The Israeli military is preparing to shift strategies in Gaza, realizing that it has squeezed what it could out of high-intensity fighting, and must now dig in for a prolonged low-boil engagement aimed at toppling the Hamas terror group, Channel 12’s military reporter says.
The reported shift just happens to dovetail with US demands that Israel ease up on its high-energy bombardments and surges of troops into urban areas, and just in time for an unofficial January deadline.
According to correspondent Nir Dvori, the army will create a kilometer-wide buffer zone within the Strip on its borders with Israel, expanding an existing buffer zone. Infantry troops, largely drawn from conscripts, will occupy the zone to ensure Gazans cannot approach the fence with Israel, and launch pinpoint raids from there, reports Dvori, but the troop presence will be significantly smaller than it currently is.
He does not attribute the information to a source, but Israeli military reporters are often briefed on army plans under rules requiring them to present what they are told as their own “analysis.”
“The assumption behind the change in strategy is that total defeat of Hamas will not be achieved via a massive ground offensive, but via a long war of attrition,” he says. “It can take months, maybe even years — but creating a new reality in Gaza will require a diplomatic process and economic moves along those of the military.”
At a Knesset meeting, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair Yuli Edelstein notes that as the fighting progresses, Israel is “transitioning from the second to third stage” of the military operation in Gaza, and the public should prepare for a long war.
In late October, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel’s ground offensive would not be enough to defeat Hamas, which would require a third, intermediate stage of fighting during which it will begin to seek out new leadership for the battered enclave, while rooting out “pockets of resistance.”
The report on the apparent shift comes with Israel largely in charge in north Gaza, while south Gaza remains crowded with civilians and relatively out of the army’s operational control.
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December 26, 2023 at 08:22PM
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TV report: IDF shifting strategy to low-intensity, long-haul Gaza operation - The Times of Israel
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