When the history of this war is written, it will be remembered that the Palestinian winning strategy has been predicated on simple but effective logic.
Since the start of the war, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas, and other resistance groups, have made their top priority the targeting of as many Israeli military vehicles in Gaza as possible.
The military logic of this strategy is obvious but it is even more relevant in the case of the Israeli army.
For decades, the Israeli army has used its fortified military vehicles as the first line of defense to crush any Palestinian resistance. Only then, Israeli soldiers come out of these vehicles to manage the areas that they occupy.
The Palestinian strategy, this time, was different: make it impossible for the Israelis to step out of their military vehicles by targeting them using homemade shells known as Yassin-105 plus others.
When the history of this war is written, it will be remembered that the Palestinian winning strategy has been predicated on simple but effective logic.
A perfect case in point was the latest video released by the Al-Qassam Brigades on Friday. It was nearly three and a half minutes of constant targeting and blowing up of Israeli Merkava tanks and military bulldozers. Some of them were hit directly, thus were blown up with a massive explosion.
But even those that were partially damaged were no longer able to proceed in whatever mission they were entrusted with in the east Deir Al-Balah governorate in central Gaza.
It would not be an exaggeration to argue that the reason why Israel retreated from Deir Al-Balah is directly related to the particular events preceding the production of this video.
This also confirms a repeated line of analysis used by Palestine Chronicle editors, arguing that the Palestinian Resistance is using a hybrid strategy, between traditional warfare – a war of position – and guerilla tactics, as a war of maneuver, hit and run.
In other words, Palestinian Resistance in Gaza operates based on certain lines of defense that cannot be crossed at any cost, as the latest video demonstrates.
Below are the latest statements by the two main Resistance forces in Gaza, and the Lebanese Resistance Movement Hezbollah.
The statements were communicated via their Telegram channels and are published here in their original form.
In this video, Al-Qassam fighters are seen invading enemy forces east of Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza.. pic.twitter.com/3yE3gY1QZR
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) June 7, 2024
Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas)
“Al-Qassam fighters were able to target a home inside which a Zionist force was holed up using a TBG shell, leaving them dead and wounded.
“Helicopters were observed landing to evacuate them east of the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central of the Gaza Strip.
“Al-Qassam Brigades target a Zionist Merkava 4 tank with an Al-Yassin 105 shell near the Awadallah junction in Yabna camp in the city of Rafah in the southern Strip.
“Watch: From the engagement of Al-Qassam fighters with the invading enemy forces east of Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza Strip.”
Al-Quds Brigades (Islamic Jihad)
“We bombed the headquarters of the enemy’s Gaza Division at the Re’im site with a rocket barrage.
“In an artillery entrenchment operation and after field monitoring, we targeted the vehicles infiltrating the Palestinian-Egyptian border west of Rafah with a barrage of heavy-caliber mortar shells.
“We bombed a position of Zionist enemy soldiers on the supply line on the Netzarim axis south of Tal Al-Hawa west of Gaza City with mortar shells.”
Hezbollah
“The fighters of the Islamic Resistance, on the afternoon of Friday, 07/06/2024, targeted the Israeli enemy’s artillery positions in Khirbet Ma’ar and a deployment of soldiers in the surrounding area with artillery shells.
“The fighters of the Islamic Resistance targeted, on Friday afternoon 7-6-2024, a military vehicle inside the Birkat Risha site with a guided missile, hitting it directly.
“The fighters of the Islamic Resistance, at 08:34 PM on Friday, 07-06-2024, targeted a deployment of enemy Israeli soldiers in the Netua forest with rocket weapons.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
I remember reading some books on warfare during the late 70s, in which the Merkava was praised to the sky. I think future historians will point to this Pogrom against Gazans as the time and place when the Merkava lost its air of invincibility.