The renewed Israeli offensive on the Rafah strip in southern Gaza has been going on for several days now. Judging from a series of war reports released by the Israeli Ministry of Defense after the start of the operation, the Israeli army has made some progress in Rafah.
Israeli armoured units occupy the Rafah border crossing
The most striking of these results, and certainly what the Israeli authorities have been trying to achieve, is the armed blockade of the Egyptian border crossing to the Rafah side. A large number of Israeli armored units lined up in long formations near the border crossing and shut them down, which means that the only way for the outside world to enter Rafah by land has been completely cut off by the Israeli army.
This is undoubtedly an aggravation of the suffering of the people of Gaza, who have suffered a humanitarian catastrophe for more than half a year. As a result of the large-scale Israeli offensive launched earlier in Gaza, most of the civilian areas of Gaza have been largely destroyed, resulting in the deaths of as many as 34,904 Palestinians and the wounding of 78,514 as of the beginning of this month.
Rafah Belt refugee camp
A large number of the surviving Gazan population have been reduced to war refugees and displaced by the destruction of their homes and severe shortages of subsistence supplies, and have been forced to move to southern Gaza, the only area of Rafah that has not yet been ravaged by the fighting.
Currently, as many as 1.4 million Palestine refugees are gathered in Rafah alone. The Israeli army's aggression did not care for the lives of the 1.4 million refugees and blocked the last border crossing for life-saving supplies, further exacerbating the already serious humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
In the early days of the Israeli offensive, however, the Israeli army did not face the same heavy fighting as it had in northern Gaza and Khan Younis in the center. The Palestinian resistance organization led by Hamas, which originally insisted on resisting and fighting the Israeli army to the end, did not fight the Israeli army at the first time.
The army marched in an armored column
This shows that the Israeli army's offensive has been unimpeded all the way, swaggering to the border crossing to complete the occupation, and at the same time, it has also raised doubts about whether Hamas still has the strength to fight.
However, just as the Israeli army had just announced that it had achieved an initial victory in Rafah's military operation, Hamas's counterattack suddenly came at this time. According to the latest battle report released by the Qassam Brigades, an armed faction of the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas has just engaged in fierce exchanges of fire with more than one Israeli army unit in Rafah and has achieved quite a lot of results.
Hamas struck decisively
Judging from the content of the battlefield video displayed by Hamas, in the new round of fighting with the Israeli army, Hamas still adopts the same hand-to-hand tactics as before. That is, in the city, especially in the densely built areas, the complex urban warfare environment and the pre-dug underground tunnel fortifications are used to carry out ambushes or surprise attacks on the Israeli army.
Hamas-affiliated armed faction "Qassam Brigades"
The weaponry used by Hamas in this round of counterattacks deserves special attention. In addition to the Yasin-105 rocket-propelled grenade, a familiar homegrown weapon in Gaza, Hamas has also used Chinese-made weaponry such as the Type 56-1 submachine gun and the Type 80 general-purpose machine gun in the fighting.
For example, in a battle footage shown on Hamas video footage, two Hamas fighters, armed with their weapons, covertly infiltrated very close to the Israeli military station.
Chinese-made 56-1 submachine gun (left) and Type 80 general-purpose machine gun (right) in the hands of Hamas fighters
After confirming that there was an Israeli soldier standing guard at each of the two windows on the left and right sides of the building, two Hamas fighters, using the plastic sheeting of the window on their side as a cover, quietly pointed their guns at the two Israeli soldiers in the opposite building and completed the aiming, using Chinese-made Type 56-1 submachine guns and Type 80 general-purpose machine guns.
Subsequently, two Hamas fighters opened heavy fire on the Israeli army, firing a rifle magazine and dozens of machine-gun rounds before quickly withdrawing and immediately moving. The Israeli forces that were attacked suddenly did not even react, failed to launch any effective counter-fire, and were caught off guard and could only watch the two Hamas fighters withdraw and leave.
The Israeli Tigers infantry fighting vehicle was ambushed by Hamas
In other parts of Hamas's video reports, we can still see Israeli armored units swaggering along the unobstructed road, and then Hamas fighters who are ambushed along the road use Yasin-105s to fire and hit.
The infantry of the Israeli army was completely invisible, and the basic tactics of "infantry and tank coordination" were carried out, and the armored vehicles were searched and guarded on the left and right around the armored vehicles to protect the armored vehicles, which were the main technical weapons for attacking the fortifications, which greatly reduced the difficulty of Hamas's ambush.
The Israeli infantry on the other side has the same problem. In Hamas's video war report, Israeli infantry is still running around the streets of urban warfare and swaggering through open areas without the cover of armored vehicles.
Israeli infantry ambushed by Hamas
Hamas will certainly not let go of such a good opportunity to attack, so it sent a sniper team, armed with Hamas's self-made AM-50 "Said" 12.7mm anti-materiel sniper rifle, and hit an Israeli soldier running in the street in the abdomen for the first time from a long distance.
The powerful 12.7 mm bullet burst the spare rifle magazine on the Israeli soldier's body on the spot, causing the ammunition to detonate and shoot out violent fire. The Israeli soldier himself was also pierced through the abdomen by a 12.7-millimeter warhead, and his face struggled to fall in pain.
Israeli soldiers were hit by sniper fire on their spare magazines, causing the ammunition to detonate
It is not difficult to see from the above situation actually displayed in Hamas's latest video war report that after experiencing heavy losses in the previous months of fighting in Gaza, the Israeli army is still "remembering what to eat and not to fight, and not learning a long lesson."
Situations such as "the coordinated tactics of infantry and tanks are about equal to none," "tanks and infantry fight separately and run around on the battlefield without cooperation," and "soldiers stand at the window as targets," and the Israeli army still has problems, and the old problems have not been changed at all.
So far, the Israeli army has serious problems
On the one hand, this shows that the Israeli army not only has extremely poor technical and tactical qualities, but also has a rotten sense of combat and the degree of coordination and cooperation of individual soldiers. At the same time, there are also extremely serious problems in summing up experience after the war and improving tactical tactics to make up for deficiencies and enhance combat effectiveness.
In addition, the problem of a serious disconnect between the Israeli army's armored corps and infantry and the basic absence of coordination between the various arms of the armed forces is directly related to the Israeli army's current abstract establishment of "only tanks and armored vehicles in the armored divisions and only infantry in the infantry divisions."
The armies of the major modern powers follow the concept of "multi-arms coordination and systematic operations" without exception. As far as possible, different functions and different types of arms and equipment should be integrated into the same unit, and a flat unified command should be carried out.
In this way, it is necessary to improve the actual combat effectiveness of the synthetic troops, the adaptability to the complex battlefields, and the independent combat capability of the troops in the modern battlefield environment.
In this regard, China, Russia, and the United States are no exception, and they are all following this direction to build and develop their own modern armies. However, the abstract organization of the Israeli army is more like a retro to the level of the First World War.
In peacetime, there is no multi-service synthesis and reorganization, and only in wartime do armored units and infantry units be integrated together to form battle groups and combat teams of different sizes and put them on the battlefield.
The Israeli Merkava tank destroyed at the beginning of the war
It should be said that it is not surprising that the Israeli army, which has basically not cooperated with the arms of the armed forces on weekdays, has temporarily partnered with each other on the battlefield and performed so poorly, and the infantry and tanks have fought separately and have no cooperation at all. It is even more normal for Hamas to find a weak spot and beat him hard.
As things stand, it is clear that Hamas does not intend to sit idly by and ignore the Israeli forces that are once again sweeping towards Gaza. Allowing the Israeli armoured forces to swagger into Rafah was, to be precise, a reasonable tactical option for Hamas.
Hamas, which has only light infantry units and is severely lacking in advanced anti-armor weapons, would undoubtedly be unwise to go head-to-head with Israeli armored clusters in the open area outside Rafah.
Rafah Strip
Based on the rational tactical planning of "preserving itself and striking at the enemy", Hamas chose to put the Israeli army into a densely built area before fighting, giving full play to its advantages in tunnel warfare and ambushing the Israeli army by surprise.
Inflicting as many casualties as possible on the enemy is the best choice for Hamas, which is bound to resist armed for a long time.
The situation in Israel is not encouraging
On the other hand, according to Israeli media reports, the Israeli 84th "Jivati" Infantry Brigade and the 401st Armored Brigade launched an offensive east of Rafah. The 933rd Nahar Infantry Brigade launched a skirmish south of the Zaitun neighborhood in Gaza City.
However, as mentioned above, the Palestinian resistance groups, led by Hamas, are fighting valiantly, and the Israeli army is currently making unfavorable progress in both directions.
Israeli tanks shelled Rafah refugee camp
Despite the official statements of the Israeli army, only five people have been admitted to have been killed in a single day of fighting. However, various videos and photos taken by the Israeli media and people prove that this is not the case.
Because the fighting on the front line is too fierce, the Israeli army's helicopters transporting the wounded are constantly shuttling back and forth, landing on the roofs of major Israeli hospitals to drop off the wounded, and then taking off urgently to go to the front line to pull the wounded again, and continue to go back and forth.
Israeli helicopters urgently evacuated the wounded
This can only prove that the Israeli army did not actually kill 5 people, but was officially "approved to die" by the Israeli army, and only 5 people were allowed to make public information. For the current Israeli army, the trouble has just begun, as evidenced by the past few months of fighting in Gaza.
Once it enters the in-depth stage of urban warfare, the Israeli army is basically helpless against Hamas, which is moving flexibly and maneuvering. There is no way to effectively confront Hamas, nor to eradicate Hamas's underground tunnel fortifications, so it can only be mired in urban warfare, and it is constantly killed and wounded.
Biden with Netanyahu
Both Israel's enormous internal pressure and Israel's poor external geopolitical situation have doomed the current Israeli authorities to have the only way to go, "persisting in fighting."
Once the war stops, and Israel loses badly without achieving the "complete victory" expected, the reckoning of the war cabinet consisting of Netanyahu, Gallant, and Gantz will inevitably follow. At that point, it will not only be a question of whether Netanyahu's political life can be saved, but also whether his physical life will come to an end.
Some of the content in the article is sourced:
This time, the whole world slapped Israel in the face, and also slapped the United States in the face丨Shangguan News
Israel and Hamas exchange fire in the suburbs of Rafah United Nations warn of humanitarian catastrophe丨Xinhua News Agency International