When that happens, Israeli troops will begin a dangerous new phase of the military campaign against Hamas fighters in a densely populated urban terrain that includes closely packed buildings above ground and a troubling maze of tunnels below.
Until now, Israel’s campaign against Hamas seems to have been primarily carried out from the air, including via laser-guided bunker-buster bombs, which are armed with deep-penetrating warheads and delayed fuses to enable them to blow up underground.
Hamas subsequently posted a video of what appears to be the same attack from the perspective of one of its fighters, moving across a sandy beach to strike the Israelis.
I studied tunnel warfare during my fieldwork in Iraq, where the Islamic State group created a vast underground tunnel fortress in their defense of the city of Mosul. And I have analyzed the Germans’ underground tunnel and sewer “rattenkrieg,” or “rat war,” fought to defeat the Soviets in one of the largest urban battles in history, the 1942-43 Battle of Stalingrad.
These and other historic battles teach one important lesson: Tunnel warfare tends to lessen many advantages a stronger, more advanced attacker might otherwise expect – and to favor the defenders hidden underground.
When that happens, Israeli troops will begin a dangerous new phase of the military campaign against Hamas fighters in a densely populated urban terrain that includes closely packed buildings above ground and a troubling maze of tunnels below.
Until now, Israel’s campaign against Hamas seems to have been primarily carried out from the air, including via laser-guided bunker-buster bombs, which are armed with deep-penetrating warheads and delayed fuses to enable them to blow up underground.
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