- Sappers are the soldiers who clear paths through obstacles with machines and explosives, enabling other troops to overwhelm the enemy.
- They also create such obstructions and lay traps and mines when trying to defend a position.
- Some tunnels may also be set as traps to entice Israeli soldiers to enter as they search for hostages.
Urban warfare is excruciatingly slow
- As the war enters a new phase, it is pitting a grimly determined Israeli Defence Force (IDF), with the world’s best capabilities for urban warfare, against a force ready for martyrdom that has prepared for this fight for years.
- Progress was equally slow in Marawi, where it took five months for Filipino forces to defeat ISIS-Maute fighters.
Three layers of challenges
Urban war presents armies with compounding challenges. The first layer is perceptual. There is a cognitive dissonance between a liberal society’s beliefs around the need for restraint in conflict and the primordial demands of urban war with its high costs in blood, destruction and legitimacy. Armies are averse to preparing for such horror. Second, there are tactical challenges with fighting among buildings:
the threat of remote attack by drones or IEDs
the uncertainty created by hidden adversaries
the extreme exposure of forces as they advance
the dilution of combat power as forces are channelled, isolated and dispersed among buildings, with very restricted views
the degrading of sensors and communications systems.
- Third, and critically, the presence of civilians in urban war zones imposes moral and ethical challenges.
- They suffer disproportionately and catastrophically, both as immediate casualties and from displacement and disease following the destruction of cities.
the obligation of forces to provide security and logistical support to noncombatants
the security threat from phone and social media usage by civilians
civilians who are hostile, obstructive or offer unarmed resistance
the psychological and political burden on commanders that may distort their decision-making.
How Israel has been preparing for this moment
- After Israeli occupation ended in 2005, militant attacks prompted major incursions by the army in 2008 and 2014.
- From a political standpoint, Israel realised the importance of winning the contest of international and domestic public opinion.
- From a military and operational standpoint, the IDF learned that precision air power alone could not eliminate the threat from Hamas.
- Some may also have the THOR system, which uses lasers to explode IEDs.
- Soldiers are also trained to find, operate in and destroy tunnels.
- They include elements of the Sarayet Yahalom, a special forces unit that uses specialised demolition charges, subterranean drones and robots.
- Given the Hamas advantage of home terrain and the advanced technology deployed by Israel, both sides will likely inflict bloody surprises on one another.
Charles Knight does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
