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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| 700 troops could have died retaking Gaza, ex-general says |
| 2014-12-22 |
| [IsraelTimes] The Israeli corpse count during the summer war with Gazoo could have reached as high as 700 had Jerusalem sent troops into the heart of Gazoo City during the operation, a former senior Israeli intelligence officer said recently. The Israeli army?s refusal to be drawn into the maze of tunnels beneath Gazoo City was the biggest of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,?s many disappointments in the war, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Shalom Harari said during a recent talk at the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem. According to Harari, there were kilometers of tunnels beneath the city and its approaches ? some of them booby-trapped, others harboring jacket wallahs and teams prepared to foray out and capture soldiers to be used for prisoner exchanges. But despite what Harari called Hamas?s ?honey traps,? which could have claimed the lives of 500-700 soldiers, the retired army official claimed that two cabinet ministers urged the army to nevertheless attack the Gazoo-based group?s stronghold. Harari was apparently referencing Economy Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, both of whom lobbied publicly for Israel to go deeper into Gazoo to destroy the network of tunnels beneath the enclave. Israel lost 67 soldiers during the 50-day war, most of them during fighting inside the Strip. Some 2,100 Paleostinians were killed in the fighting, according to Paleostinian and UN tallies. Israel says about half of them were fighters. Although Hamas could boast of some successes in the conflict ? including being able to remain in the fight for seven weeks ? even its leaders recognize that they suffered a stinging defeat, Harari said. ?We won 7 to 2,? he added, using a soccer metaphor. ?This is the first time a modern army has succeeded in this kind of urban warfare,? Harari asserted, pegging the success on diligent planning and ample munitions. He noted that such a victory eluded the American army in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the war, reports surfaced of an assessment presented to the Israeli security cabinet that estimated a corpse count in the hundreds if Israel attempted to reconquer the Strip. Other possible casualties of the widened action, which would cost tens of billions of shekels per year, included peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, according to the assessment. According to Channel 2, some ministers doubted the report, telling Israel Defense Forces officials it was ?pessimistic? and was intended to dissuade them from action. The military responded that the report?s estimates were sound. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked if any of the ministers were in favor of retaking the Strip, none of the ministers raised their hand. In his talk, sponsored by MEMRI ? the Middle East Media Research Institute, a US-based watchdog ? Harari insisted that last summer?s round of fighting with Hamas was not triggered by the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli youths in the West Bank, as is widely believed. He said that Hamas, even before the kidnapping, had been planning a major raid through a tunnel near Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, aimed at causing numerous civilian and military casualties and taking hostages. When Hamas fighters entered the tunnel in preparation for the attack, the Israeli Air Force bombed the site, killing many of them. IDF front man Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said earlier this year that Military Intelligence had passed along information indicating a large attack against civilians was planned using Hamas?s cross-border tunnels, which were destroyed during the war. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #5 |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-12-22 18:57 |
| #4 One of these days an earthquake is going to hit Gaza and all the precious tunnels at once. |
| Posted by: Charles 2014-12-22 18:00 |
| #3 CO2 is heavier than air. just fill Gaza with it and let the tunnels fill up and publicize it as a greenie carbon capture plan. Helps the climate in more ways than one. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2014-12-22 07:39 |
| #2 That will make the Jordanians fret terribly. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2014-12-22 05:50 |
| #1 Eventually we'll have to level the place. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-12-22 04:08 |