A militant from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Posted on 07/01/2006 8:10:41 PM PDT by familyop
Palestinian militants preparing for an expected Israeli armoured assault on Gaza have vowed to deploy suicide bombers against advancing tanks and armoured personnel carriers.
Militant leaders are activating volunteers who have lain dormant because security measures make it all but impossible for Palestinian bombers to attack Israel from fenced-off Gaza. Only a handful of suicide bombers have emerged from Gaza, including a British national who exploded a bomb outside a bar in Tel Aviv in April 2003, killing three.
A militant from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
But in the warren of streets just off the main north-south road through Gaza, a squad of young men once willing to die as "human bombs" are now preparing to die as human anti-tank mines.
"We had a queue of volunteers so long we could not use them," said a leader of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, who goes by his nom de guerre, Abu Jendal. "Now we are planning to attack tanks with our bodies. It is an effective means of resistance."
The suicide corps is from Gaza's second biggest city, Khan Younis, where, Israeli intelligence believes, Corporal Gilad Shalit, the soldier kidnapped last weekend, is being held by an alliance of Palestinian groups. Cpl Shalit, himself a tank gunner, was captured on Sunday morning in a well-planned raid that killed two other Israeli soldiers and humiliated an army used to enjoying total military supremacy in the conflict with the Palestinians. Yesterday, it emerged that he had been treated by a Palestinian doctor for three wounds sustained in the raid.
Abu Jendal is al-Aqsa's commander in Khan Younis and, though he says he knows nothing of the whereabouts of Cpl Shalit, mobile phones and radios used by him and his associates buzz with reports from fellow militants.
Unstrapping his pistol and throwing it on a pile of camouflaged uniforms in an upstairs room in Khan Younis, he recalled dispatching a woman who blew herself up at a border checkpoint between Israel and Gaza in 2004, killing four. Suicide belts and improvised rocket-propelled grenades were close at hand, he said.
Three times, he said, he had escaped Israeli assassination attempts, including an airstrike this year on an al-Aqsa's "control room". "I stepped out to get a glass of tea," he said. "Then the missiles hit. I was saved by tea."
But while militants such as Abu Jendal have been buoyed by their success in last -Sunday's raid into Israel, few have any illusions about the battle that they assume is just days, if not hours, away.
"We are not fools," he said. "We know they are strong. But they know that if they leave their tanks they will be shot. So we will strike the weak points of tank on foot, wearing suicide belts, and with explosives buried in the sand, to force them out."
Their favoured battlefield will be the twisting alleyways of refugee camps across Gaza, where Israeli tanks have little room for manoeuvre. Until yesterday, however, those tanks remained stationed at either end of Gaza, awaiting orders to roll in, as rumours abounded that Egyptian mediators had made a breakthrough and that Cpl Shalit was to be freed.
Middle East factfile
But then those holding him announced the terms of any deal - including the release of women and children and 1,000 other Arab prisoners.
Israel, which has vowed not to barter for Cpl Shalit's release, dismissed the offer, raising expectations that it would begin its armoured push at the end of the Jewish Sabbath yesterday evening.
Even before the land campaign, Gazans have been feeling the pinch from -Israel's air and artillery assault. A missile strike on Gaza's power station has proved a critical blow on a territory where electricity is key to basic needs.
While Gaza can get by -without air-conditioning, it cannot live without water, which is supplied from wells that rely on electric pumps.
Fuel to run emergency generators is also running low, as Israel imposes a total blockade on Gaza. It has refused to allow the Red Cross to deliver emergency shipments of fuel and medical supplies.
While Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, has repeatedly stated this week that his government has "no interest to harm the Palestinian people", few in Gaza see what military benefit Israel derives from inflicting power shortages or ear-splitting sonic booms upon them.
But for Mr Olmert, a leader without strong army credentials, those considerations are outweighed by the need to appear tough and to end the barrage of home-made missiles launched at southern Israeli towns.
Nor are they the principal worry of Abu Jendal.
"It's not easy choosing a suicide bomber," he said. "We don't want those who are angry or desperate but those who are convinced of the principle of sacrificing themselves. If I just followed the emotions of young men, I would be sending in dozens. We want an effective result."
The Israeli tanks have an additional little innovation that the Palis really don't like much.
The Israeli Merkavas bring along their own indirect fire support in the form of an internal 60mm mortar in the turret. Imagine, if you will, the look on the Palis' faces when they discover the anti-personnel cluster warheads that those things can launch *over* their barricades.
Good point and one that should be made by Israel.
They should publish the names of civilians who were killed by suicide bombs as collateral damage for the "crime" of going about their daily lives.
Since each word of what Israel says is being printed now, they should use this opportunity to remind the world of what using restraint has cost them in the past.
Don't bust too hard on cats around here. It could get you the zot.
I agree. But blowing the thread or blowing the tank is the same. One less tank in action. 100 kilo HE in an IED on the side of a road takes out the tank. Remember there is a human crew in the steel shell.
In Anti-Tank Warfare never forget the human element.
They're like killer bees. I say just gas'em.
Peace Brother FreePer. I was only the engineer on site.
I didn't hit the starter button.
(We used a steam cleaner to remove "Tabby" from the radiator and sourrounding envions.)
Odd that these are still called refugee camps after 58 years.
If the suicide bomber is really, really, really lucky, he might cause the tank to throw a track....
So the obvious question for the Pali Pancake Squad is this: Do you feel lucky?
Except that now, unlike in the Korean War, the tank has a lot more options. Disabling a modern MBT is unlikely to injure the crew, and MBTs don't ever operate alone any more. All that has to happen is that the area is secured and a tank recovery vehicle can retrieve it. Or it can be towed home by another tank - especially in urban warfare against a guerrila type enemy.
Some guerrila warfare experts recommend that the guerrilas NOT attempt to blow the tracks off a modern MBT, because then you just sited a hostile pillbox with some of the best armor known to man as well as some of the best armament in the world *right in your backyard*.
He's a Palistinian. By definition, they're not lucky as a whole.
What is that?
It would seem to me that this would be a situation that
cries out for airpower. CBU clusters, Napalm, gunships,
it's time to stop playing at war.
i'd say to snatch their women and children and strap them onto the outside of the Merks... but the GoatHumpers would prolly figure its killing like two birds with one stone.
A disabled MBT is just that. The idea in Antitank Warfare
is to take out a MBT. If it has to be towed by another MBT the miner has done a twofer!
Infantry is tied up securing the area even if a recovery vehicle is used, a further plus.
I totally understand team concept but a 100 kilo IED will take out a MBT. I bet those "experts" would not want to be in a steel pillbox sitting in the middle of urban warfare.
See Comment #37
This is not the way to think about them. Terrorists are human. They had the choice to be good people. THEY CHOSE EVIL. They are still human. I think it's wrong to call anyone not human. We don't need to dehumanize terrorists to capture and kill them. We do so because they brought us to war and they are our enemy and they must be stopped from their evil.
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