Why Israel's bombardment of Gaza neighborhood left US officers 'stunned'

Al Jezeera ^ | Mark Perry

[bert]

Analysis: Military sources say Pentagon's assessment of Shujaiya shelling alarmed even Secretary of State John Kerry

August 27, 2014 4:00AM ET by Mark Perry @markperrydc

The cease-fire announced Tuesday between Israel and Palestinian factions — if it holds — will end seven weeks of fighting that killed more than 2,200 Gazans and some 69 Israelis. But as the rival camps seek to put their spin on the outcome, one assessment of Israel’s Gaza operation that won’t be publicized is that of the U.S. military. Still, even though the Pentagon shies away from publicly expressing judgments that might fall afoul of a decidedly pro-Israel Congress, senior U.S. military sources speaking on condition of anonymity offered a scathing assessment of Israeli tactics, particularly in the battle for Shujaiya.

One of the more curious moments in Israel’s Operation Protective Edge came on July 20, when a live microphone at FOX News caught Secretary of State John Kerry commenting sarcastically on Israel’s military action: “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” Kerry said. “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation.”

Rain of high-explosive shells

The secretary of state’s comment followed the heaviest bombardment of the war to that point, as Israeli artillery rained thousands of high-explosive shells into the neighborhood of Shujaiya, a residential area on the eastern edge of Gaza City. A high-ranking U.S. military officer told this reporter that the source of Kerry’s apparent consternation was almost certainly a Pentagon summary report assessing the Israeli barrage, on which the Secretary had been briefed by an aide moments earlier.

According to this senior U.S. officer, who had access to the July 21 Pentagon summary of the previous 24 hours of Israeli operations, the internal report showed that 11 Israeli artillery battalions —a minimum of 258 artillery pieces in all, according to this officer’s estimate — had pumped at least 7,000 high explosive shells into the Gaza neighborhood, which included a barrage of some 4,800 shells during the seven-hour period marking the height of the operation. Senior U.S. officers were stunned by the report.

Twice daily throughout the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) operation, a select group of senior U.S. military and intelligence officers at the Pentagon received a lengthy written summary of Israeli military action in Gaza. The reports — compiled from information gleaned from open sources, Israeli military officers with whom U.S. officials speak and satellite images — offered a detailed assessment of Israel’s battlefield tactics and the performance of its weaponry, a considerable portion of it supplied by the United States.

Although these reports shy away from offering political judgments on the operation, a number of senior U.S. military officers who spoke about the contents of those daily reports with this reporter were highly critical of some of the IDF’s tactics, particularly in the Israeli ground invasion of Shujaiya. An official spokesman at the Pentagon declined to comment on the contents of this article.

On July 16, the IDF had dropped leaflets into Shujaiya, warning residents of an imminent Israeli attack and urging them to evacuate the area. The next day, after a short artillery preparation, three IDF units, led by the Golani Brigade, began a ground assault into the neighborhood to destroy Hamas bunkers and break up Hamas formations.

'Take off the gloves'

The incursion went well at first, with Golani soldiers meeting little resistance. But by late on Saturday afternoon, July 19, forward elements of the brigade were running head on into well-organized Hamas units, and some IDF formations were pinned down in vicious house-to-house fighting in Shujaiya’s streets and alleys. What had been envisaged as “a limited ground operation” was not going as planned, with Hamas units emerging from tunnels and bunkers in attempts to exploit IDF weaknesses. The Hamas units were well prepared and trained, with their formations hidden so well that Israeli soldiers were rarely able to pinpoint their locations.

“The ground assault was poorly handled into eastern Gaza City,” an Israel civilian advisor to the IDF’s chief of staff told this reporter at the time. “The Hamas fighters showed an unexpected tenacity, and were far more effective against our armored units than we’d anticipated.”

By late Saturday night and into Sunday morning, the fight had devolved into a series of vicious small unit clashes, with IDF squads facing off against Hamas squads, sniper units and teams carrying lethal anti-tank rockets. In one eight-hour period that began during the early hours of Sunday, July 20, the IDF suffered 13 dead, seven of them in an armored personnel carrier that caught fire after a Hamas sapper team detonated an anti-tank mine beneath it. When the IDF moved to retrieve the bodies and the stricken APC, Hamas fighters targeted the rescue vehicles and engaged in running gun battles with IDF combat teams as the rescue convoy retreated.

In the early hours of that Sunday morning, with IDF casualties mounting, IDF tank commanders were directed by their senior officers to “take off the gloves” and “to open fire at anything that moves,” according to reports in the Israeli press.

The three Israeli units assaulting Shujaiya were never in danger of being defeated, but the losses the IDF suffered in the four-day house-to-house battle embarrassed IDF commanders. By the afternoon of Saturday, July 19, even before Israel had suffered most of its casualties, the scale of resistance prompted Israeli battlefield commanders to blanket Shujaiya with high-explosive artillery rounds, rockets fired from helicopters and bombs dropped by F-16s. The decision was confirmed at the highest levels of the IDF.

By Sunday night, Palestinian officials were denouncing the bombardment of Shujaiya as a “massacre” while international pressure mounted on the Israeli government to explain the heavy casualty toll being inflicted on Gaza civilians. The IDF told the press that Shujaiya had been a “fortress for Hamas terrorists” and reiterated that while Israel had “warned civilians” to evacuate, “Hamas ordered them to stay. Hamas put them in the line of fire.”

The only possible reason for doing that is to kill a lot of people in as short a period of time as possible. ... It’s not mowing the lawn, it’s removing the topsoil. Senior officer U.S. military Kerry’s hot-microphone comments reflect the shock among U.S. observers at the scale and lethality of the Israeli bombardment.

“Eleven battalions of IDF artillery is equivalent to the artillery we deploy to support two divisions of U.S. infantry,” a senior Pentagon officer with access to the daily briefings told me. “That’s a massive amount of firepower and it’s absolutely deadly.” But another officer, a retired artillery commander who served in Iraq, says the Pentagon’s assessment might well have underestimated the firepower the IDF brought to bear on Shujaiya. “This is the equivalent of the artillery we deploy to support a full corps,” he said. “It’s just a huge number of weapons.”

Artillery pieces used during the operation included a mix of Soltam M71 guns and U.S.-manufactured Paladin M109s (a 155 mm howitzer), each of which fires three shells per minute. “The only possible reason for doing that is to kill a lot of people in as short a period of time as possible,” said the senior U.S. military officer who spoke with me about the report. “It’s not mowing the lawn,” he added, referring to a popular IDF term for periodic military operations against Hamas in Gaza. “It’s removing the topsoil.”

“Holy Bejesus,” exclaimed retired Lt. General Robert Gard when told the numbers of artillery pieces and rounds fired during the July 21 action. “That rate of fire over that period of time is astonishing. If the figures are even half right, Israel’s response was absolutely disproportionate.” A West Point graduate, who is veteran of two wars and now the Chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Gard added that even if Israeli artillery units fired guided munitions, it would have made little difference.

Even the most sophisticated munitions have a circular area of probability, Gard explained, according to which a certain percentage of shells sometimes land dozens or even hundreds of feet from intended targets. Highly trained artillery commanders know this, and compensate for their misses by firing more shells. So, if even 10 percent of the shells fired at combatants in Shujaiya landed close to, but not directly on top of their targets — a higher than average rate of accuracy — that would have meant at least 700 lethal shells landing among the civilian population of Shujaiya during the night of July 20 into June 21. And the kill radius of even the most precisely targeted 155 mm shell is 164 feet. Put another way, as Gard said, “precision weapons aren’t all that precise.”

Senior U.S. officers who are familiar with the battle and Israeli artillery operations, which are modeled on U.S. doctrine, assessed that, based on the rate of artillery fire into Shujaiya overnight Sunday, IDF commanders weren’t precisely targeting Palestinian military formations, as much as laying down an indiscriminate barrage aimed at “cratering” the neighborhood. The cratering operation was designed to collapse the Hamas tunnels discovered when IDF ground units came under fire in the neighborhood. Initially, said the senior U.S. military officer who spoke with me about the military summaries of IDF operations, Israel’s artillery had used “suppressing fire to protect their forward units, but then poured in everything they had — in a kind of walking barrage. Suppressing fire is perfectly defensible — a walking barrage isn’t.”

The Israelis’ own defense of their action reinforced the belief among some senior U.S. officers that artillery fire into Shujaiya had been indiscriminate. That’s because the Israelis explained the civilian casualty toll on the basis that the neighborhood’s non-combatant population had been used as “human shields” because they had been “ordered to stay” in their homes by Hamas after the IDF had warned them to leave.

“Listen, we know what it’s like to kill civilians in war,” said the senior U.S. officer. “Hell, we even put it on the front pages. We call it collateral damage. We absolutely try to minimize it, because we know it turns people against you. Killing civilians is a sure prescription for defeat. But that’s not what the IDF did in Shujaiya on July 21. Human shields? C’mon, just own up to it.”

[CondorFlight]

“had pumped at least 7,000 high explosive shells”

And if they didn’t kill at least 7000 people, then that firing
was obviously either very incompetent or it wasn’t aimed at killing people (but maybe at making “noise” to force them to withdraw).

When the Russians went into Chechnya they fire 8000 shells and rockets per hour into a city and killed 25,000 civilians.

If Israel didn’t achieve similar results, then obviously they weren’t trying to do so.

[Paine in the Neck]

Military sources say Pentagon's assessment of Shujaiya shelling alarmed even Secretary of State John Kerry

The violence of a kitten fight would alarm John Kerry.

[nuke rocketeer]

Israel’s response was absolutely disproportionate.”

I call BS on that. There is no such thing as "disproportionate" in war. You go in to kill your enemy. That's like stating the amphibious invasions of Normandy and Iwo Jima were "disproportionate" because the Army/Navy/Marines had battleships/cruisers/destroyers doing artillery support and had more troops/tanks than the Germans/Japanese defenders had.

BTW....a LOT of French civilians were killed at Normandy.

[Zhang Fei]

Anonymous is the twin brother of Fictitious. I’m supposed to believe that Al Jezeera doesn’t make crap up?

They tend to quote a lot of left-wing sources. Some of the guys quote head up left-wing think tanks.

[Netz]

Good point:

Force Hamas to fear its own population, that is the beginning of the end of a guerrilla operation.

The ONLY reason the HAMAS folks are a wee bit scared is that they can't pay their 40,000 Public Servants (Army, Police, Militias and facilitators for Terror) and are afraid of a coup.
The summary executing 20 residents (or more) by claiming that they aided the Israelis is not going to help their cause in the long run.

[bert]

You have stated the party line but......

The article was written to describe the engagement in detail describing the amount of death and destruction in the total battle. The piece describes in detail how Hamas was severely defeated in mass.

So far as I know there is no other article describing how the IDF found and then destroyed a massed Hamas force. The idea of a massed Hamas force is seldom expressed because Hamas doesn’t mass its forces.

If the intent was to defame the IDF, describing the win and how it was accomplished in detail the author did a poor job.

[ThunderSleeps]

You're right, the objective is to kill the enemy. Or at least render them combat in-effective. I read this as the IDF found a high concentration of Hamas fighters in the area. The best way to kill ground troops wholesale is with artillery, suddenly and violently. Typically it only takes seconds to find some cover, and a couple of minutes to find good cover. Firing a lot of rounds from a few guns would take time. That time would allow Hamas fighters that were out preparing to engage ground forces time to reach good cover. Using a lot of guns to fire the mission in a short amount of time increases the likelihood of catching them in the open.

Military sources say Pentagon's assessment of Shujaiya shelling alarmed even Secretary of State John Kerry

I think a couple of kids with cap pistols could alarm Kerry.

[captain_dave]

They’re supposedly amazed at the amount of artillery used, 11 battalions. Equivalent to that used by two manouver divisions. So what? Since when is using overwhelming strengh a bad idea. Besides, the IDF had to cover a large area. Also, by using so many guns, they’re able to keep all the crews well trained without wasting ammo at the range.

Kerry is such f&@%ing fool.

[Jack Hydrazine]

How can Hamas fear its own op when 75% or more of Palies are for destroying Israel?

[Jack Hydrazine]

“Hamas merely taunts them.”

Like the way Brown taunted Officer Wilson?

[DManA]

People keep wondering why the left keeps partnering with islamists but it’s really simple.

The enemy [islamists] of my enemy [Western Civilization] is my friend.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Just another anti-Semitic hit piece on Israel.

[Jeff Head]

The IDF warned the citizens that they were going to attack...which means they also warned the enemy.

When Israeli forces ran into have resistance, losing numerous of their own personnel, they eliminated the threat.

I am sad that innocent civilians were caught up in it, but that is either because:

1) They chose to stay after being warned, or,
2) They were forced to stay by Hamas fighters.

I am willing to bet that it is a lot more of the latter.

Israel is fighting craven animals with no regard for human life. I not only support their methods...I applaud them.

They need to do as much damage to Hamas as possible, eradicating them completely if possible.

Almost everyone of the people quoted in this hit piece were not there, and are relying on written reports, which themselves most probably carry some bias.

So what that Israel had that amount of firepower at their disposal? I for one m glad they did. It allows them, when faced with heavy resistance, to bring maximum fire power to bear.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Everybody is going to be stunned how Israel acts if a war gets really hot in the region.

[Wyatt's Torch]

“If the figures are even half right, Israel’s response was absolutely disproportionate.”

Who gives a shit? Since when is war “proportional”? What is “proportional” to evil? This is such a lazy argument. None of these jokers would have had the temerity to do what was done in World War II.

[bert]

-—— innocent civilians-—

If they were there, they were neither innocent nor civilans

[armydawg505]

Why are they “stunned”? What is it about Israel that made them think they were not in this for keeps? Maybe our military has become such a puppet for Obama that firing for effect is a forgotten art in the US military?

[nathanbedford]

By energizing the 25%.

No one is more condemning of Islam that I am but only a fool will deny that the war on terrorism (now belatedly coming to be understood to be an existential war against militant Islam) will only be won by rational Muslims defeating the crazed Muslims not for love of Israelis, Americans, Western civilization or even basic human values but for their own survival.

I do not like the odds of making war against 1.6 billion Muslims, especially as a Western society incapable of accepting casualties. Let the Muslims sort each other out. Let us be wise as were the British in India when Clive conquered the subcontinent with about 900 Brits or as wise as Cortez who conquered millions of Mexicans with a few conquistadores and their horses.

Set one tribe against another, use their ideology against them, avoid fighting their war.

[Jeff Head]

I have no doubt that Hamas would force, at the point of a gun, its own civilians to remain in a combat area so they could die and be blamed on Israel. It is one of their documented strategies.

That’s the type of animals Israel is fighting...and so are we. It just hasn’t come home here yet like it has in Israel. But they want it to, my FRiend.

[EQAndyBuzz]

I quit reading after it said Al Jazeera.