The Israeli military is among the best trained in the world in this type of combat. But even the best training is only a simulation of the difficulties on the ground.
(DW) For two decades now, the Israeli military has been training for urban warfare in an area just an hour’s drive from the Gaza Strip: the military training center near the Tse’elim kibbutz, nicknamed Baladia, or “city” in Arabic.
Satellite photos show white molded concrete buildings similar to those in the Gaza Strip, in a densely built-up area. There is a mosque, a hospital and a fully furnished residence. The walls have graffiti against Israel.
Israel built this artificial training city in the desert in 2004 with the help of the US military. American marines and UN peacekeepers were trained there. The Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) also trained infantry forces there.
The Israelis are considered one of the best-trained armed forces in the world in urban warfare. “They are very well prepared forces, the best in the world at it,” says military expert Frank Ledwidge, from the University of Portsmouth in the UK.
Difficulties on the ground
But the training sessions are only a simulation of the reality that the Israeli Armed Forces will have to face in the coming days, if the ground offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip really gets underway.
“You can train, but that doesn’t mean you can avoid all losses on your own side and on the other side. I think you learn that exactly that is not possible,” comments expert Christian Mölling of the German Council on Foreign Relations.
He points out that in Gaza it is very difficult to distinguish a Hamas fighter from a civilian. The radical Islamist group’s tunnel system, which covers almost the entire Gaza Strip, makes things even more difficult. The Palestinian group is classified as a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union, including Germany.
Over the last two decades, Hamas terrorists have continued to expand their complex tunnel system, which is now 500 kilometers long. The depth reaches up to 30 meters and, at some points, there is room for cars.
How to locate terrorist leaders?
The Israeli army has discovered trapdoors through which Hamas can quickly bring rocket launchers to the surface and make them disappear again after they have been used.
Terrorists can also get out through the trapdoors and then disappear. The Israelis’ electronic reconnaissance equipment is largely useless underground – unless tiny high-tech drones are used to spy on the tunnels.
“The Israeli military will try to locate as much Hamas infrastructure as possible, i.e. bases in its tunnel system and also commanders,” analyzes Mölling.
But in recent years, the terrorist organization has been very successful in protecting its leaders. It is possible, however, that the Israelis received information from agents in the Gaza Strip.
“But then we’re back to the initial problem: knowing where someone is doesn’t mean you can catch them when you have to make your way through practically a barrier of human shields instead of simply shooting,” says Molling.
Impact on public opinion
House-to-house urban warfare has always been considered the most dangerous and loss-making operation in a war, as hundreds of thousands of civilians are defenseless in the face of violence. “Soldiers have to make decisions in seconds or even milliseconds. And in doing so, they make mistakes. There’s no avoiding that,” says the German expert.
American urban warfare expert John Spencer points out that a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip could have political consequences for Israel. “The human shields and the hostages make the procedure very difficult,” commented Spencer, who teaches at the US Military Academy at West Point, in an interview with the German news site Spiegel Online.
“Their fate will have a strong impact on how the international community views the operation,” said the former US major.
If the offensive takes place, Spencer assumes it will be a fight “block by block, house by house, tunnel by tunnel”. He says he can’t remember a war “with so many hostages used as protective shields, as bargaining chips or as tactical means”.
The war that threatens Gaza can be compared to the fighting in the city of Mariupol, in southern Ukraine, in 2022, or to the battle for Mosul between the Iraqi Armed Forces and the Islamic State terrorist group in 2016 and 2017.
In Gaza, in addition to the fighting itself, there is a war of images: to what extent will Israel be able to prevent the deaths of innocent people, including almost 200 Israeli and other hostages at the hands of Hamas?