The Operation Against Hamas in Gaza: What Military Experts Tell Them About Its First Flights and How They’ve Been

According to the Defense Department officials the flights are not supporting Israel on the ground. Two officials said the goal was to assist in locating hostages, monitor for signs of life and pass potential leads to the Israel Defense Forces.

Pentagon officials said that the aircraft have been active in the area since the day after the attack, though it was not clear when they spotted them.

At a critical point in time the flights are operating. Hamas is holding more than 200 hostages in the Gaza Strip and at least 10 of whom are believed to be Americans, according to Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s military leadership have been tight-lipped about Israel’s push into the Gaza Strip. One week into the ground operation, satellite imagery and social media posts give us some idea of where Israeli forces are going, and their overall strategy in the war against Hamas.

MacFarland says, going block by block to clear the city “would probably require more troops than the Israelis want to commit to that effort,” in part because they need their forces in the north to protect the border with Lebanon.

“Ground forces are pushing in with no objectives other than to keep the peace”, said Mr. Jones who oversees the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

But even if the other two axes also contain about a brigade, that wouldn’t be nearly enough to fully occupy or even conduct a building-by-building sweep of a dense, urban environment like Gaza City, says Gentile.

“What they may choose to do instead is control the city from the outskirts and conduct operations inside,” he says. They might be able to destroy tunnels and other parts of Hamas’s infrastructure without committing to a full occupation.

Satellite images and social media posts from bystanders as well as Israel Defense Force were examined by NPR. Here are what military experts have to say about the operation so far.

According to the imagery taken by Planet, there are roughly two-dozen Israeli armored vehicles near the road.

He believes that Israel is more likely to use airstrikes, armor and dismounted infantry to strike at individual targets. “I think that is what they’re doing, it’s very specifically designed to go after infrastructure,” Jones says.

The Israeli fighter jets carried out a massive airstrike on a part of the refugee camp just north of Gaza City. Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet is said to have gathered the intelligence that led to the strike.

Israeli and Hamas forces are already involved in pitched fighting in different parts of the city. 19 Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting in Gaza since the ground invasion began last week, according to Israeli officials while Hamas has not released casualty numbers for its fighters.

The incident underscores a dangerous new phase in operations, says Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon intelligence officer who now works for Pax, a Dutch nonprofit working to protect civilians against acts of war. Israel launched strikes on targets during the first weeks of the war. Now they’re striking quickly at “dynamic targets” with little warning or no warning for civilians in the area.

Alex plitsas, who is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in the Middle East programs group, stated that Israel tried to warn the civilians in northern Gaza to leave. “They’ve attempted to clear the battlefield; they’ve asked people to leave,” he says.

He says that Israel’s right to defend itself is not unlimited. He says that they have to target military objects and operate in line with the principle of proportionality. “Any attack they make, the military gain can not be outweighed by the civilian harm,” he says.

In a statement Wednesday, the United Nations’ human rights office appeared to echo those concerns, warning that strikes on the Jabalia camp “could amount to war crimes.”

The Iraq War — a Battleground for Israel and Hamas in the Middle East, says General Relativistic Defense Minister Tsalli

Gentile, who was in Iraq in 2006 said that the numbers will grow. That’s in part because both Israel and Hamas view this as an existential battle.

They were only using saline and iui to treat burns. Hospitals performed surgery without anesthesia because they had no choice, there was no post-wound care, and there was no antibiotics.

He thinks it’s impossible to imagine that Israel will be able to maintain broader international support if it doesn’t show how it is trying to help civilians.

The humanitarian conditions on the ground are an obstacle for the operation, he says. “That needs to get addressed, and addressed very, very quickly.”