Could an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza meet its aims?
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2023-10-14
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News Article :-
Israel's leaders have declared that Hamas will be wiped off the face of the Earth and Gaza will never go back to what it was.
"Every Hamas member is a dead man," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after fighters from the militant group killed 1,300 people in a brutal attack on Israel.
The goal of Operation Swords of Iron appears far more ambitious than anything the military has planned in Gaza before. But is that a realistic military mission, and how can its commanders possibly fulfil it?
A ground invasion of the Gaza Strip involves house-to-house urban fighting and carries immense risks to the civilian population. Air strikes have already claimed hundreds of lives, and more than 400,000 people have fled their homes.
The military has the added task of rescuing at least 150 hostages, held in unknown locations across Gaza.
Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), has vowed to "dismantle" Hamas, and has singled out its political head in Gaza. But is there an ultimate vision for how Gaza will look after 16 years of Hamas's violent rule?
"I don't think Israel can dismantle every Hamas member, because it's an idea of extremist Islam," says military analyst Amir Bar Shalom of Israel's Army Radio. "But you can weaken it as much as you can so it has no operational capabilities."
That might be a more realistic objective. Israel has fought four wars with Hamas, and every attempt to halt its rocket attacks has failed.
Spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said by the end of this war Hamas should no longer have the military capacity to "threaten or kill Israeli civilians".
The military operation is at the mercy of several factors that could derail it.
Hamas's armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, will have prepared for an Israeli offensive. Explosive devices will have been set, and ambushes planned. It can use its notorious and extensive network of tunnels to attack Israeli forces.
In 2014, Israeli infantry battalions suffered heavy losses from anti-tank mines, snipers and ambushes, while hundreds of civilians died fighting in a northern neighbourhood of Gaza City.
That is one reason Israel has demanded the evacuation of 1.1 million Palestinians from the northern half of the Gaza Strip.
Israelis have been warned the war could take months, and a record 360,000 reservists have reported for duty.
The question is how long Israel can continue its campaign without international pressure to pull back.
Gaza is rapidly becoming a "hell hole", the UN's refugee agency has warned. The death toll is rising fast; water, power and fuel supplies have been cut off, and now half of the population is being told to flee large areas.
"The government and military feel they have the backing of the international community - at least Western leaders. The philosophy is 'let's mobilise, we have plenty of time'," says Yossi Melman, one of Israel's leading security and intelligence journalists.
News Article :-
Israel's leaders have declared that Hamas will be wiped off the face of the Earth and Gaza will never go back to what it was.
"Every Hamas member is a dead man," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after fighters from the militant group killed 1,300 people in a brutal attack on Israel.
The goal of Operation Swords of Iron appears far more ambitious than anything the military has planned in Gaza before. But is that a realistic military mission, and how can its commanders possibly fulfil it?
A ground invasion of the Gaza Strip involves house-to-house urban fighting and carries immense risks to the civilian population. Air strikes have already claimed hundreds of lives, and more than 400,000 people have fled their homes.
The military has the added task of rescuing at least 150 hostages, held in unknown locations across Gaza.
Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), has vowed to "dismantle" Hamas, and has singled out its political head in Gaza. But is there an ultimate vision for how Gaza will look after 16 years of Hamas's violent rule?
"I don't think Israel can dismantle every Hamas member, because it's an idea of extremist Islam," says military analyst Amir Bar Shalom of Israel's Army Radio. "But you can weaken it as much as you can so it has no operational capabilities."
That might be a more realistic objective. Israel has fought four wars with Hamas, and every attempt to halt its rocket attacks has failed.
Spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said by the end of this war Hamas should no longer have the military capacity to "threaten or kill Israeli civilians".
The military operation is at the mercy of several factors that could derail it.
Hamas's armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, will have prepared for an Israeli offensive. Explosive devices will have been set, and ambushes planned. It can use its notorious and extensive network of tunnels to attack Israeli forces.
In 2014, Israeli infantry battalions suffered heavy losses from anti-tank mines, snipers and ambushes, while hundreds of civilians died fighting in a northern neighbourhood of Gaza City.
That is one reason Israel has demanded the evacuation of 1.1 million Palestinians from the northern half of the Gaza Strip.
Israelis have been warned the war could take months, and a record 360,000 reservists have reported for duty.
The question is how long Israel can continue its campaign without international pressure to pull back.
Gaza is rapidly becoming a "hell hole", the UN's refugee agency has warned. The death toll is rising fast; water, power and fuel supplies have been cut off, and now half of the population is being told to flee large areas.
"The government and military feel they have the backing of the international community - at least Western leaders. The philosophy is 'let's mobilise, we have plenty of time'," says Yossi Melman, one of Israel's leading security and intelligence journalists.
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