12/15/2023–|Last updated: 12/15/202305:04 PM (Mecca time)
With the fierce fighting taking place in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation army is suffering heavy losses, and it was announced that the number of its dead as of yesterday, Thursday, had reached 445 soldiers, including 119 officers, meaning that the percentage of officers reached about 27% of the number of soldiers killed.
The ranks of the dead officers were distributed as follows:
- 5 colonels.
- 8 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
- 43 pioneers.
- 41 captain.
- 11 lieutenants.
- 60 of these officers are from elite teams.
But why is this high percentage of officers among the Israeli army killed?
Let’s go back years. The “Gideon” strategy was developed in 2015 under the supervision of former Israeli Defense Minister and current War Council member Benny Gantz, and aims to make the Israeli forces smaller in terms of manpower, but more effective.
Before that, the occupation army had adopted a strategy based on making the army composed of combat units at the brigade level instead of the division, because the army no longer saw that the real threat came from fighting in open areas with the regular forces of countries, as they no longer constituted a threat to Israel, but rather Which classifies armed groups as irregular warfare. The formation of the battle group decreased from the division level to the brigade level.
For example, in 2011, the occupation army began forming a new formation of infantry forces, based on 6 battalions, distributed among the infantry, armored, artillery, and combat engineering categories.
This formation allows the battalion to call in aviation or naval forces for support, while the brigades form command and control centers that communicate with other centers.
This sequence requires the presence of officers on the ground to lead smaller formations in the field, and the goal of this formation is speed of movement and quick decision-making without the need to always return to a central command to make decisions, which may be a reason for the increase in the death rate among officers compared to soldiers.