Israeli analysts paint a grim picture of the ongoing Gaza war, highlighting heavy losses and unresolved challenges.
The Palestinian movement Hamas continues to “resist surrender” in Gaza and has reportedly “learned to shift to guerrilla warfare,” according to Israeli analyst Avi Issacharoff.
In an article published on Thursday in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Issacharoff explained that the Israeli army’s 162nd Division is operating in northern Gaza, including the Jabaliya refugee camp, in an effort to dismantle Hamas infrastructure.
“The big problem is that, to do this, you need to strike every house suspected of containing tunnels or hostile activity,” he said.
The analyst described northern Gaza as a disaster zone, with empty streets and hardly any stray dogs left, as even they cannot find food.
Israel began a large-scale military offensive in Jabaliya over three months ago, displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroying countless buildings, and causing significant casualties.
Palestinians have accused Israel of attempting to occupy the area, turning it into a buffer zone, and forcing residents to flee through relentless bombardment and a strict siege that has deprived them of food, water, and medicine.
However, according to Issacharoff, the Israeli army is also paying a heavy price in northern Gaza due to stiff Palestinian resistance. “The price that the generation of young fighters is paying in body and soul during this war is unimaginable,” he wrote.
According to the analyst, there are three main problems for the Israeli army in Gaza:
One, it would “take months and months of fighting to finish clearing the northern Gaza Strip alone.”
Two, Israeli losses are considerable. “Just a few weeks ago,” he wrote, “a force of 12 soldiers from our Samson Battalion went on an operation and intercepted an RPG rocket. Four soldiers were killed on the spot.”
Three, according to Issacharoff, “Hamas shows no signs of surrender.”
“Even in the northern cities of the Gaza Strip, attempts to launch rockets at Israel continue, as do attempts to harm soldiers by small squads of three or four terrorists (Resistance fighters – PC), or perhaps fewer,” the analyst said.
Additionally, according to the report, in the areas where the Israeli army is not operating on the ground, “Hamas is regaining civil and military control.” In Gaza City, which is only two kilometers south of Jabaliya, “the organization has effectively reestablished its governmental capabilities as well as its military command.”
Issacharoff’s remarks match with another analysis published by former Lt. Col. Amiut Yagur in Maariv on Thursday.
According to Yagur, the Israeli military activity in northern Gaza proves “beyond any doubt … that even in the field of military capabilities, Israel has not finished the job and has not yet defeated Hamas.”
Yagur noted that there is an “intolerable gap” between Israel’s “perception of reality (which is mixed with a dash of wishful thinking) and the reality itself on the ground.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
I’d say Israel’s perception is heavily distorted by its own hasbara – propaganda’s a dangerous tool, and particularly dangerous to the user when the user starts to believe it themselves. Judging from the headlines in J’Post, the IDF started this “war” believing everything they told themselves, and are likely to end this “war” – and themselves – still believing the rubbish they spouted.