the urban landscape. These are battle zones that are best fought by highly mobile and lightly armed infantry units.
The other disadvantage that the IDF would suffer from is the presence of a vast network of tunnels that the Hamas fighters consider their home-ground.
The IDF ground assault began on October 27, 20 days after Hamas militants broke through at least 30 points of the fortified fence that separated Gaza from Israel and killed about 1,400 Israelis.
The ground assault is being supported by artillery fire, tanks, helicopter aerial strikes and missile strikes by the Navy from the Red Sea.
Retaliatory strikes by IDF aircraft and artillery fire have killed more than 8,000 Palestinians till now. The last major IDF attack took place on Wednesday when IDF aircraft bombed the Jabalia camp—the biggest refugee camp in Gaza—for the second time.
While Hamas said 195 people were killed in the two attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote on X, formerly Twitter): “Given the high number of civilian casualties & the scale of destruction following Israeli airstrikes on Jabalia refugee camp, we have serious concerns that these are disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes.”
Meanwhile, there were signs of the conflict widening with the Lebanon-headquartered Hezbollah militia in the north and the Iran-backed Shiite Houthi militia based in Yemen trying to pry open new fronts with Israel by firing missiles, rockets and drones into Israel.
The Shin Bet (Israeli agency for internal security) had already warned the government that violence may break out in the West Bank amid a surge in fights between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
On Wednesday, Jordan—a key US ally—became the newest country to recall its ambassador from Tel Aviv in protest against Israel’s actions. On Tuesday, while Bolivia became the first Latin American country to break diplomatic ties with Israel, Colombia and Chile called their ambassadors home for ‘consultations’. Many other countries like Pakistan and Egypt condemned the Israeli strikes on Tuesday.