Israel launched its Gaza ground operation cautiously in the South. Hamas runs to shelter in crowded towns

The first hours of Israel’s Operation Defensive Edge ground phase against Hamas were marked by heavy artillery and air pounding to soften up the terrain as the ground forces went in Thursday night, July 17. The troops advanced in two heads – one north to Jebalya and Beit Lahiya and the other south, where it went into action initially against Khan Younes and Rafah. The IDF took its first casualty before dawn Friday: Sgt. Eytan Barak, 20, from Herzliya, who served in the Nahal Division
In its current phase, the IDF ground operation is focusing on southern Gaza, with the potential for expanding into further areas, as and when the government decides, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz told the special cabinet session Friday.

The densely populated Gaza City has not been broached as yet.

debkafile’s military experts maintain that the first 48 hours of a war are often critical for determining its outcome. If a tactical gain is not achieved early on and a psychological blow not inflicted on the enemy, the operation tends to start losing traction by the third and fourth days.
That is why it is so important to hit the teeming Gaza City without delay, because Hamas has buried its core infrastructure under the crowded town center: Housed in a fortified bunker complex are its command and control, its communications systems and its longest-range weapons, which are held ready to strike after an Israeli invasion.
Bringing a small special operations force close enough to the Hamas stronghold would be useful for making the enemy feel threatened. But most importantly, it could gather the kind of intelligence which spy satellites and the air force were unable to reach. A small ground force trained in surveillance could pull this data from a point 200-300 meters away from target.

So the IDF has not yet applied the full weight of its might against Hamas. The troop movements in the early hours of the ground operation appeared designed more as a signal to Hamas that the incursion would stop right there, if it accepted a ceasefire on Egyptian and Israeli terms.

This sort of tactic, which was evidently dictated by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, has never worked with Hamas. It has been useful to Israel diplomatically for heading off international and domestic critics, who routinely accuse Israel of the reckless use of its military might.

But for a military offensive, this careful pace will cost the IDF the gains for shortening the war and allow the initiative to slip into the hands of Hamas, which has displayed surprising capabilities.
Both of its commando operations by sea and tunnel went awry. Israel soldiers were waiting and cut them down. The drones they sent were downed by the Israeli Air Force. The hundreds of rockets they fired, as far east as the Jordan Valley and north up Haifa and Nahariya, missed inflicting on Israel major damage or fatalities.

At the same time, the IDF in the first 10 days of Operation Defensive Edge, cannot be said to have pulled off any significant feats or snatched the initiative by means of its air strikes.

Hamas leaders, whom Israel expected to be deterred from continuing their offensive by the sight of the colossal damage caused to the towns of Gaza, misread them. Hamas couldn’t care less about damage to buildings. A check of $25 m from Iran or Qatar would be enough to restore all those buildings in less than a year.

For the Islamists, devastation, fatalities and the ruined lives of so many Palestinians are a cheap price to pay for the satisfaction of showing they can stand up to Israel’s armed forces, day after day, like the Lebanese Hizballah in the second Lebanon War of 2006.

The same misreading applies to Israeli tacticians’ hopes that a slow-moving military campaign will give Hamas time to come to its senses and grasp that its aggression has achieved no more than to bring the IDF down on its head on its own soil, and that intransigence will bring full Israeli might into the heart of Gaza City.

Hamas also misread Israel, when it calculated that the IDF would never send troops into the Gaza Strip. Now, too, the leaders of this radical Palestinian group are counting on Israeli forces not venturing into the densely-populated urban center of Gaza City to beard them in their bunkers and destroy their military machine. If they have got it right, they will have won.


http://debka.com/article/24109/Israel-launched-its-Gaza-ground-operation-cautiously-in-the-South-Hamas-runs-to-shelter-in-crowded-towns

IDF soldier killed, 4 injured in Gaza ground operation

Sgt. Eytan Barak, 20, from Herzliya, member of the Nahal Division, was killed in an engagement in the Gaza Strip, shortly after the IDF ground operation against Hamas was launched Thursday night. His family has been informed.

The cause of his death is under investigation. Four soldiers were injured and three evacuated to hospital. The IDF said 14 armed Palestinians were killed in a number of initial exchanges of fire. Palestinian rocket launchers, tunnels and more than 100 other targets were attacked on the first night.

Rockets fired from Gaza early Friday land in Eshkol, Beersheba

The Eshkol District, Beersheba, Dimona, Kiryat Malachi and Ashdod were the first Hamas rocket targets early Friday, after 40 were fired during Thursday night. There were no casualties.

The Home Command again emphasizes the importance of continuing to comply with its safety directives.

IDF ground troops strike 150 targets in first hours

In the first hours of the IDF ground operation in the Gaza Strip, 17 armed Palestinians were killed and 13 taken into custody in strikes on 150 terrorist targets.

The forces also destroyed 21 buried rocket launching pads and four homes of Palestinian personnel serving Hamas in command and control functions.


Egypt holds Hamas at fault for Israeli invasion

Shortly after the prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced the launch of an Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip Thursday night, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shokri said that Hamas was responsible for what was happening.

He said, “Had Hamas accepted the Egyptian proposal (for a ceasefire) it could have saved the lives of at least 40 Palestinians.” Shokri said that Hamas was at fault for the IDF’s need to enter Gaza in a ground operation.

He accused the Palestinian Islamists of harming not only Palestinian interests but also Egypt’s national security by associating with Turkish steps to undermine Cairo’s efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Chancellor Merkel: Hamas has new weaponry

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday, when asked by reporters about Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip, that it had become clear that the Islamist militant group Hamas was targeting the Jewish state with a "new quality" of weaponry, and that any country that is attacked in such a manner must have the right to defend itself.

Hamas has no one to blame but themselves for the death of these children and women.
Bloody cowards who use women and children as shields in war, meanwhile, the leaders of Hamas are holed up in relative safety (with their own wives and children living in Saudi Arabia)