Carving Gaza

Ralph Peters:

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Torn between the need to "beat the clock" and the competing requirement to operate methodically and minimize casualties, the Israel Defense Forces staff designed a multiphased ground operation in which success will build on success. The move into northern Gaza over the weekend followed at least three, and possibly four, concentric axes of advance, cutting off the local Hamas forces.

The initial mission for Phase One was to envelop Gaza City and its satellite towns, then encircle the Jabalya refugee camp - a key base for Hamas. The north was the obvious first target, since it's been the prime launching area for terror rockets.

The IDF wanted to avoid biting off too much at once, so its planners chose a classic carve-up-the-pie technique, chewing one slice of Gaza before taking on the next helping. This isn't so much a piecemeal approach as a methodical one, letting the IDF concentrate resources in one zone at a time. The inherent weakness? Such an approach - cleaning out the terrorists bit by bit - is slow and grinding.

There's going to be ugly fighting ahead, as the terrorists set layers of ambushes while using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas will strive to bog down the IDF, which needs to maintain battlefield momentum - a challenge in any urban environment. (And let's be absolutely clear: Except for dead Jews, there's nothing Hamas leaders like better than dead Palestinian women and children, since the global media's appetite for dead kids verges on necrophilia.)

After cleaning out the first cluster of objectives, the IDF can push southward into central Gaza. Such a move to the south would be complemented by another flank attack into Gaza from Israeli territory, creating a series of hammer-and-anvil traps for Hamas gunmen.

Alternatively, the IDF could "bookend" Gaza by striking next at the strip's southern end, but Israel may have cut a deal to create an Egyptian zone of influence below Khan Younis. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, there's grueling, bloody fighting awaiting Israeli soldiers constrained by the laws of war and civilized standards, while facing opponents who revel in atrocities.

Fighting in dense slums and clearing high-rise buildings is just about the toughest work an infantryman can do. Effective combined-arms tactics - the infantry, tanks, engineers, artillery and special operators working together - reduce the risks somewhat, but, in the end, an infantry squad has to clear that basement or gauge the level of risk behind the apartment door. (Is there a booby trap, an ambush - or a family?)

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Peters gives a nice summary of the IDF operations tod date and what they have left to do. He also makes clear the importance of destroying Hamas and ignoring the media and the international peace mongers. By allowing Israel to end, there will be less war and killing in the Middle East.