How Israel's tanks swooped on Gaza in lightning raid on Hamas: Heavy duty bulldozers and APCs lead the charge smashing through border defences in 'targeted' night attack ahead of IDF's major ground assault
By Elizabeth Haigh and Jack Hardy
Daily Mail
Oct 26, 2023
Ahead of a suspected imminent ground incursion by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), soldiers burst through border walls separating the Gaza Strip from Israel using armoured bulldozers before claiming to have taken out military targets.
The IDF said it suffered no casualties in the operation to 'prepare the battlefield' after a brutal, fortnight-long siege on the Palestinian territory.
Grainy footage shared on social media showed armoured vehicles crossing the highly fortified barrier from Israel and blowing up buildings 'in preparation for the next stages of combat'.
'Tanks and infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts,' the IDF said.
It represented the most significant escalation of Israeli force since Hamas's bloody rampage across southern Israel saw 1,400 civilians murdered and more than 200 kidnapped.
Leading the push into Gaza territory on Wednesday night was the 'Doobie' - a type of armoured bulldozer that boasts bulletproof windows and metal slats which deflect RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades).
The bulldozers, named after the Hebrew for teddy bear, are designed to burst through obstacles such as border fences and walls in order to pave the way for soldiers and other armoured vehicles.
Also seen in footage of the assault were 50-tonne Namer armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and columns of Merkava tanks.
The tanks can carry up to ten people - four crew and six passengers - and weigh 65 tonnes each.
Last night tanks broke through the northern Gaza border and headed southwards, in a possible rehearsal of a future full-scale invasion.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli troops were still preparing for a full ground invasion, while the US urged Israel to delay, fearing it could ignite hostilities on other Middle East fronts.
Palestinians said Israeli air strikes pounded the territory again on Thursday evening and people in central Gaza reported intensive tank shelling.
Israel's defence minister said his country would invade Gaza when the 'conditions are right'. 'The day it will come is not far off... the manoeuvre will start when conditions are right,' Yoav Gallant said. He added that Israel had no interest in war with any other foe than Hamas.
'We are waging war on the southern front against Hamas, prepared for any development in the north, Hezbollah is suffering a lot of losses.
People search for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip
Smoke and fire rise from buildings as people gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on October 26
'However, we have no interest in expanding the war,' he said.
Dozens of suspected Hamas terror operatives have been arrested by the IDF in a series of raids in the West Bank.
IDF officers have detained 1,000 Palestinians since October 7, around 660 of whom are thought to be affiliated with Hamas.
The force said it detained 46 suspected Hamas members during the overnight raids on Wednesday. There has been increased violence between IDF forces and Palestinians in the West Bank since the Hamas attacks of October 7.
A ground offensive on the densely populated, 25 mile-long slither of land which makes up the Gaza Strip is seen as necessary by Israel to achieve its aim of crushing the terror group, which has ruled since 2007.
Wednesday's overnight raid was conducted in parallel with an intensified bombing campaign by the Israeli air force on 250 Hamas targets.
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) later published footage it claimed showed its fighter jets carrying out a 'precise air strike' which eliminated the commander of Hamas's Northern Khan Yunis rocket firing capability, Hassan Al-Abdullah.
Philip Ingram, a former British Army intelligence officer, told the Mail that Israel's incursion would have been an attempt to trigger Hamas defences and see where potential ambushes could lie.
He said: 'It's what is called shaping the battlespace. They're putting small forces in to improve their understanding of what defences Hamas have got in place to try to pinpoint potential sniper and ambush locations.
'They will try to look at where there might be entrances to the tunnel system that Hamas could pop up from, that they would have to deal with very quickly.
'You'll find in the coming days, there will be an increase in volume of these at different places across the border, into the Gaza Strip, before they then put a slightly larger force through that will set up a bridgehead which will then be used to launch their main efforts.'
He added that Hamas has had more than 12 months to prepare for a potential ground invasion so Israel will be aware that it is going into 'effectively a pre-prepared live ambush situation'.
Benny Gantz, a retired general and a member of Israel's war cabinet, said any possible ground offensive would be only 'one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that would take many years'.
'The campaign will soon ramp up with greater force,' he added.
1 comment:
Don't see a lot of dozers with machine guns mounted on them around here.
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