Hamas turns Gaza streets into ‘deadly maze’ for Israeli troops

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has turned the Gaza Strip’s streets into a “deadly maze” for Israeli military forces due to its knowledge of the terrain, as the occupying regime continues its ground invasion against the besieged enclave.

Reuters, citing Israeli military commanders, reported on Saturday that the Palestinian resistance group is effectively making use of its expanded arsenal and a vast tunnel network at its disposal.

The Israeli military’s death toll is already almost twice as high as during a ground offensive in 2014, the report said, adding that since Tel Aviv began its ground offensive in late October, about 110 Israeli soldiers have been killed compared to 66 in the 2014 war.

“There is no comparing the scope of this war to 2014, when our forces mostly operated no deeper than a kilometer inside Gaza,” said Yaacov Amidror, a retired Israeli major-general, stressing that the military “has yet to find a good solution for the tunnels.”

A Hamas source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that resistance fighters moved as close as possible to launch ambushes “taking advantage of the land we know like no others do,” often moving around or emerging from tunnels.

An Israeli commander, who fought in 2014, and asked not to be named, also said the expanded scope of this operation meant more troops were on the ground, giving Hamas the “defender’s advantages,” so higher troop casualties were to be expected.

Eyal Pinko, a former senior official with Israel’s intelligence services who is now at Bar Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, also noted that Hamas has made “some huge steps” to build up its force since 2014, adding that the group has mastered building some weapons in Gaza, such as RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenades, and it owns a big munitions reserve now.