Posted on 02/01/2024 6:45:32 AM PST by SJackson
Colonel Richard Kemp commanded the British troops in Afghanistan. Before that, he saw service in the conflict in Northern Ireland, the Bosnian War, the Gulf War, and the Iraq War. Kemp was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), Military Division, in 1994. He was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery for service as a commander in the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994. He was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), Military Division, in the New Year’s Honours List in 2006.
Kemp has written extensively about the IDF, its achievements in war and the ethos of its soldiers. He has been living in Israel for the last three months, observing the IDF operations in Gaza. His latest report on how the IDF is conducting the war, while minimizing harm as much as possible to civilians, can be found here.
Other than hardened anti-Israel zealots and supporters of Hamas, few have questioned the need for Israel to take military action to defend its citizens after the depredations of Oct. 7. But the Israel Defense Forces have come under intense criticism about the way it is conducting the war in the Gaza Strip, with allegations of excessive force and even indiscriminate attacks. Some former Western military officers have joined the chorus of condemnation, suggesting the IDF should adopt the tactics of coalition forces in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Given the outcomes of both campaigns, perhaps neither provides the ideal template for how jihadists can be defeated.
Amid this growing reproof from afar, I have not yet heard one single realistic proposal for an alternative way of operating that would reduce civilian harm while still achieving the necessary objectives. That tells me that the IDF has no choice but to prosecute this conflict along current lines, despite the terrible loss of civilian life. But given the ill-informed accusations and wide-ranging misunderstanding of how the IDF is actually operating in Gaza, it is worth a closer look at what the IDF has been doing to mitigate harm to civilians.
I have been in Israel since the start of this war in the immediate aftermath of the slaughter, rape, torture and kidnapping spree three months ago. During that time, I have been extensively briefed on the conduct of operations by IDF commanders and staff and visited a wide range of IDF air and ground combat units, including inside the Gaza Strip, on a number of occasions, when I have been able to observe military operations firsthand.
During “Operation Swords of Iron,” the IDF has faced and continues to face one of the most difficult and complex combat environments any armed forces have ever had to deal with. Hamas and its fellow Gaza terrorists has, over several years, been preparing the territory with weapons and ammo caches, booby traps, mines, kill zones, and ambush and sniper positions.
They have an armory that includes sophisticated ground combat systems including thermobaric anti-armor missiles, explosively formed penetrator IEDs, long-range sniper rifles, explosive suicide vests, remote detonation equipment, attack drones, surveillance drones and ground-mounted surveillance cameras. In addition, they have positioned a vast array of mobile rocket launchers that continue to attack Israel’s civilian population, with missile barrages ongoing since the start of the war.
Hamas fighters and their infrastructure are comprehensively embedded in all populated areas of the Gaza Strip, and frequently relocate both above and below ground according to the movements of the IDF and the civilian population. The terrorists have utilized the predominantly urban areas to afford maximum cover and facilitate concealed approach and escape routes.
Hamas has constructed an extensive network of underground tunnels to gain protection for terrorists, to move fighters and equipment, to store weapons, to house command and control facilities, as well as to launch attacks and carry out ambushes. Some of these tunnels have been fitted with heavy blast doors to afford greater protection and frustrate assaulting troops. They are booby-trapped and rigged with explosives, early-warning devices and surveillance cameras. I have been into the tunnels during this conflict and can confirm that this network adds exponentially to the already immense challenges of fighting in urban areas, recognized by military professionals as perhaps the most demanding of all battle environments. Indeed, I am not aware of any comparable purposely built underground complex that any armed forces have had to tackle in any other conflict.
Hamas’s tactics are based on the exploitation of the civilian population of Gaza. Their above-ground infrastructure utilizes protected locations, including a large number of schools, hospitals and mosques for weapons storage, fighting positions, and tunnel access and egress. They have similarly used office and commercial facilities, shops and residential buildings. I have been briefed by combat troops on the ground that in some areas as much as every house and in other areas every other house contains elements of terrorist infrastructure; and I have been shown, for example, children’s bedrooms used to store grenades, anti-tank missiles and other munitions.
It is a standard Hamas tactic for terrorists to move unarmed, in civilian clothing, among the civilian population, collecting weapons stashed in civilian buildings and then carry out attacks against IDF troops. Hamas often compels civilians to remain in positions that the IDF is likely to attack, seeking to either deter an assault or exploit civilian deaths for international propaganda purposes if an attack is carried out. There are examples of Hamas killing civilians who fail to obey.
In addition to all this, Hamas is holding a large number of hostages in the Gaza Strip, which adds significant complications as the IDF seeks to find and rescue them and to avoid inadvertently killing them. Hamas has used the presence of their captives, including simulated and recorded hostage voices and related markings, to lure IDF soldiers into ambushes. Along with the tunnels, this adds yet another unique dimension to this conflict.
This daunting combination of concurrent and conflicting challenges, coupled with the fact that Hamas systematically uses Gazans as human shields, and operates within and beneath civilian infrastructure, means that it is literally not possible to achieve the objectives of defeating Hamas and rescuing the hostages without the tragic consequence of civilian casualties and the regrettable destruction of civilian property from both ground and air. No army in the world would be able to do so, no matter what tactics they employed, and indeed no other army has ever done so in any comparable conflict….
At the rate Hamas is being destroyed, how long before the goal of total eradication is accomplished?
“Indeed, I am not aware of any comparable purposely built underground complex that any armed forces have had to tackle in any other conflict.”
More than a few American veterans if Viet Nam would be more than happy to enlighten you.
L
If a person in Gaza was killed it is because they did not move from the Hamas controlled areas of battle. If they remained, they’re Hamas personnel and subject to being killed.
I know a couple of “rats”.
Ping
Or Hamas wouldn’t let them leave.
Total eradication of Hamas isn’t realistically achievable. I’ve noticed this past week Netanyahu switched his language from achieving total eradication of Hamas to making sure they are no longer a threat.
YWHW is with the IDF, leading them just as he did in the old days.
Count on it. The IDF will not be defeated.And there is simultaneous judgement going on between the righteous and the defiled.Those who survive do so by the Grace of YWHW.
Gaza was a part of the land given to the Israelis by YWHW thousands of years ago. For three thousand years the Jewish people have been relating to YWHW , speaking the same language, Hebrew.NO other people in the world have ever accomplished anything like that.
Once again he walks among us and leads the IDF into battle, vizualize it:
דבר נוסף.
YWHW נמצא עם צה"ל, ומוביל אותם בדיוק כפי שנהג בימים עברו.
תסמוך על זה. צה"ל לא יובס. ויש דין בו-זמנית בין צדיקים לטמאים. השורדים עושים זאת בחסדי יהוה.
עזה הייתה מפלגת הארץ שניתנה לישראל על ידי YWHW לפני אלפי שנים. במשך שלושת אלפים שנה העם היהודי מתייחס ל-YWNW, שואף לאותה שפה, לעברית. אף אדם אחר בעולם לא השיג דבר כזה מעולם.
שוב הוא מסתובב בינינו ומוביל את צה"ל לקרב, ראה אותו.
Israel puts their own people at risk to minimize harm to civilian human shields who probably support Hamas. Israel gets no credit for this, and the media reports fake “genocide” news anyway. So Israel should stop being generous to their enemies.
NVA’s underground complex are primitive and tiny compared to what Hamas has done with UNWRA money and other foreign (Iranian) aid to create an entire underground command and control system, supplies, ammo, barracks.. the works.
There is one comparison- they had tunnels. The US was not hampered by idiotic suggestions we “allow” the combatants of the NVA and VC to continue to live in their tunnels and conduct their guerilla war with zero rules. Veterans of our operations will tell you that.
He basically killed 35,000 (to date) civilians, destroyed the hospitals, schools, churches, mosques, infrastructure, 75% of homes and not much effect (other than increased recruitment) on Hamas. This sure looks like ethnic cleansing to me. The Sinai is more hospitable for humans now than Gaza. The Egyptians just won’t let the cleansed Palestinians be rinsed out into the Sinai. The only way Netanyahu can get Hamas out of Gaza is to ensure there are no Palestinians in Gaza at all.
It definitely can be categorized as ethnic cleansing, calling it genocide seems a bit of a stretch. Sisi doesn’t want the Palestinians in the Sinai for various reasons, one of which is he’s afraid the Palestinians would engage in cross border attacks resulting in Israel attacking them back on Egyptian soil and possibly leading to an Israeli-Egyptian confrontation.
But according to many military analysts the total eradication of Hamas isn’t realistically achievable. The extensive tunnel system makes it nearly impossible to clear out all of them and Israel is experiencing an unacceptable level of casualties and damaged armor attempting to weed them out. The tunnels and rubble in Gaza gives Hamas a distinctive advantage in fighting there.
Netanyahu knew that. This is a battle to rid Gaza of Palestinians.
Oh yeah it’s quite obvious what his intentions were. Like many Israelis I questioned whether he purposely allowed Oct7 to happen in order to give him a reason to ethnically cleanse Gaza and eventually the West Bank. He offered Egypt $20 billion plus to pay off Egypt’s IMF loan if they would take the Palestinians in the Sinai but for various reasons that plan was rejected.
Now you have the Saudis and our other allies in the region demanding the US impose a 2 state solution. Who knows how all this will ultimately play out. I’m more focused on Iran at this point. Biden appears poised to retaliate against them for killing our troops and I’m just hoping we avoid a full scale regional war which wouldn’t be in the interest of either the US or Israel.
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