The British magazine The Economist discussed the possibility of Israel invading the Gaza Strip by land, warning at the same time of a “harsh” war awaiting it there. She pointed out that overthrowing the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” from power in Gaza may not be possible without direct occupation of the land.
The magazine explained in a report that a third ground incursion attempt in response to the Hamas attack against Israeli civilians is imminent.
She said that Israel had penetrated into limited areas in the Gaza Strip twice before, the first was in the framework of the operation called “Cast Lead” that lasted 15 days in January 2009. The second was in Operation “Protective Edge” in 2014, where its army was killed there. 19 days.
The newspaper suggested that the ground invasion attempt this time would be “larger, longer, and more violent” than the previous two attempts.
The resistance called its confrontation with Israel’s attack in 2009 “The Battle of the Criterion,” while Hamas called its operations in 2014 “The Devouring Storm,” while the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, chose the name “Al-Bunyan Al-Marsoos” for its operations.
Limited incursion
Israeli leaders are currently studying the extent of their next attack, according to the magazine, which adds that one option is a limited incursion such as the one that occurred in 2014, when the Israeli army seized an area adjacent to the border in order to close tunnels used to smuggle food, fighters and weapons. But he stopped at the outskirts of the main cities to avoid engaging in urban warfare.
Another option is an invasion deep into Gaza to occupy larger areas of the Strip. The magazine notes, by extension, that these past methods seem insufficient in the eyes of Israelis, who are experiencing widespread anger as a result of what The Economist considers “atrocities committed by Hamas.”
Israeli leaders vowed to eliminate Hamas, instead of simply weakening it. The magazine cited a statement by Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, in which he said, “The era of logic has passed (in dealing) with these savages. The time has come to destroy Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure, to completely erase it” from existence.
The Economist quoted Daniel Byman of Georgetown University, a senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as saying that Hamas is deeply rooted in Gaza, embedded in a group of charities, schools and mosques, adding that separating it from the Strip is “a nearly impossible task.”
High cost
Then, according to the magazine, reoccupying the Gaza Strip is “out of the question,” as Israel left it in 2005, and one of the reasons for that was that the cost of keeping it was very high.
She stated that Israel is using the Palestinian Authority, Hamas’s “rival”, in the West Bank as an auxiliary force to some extent. But this use will not be an option in Gaza.
However, there is an alternative approach for the next step, and it will be a larger version of Operation Cast Lead, where – according to the British magazine – the Israeli army is likely to deploy two armored divisions and a light airborne division, which includes 5 brigades.
If Israeli commanders eventually order a full-scale invasion, one or two armored brigades equipped with tanks would likely advance 6 kilometers west toward the coast, either north or south of Deir al-Balah.
There is a possibility that two or three brigade-sized units – each with a few thousand soldiers – will focus on the north, including around Gaza City, and one or two on Khan Yunis or Rafah in the south. The goal is, perhaps, to undermine the leaders of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement and the infrastructure.
The biggest challenge – in the opinion of the magazine’s report – will be urban warfare, which is a chaotic adventure.
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2023-10-12 15:23:13
