The Palestinian resistance factions continue to announce targets that cause losses to the occupation army, the latest of which was the Al-Qassam Brigades’ announcement – the day before yesterday, Wednesday – that more than 15 soldiers were killed and wounded east of Rafah, while last Sunday it confirmed the capture, killing, and wounding of soldiers during a complex operation after luring soldiers into a tunnel in a camp. Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, despite 8 months of war, which the Israeli army expected to weaken the resistance.
Despite the occupation army claiming that it was able to study the fighting methods followed by the resistance factions after the killing and wounding of soldiers in the first month of the start of the ground operation on October 27, it returned with “more effective” fighting methods after the truce that ended on December 1. In the past, combined resistance operations continued to inflict military losses on Israel.
Sustainable plans and military industrialization
The advanced military and combat doctrine of the resistance factions takes into account the specificity of the sector, the size of the Israeli threat, and the armament available to it, and therefore it has adopted military plans in this context in a sustainable and organized manner, according to the specialist in military and security affairs, Osama Khaled.
In Rafah (south of the Gaza Strip), east of which the occupation began its military operation on May 7, ignoring international warnings and claiming that military pressure would push the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to agree to its conditions, the resistance announced dozens of operations against the occupation forces, the most prominent of which was the elimination of On the 18th of the same month, 15 soldiers stormed a house in which Israeli soldiers were holed up.
In this regard, it is noteworthy that the Al-Qassam Brigades worked for 50 days to prepare, plan and monitor the implementation of the complex ambush in Al-Zana in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, last April, which led to the death of more than 10 soldiers, after attacking them and detonating a house with explosives in them.
In addition to the military doctrine that made resistance operations continue to inflict losses on Israeli forces, Osama Khaled points out that self-manufacturing in the areas of weapons of all kinds has enhanced the process of combat support for forces in the field, and this manufacturing has been a strategic line adopted by the resistance for 24 years.
Change tactics
Political and strategic affairs researcher Saeed Ziyad explains that the ability of the resistance factions to carry out operations that inflict losses on the Israeli army comes from their ability to change their military tactics, causing the occupation to lose the power of intelligence work, because the information it collects about the fighters and their methods of work quickly changes its facts.
He added that the resistance factions were able to modify their military plans after studying the Israeli army’s tactics and understanding its military style in order to fight more forcefully after the end of the truce. He explained that at the beginning of the ground operation, they relied on dividing the sector into 3 defensive zones, each of which had a special fighting style.
But after the end of the truce, the sector was divided into independent combat spots, so that each spot fought in an independent, centralized manner, and the other spots played a support role only. This is what makes it very difficult for the resistance factions to reach the stage of attrition, and that is what we see in the factions engaging in different operations in each of the areas. Rafah and Jabalia at the same time, according to Ziad.
He continues that the most important advantage of the factions is that they are an irregular army, unlike the Israeli army, which moves heavily as a result of long training. This is what enables it to rapidly develop tactically and adapt to the variables of the battlefield, adding that this advantage became clear with the Al-Qassams carrying out more powerful strikes in the battles of Jabalia and Hay. The second two olive trees are about the two battles in the first months of the military operation.
Complex operations and Israeli cover-up
The change is evident in the resistance’s combat tactics, with its trend towards complex operations and ambushes that killed a large number of soldiers and officers, instead of sporadic strikes.
The Israeli army does not acknowledge the number of dead, according to confirmations from hospitals that announced that they were receiving a larger number of injured people than the army acknowledges, and according to what was also confirmed by Israeli media.
The occupation army announced that 644 soldiers were killed and 3,657 others were injured since the beginning of the war on October 7, of whom 293 were killed and 1,843 were injured during the ongoing ground operation, but the Al-Qassam Brigades said that the number was higher than that.
It is worth noting that the largest percentage of Israeli army deaths reported are officers, which constitutes a loss that will take years to compensate for with military training and experience.
In mid-December, Al-Qassam carried out an ambush in the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza, during which they detonated explosive devices with a group from the Israeli Golani Brigade. The occupation then announced the killing of 6 officers, compared to only 4 soldiers.
Ziad explains that the occupation army has not yet been able to understand the resistance’s methods of operation, so it has not achieved decisive military objectives or protected its soldiers, especially with the factions adopting complex ambushes and targeting a number of occupation teams and not a single faction in the operation, such as the Beit Hanoun operations and the destruction of tanks in Jabalia. .
Morale
While the resistance fighters fight with high morale, which makes it possible for them to carry out complex operations, Israeli soldiers fight with low morale, especially since their community and the families of the prisoners are demanding an end to the war, according to Ziad.
He explains that the Israeli authorities deliberately conceal the true number of injured and dead, in an attempt to manipulate morale in the Israeli army.
For his part, the specialist in military and security affairs, Osama Khaled, confirms that the high morale of the resistance fighters has broken the barrier of fear between them and the occupation tanks, which raises the level of fighting in battles. The Israeli army announced that it lost half the number of tanks it had 10 years ago as a result of battles. Gaza.
