What are the 5 challenges for Israel if they enter Gaza? Over 1,200 Israelis were killed in the terrorist attack, 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in the Israeli counterattack, and at least 1,300 residents of the Gaza Strip were killed in Israeli airstrikes that reduced several large buildings to piles of rubble.
The Israeli army today said it is prepared to send ground forces into the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s most densely populated areas, to fight the Hamas group.
“We are waiting to see what our political leadership decides about a potential ground incursion,” army spokesman Richard Hecht told journalists, news agency AFP reported.
Also read: How Hamas gets weapons in Gaza despite strict border control
A fierce form of urban warfare will erupt on the narrow streets and lanes of the seaside area, where the population is a huge 5,500 people per square kilometre (sqkm), compared to Israel’s 400 people per sqkm, if the Israelis invade Gaza with a mechanized infantry force and air support from attack helicopters.
What are the 5 challenges for Israel if they enter Gaza?
- Due to a lack of space for such a large population, buildings in the Gaza Strip are crowded together. The roads are congested. Tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers (IFVs) would find it even more challenging to travel through the Gaza Strip due to building debris on the road.
- For Israeli troops, who must enter, verify, neutralize, and clear individual Hamas buildings, booby traps in tight spaces present serious risks. The Gaza Strip’s maze of tall buildings with tiny, dark windows makes it vulnerable to sniper attacks from any angle.
- A larger mechanized infantry force can be severely wounded by small groups using anti-tank guided missiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), as the wars in Syria and Ukraine have demonstrated.
- It would be dangerous to drop troops from helicopters because Hamas could have MANPADS. In the event that the troop transport helicopters fly too low, even unguided RPGs could be dangerous. In the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, two US helicopters were shot down while flying low and quickly over the heavily populated Somalian city. This incident became known as “Black Hawk Down” in the media.
- If Israeli troops enter the Gaza Strip for an all-out assault, limiting collateral damage and civilian casualties will be a very difficult task.
Fears have increased for the 2.4 million citizens of Gaza, who are now living through the fifth war in 15 years in the long-isolated region.
Israel has also cut off water, food, and power supplies. Israel Katz, the energy minister for Israel, vowed that the total blockade of Gaza would last until all 150 or so Israeli hostages had been released.
“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home,” he said in a statement.
