On Friday, several major operations took place, mostly in the Shejaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, but also in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah.
The operations, which killed and wounded a large number of Israeli soldiers, were carried out by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad.
In a single operation, Al-Qassam said that they “eliminated 10 Zionist soldiers in a complex operation east of Al-Nazaz Street in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City. ”
Though the number of Israeli soldiers killed or wounded in the Al-Quds Brigades operation remains unclear, a video documenting the daring operation suggests a shift in the Resistance tactics.
The Resistance seems to have moved from a state of defense into a state of attack.
The Al-Quds Brigades published footage of a raid carried out by its fighters on a zionist force from point-blank range inside a home in the Shejaiya neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/6ftGbCOq1W
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) July 6, 2024
Though Palestinians have carried out numerous operations that could be classified under ‘attack operations’ since the start of the war on October 7, the concentration of this type of operations in recent days suggests a shift in tactics.
“This shift in Resistance tactics is directly related to the announcement by Israel on Thursday that it had fully entered into the third phase of operations,” Palestinian analyst and editor of the Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud, said.
This third phase supposedly indicates the end of major military invasions of whole regions and focuses instead on targeting operations, that would allow the Israeli army to strike and return to its positions quickly.
These positions are mostly based on the Netzarim axis, the Philadelphi Route and a so-called buffer zone, which borders the Israeli fence, though entirely located inside Gaza.
“Netanyahu thinks he is able to do what former Israeli general and prime minister Ariel Sharon could not, namely establishing ‘fingers’, as in permanent Israeli military presence inside the Strip, thus dividing Gaza into several regions, which would make it much easier for the Israeli army to control it,” according to Baroud.
The Palestinian analyst believes that Netanyahu’s plan will collapse rather quickly. He has linked the recent shift in Resistance strategy specifically to this plan.
“By moving quickly to the offensive, using tactics similar to what some military analysts compared to that of Chinese special forces, indicates that the Resistance is keen on ending Netanyahu’s dream of ‘permanent security control in Gaza’ before it even begins,” Baroud added.
Another factor that makes Netanyahu’s ‘fingers’ much more difficult to sustain is that the current capabilities of the Palestinian Resistance are far greater than the daring Fedayeen operations of the late 1960s and 70s.
This is due to the larger number of Palestinian Resistance fighters, their superior training, their highly coordinated efforts, and more importantly, according to Baroud, their “ability to manufacture their own weapons, which can reach the Israeli army anywhere in Gaza.”
Baroud expects the attack operations to continue, which will force Israel to make one out of three choices: returning to phase two, committing to phase three at the expense of high casualty costs or leaving Gaza altogether.
“I believe that the latter option is the only one that Israel may be able to sustain, which will come at a high political cost,” Baroud concluded.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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