Israel troops would face very considerable challenges in Gaza, retired general says
Israeli forces will face "very considerable" challenges in Gaza if a ground invasion is launched as expected, a retired American general has warned as he outlined the likely difficulties.
Israeli forces have been amassing on the Gaza border ahead of a possible offensive against Hamas since the group's unprecedented attack on Israel earlier this month.
General (Ret'd) David Petraeus, who commanded the US' wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said this is a "fiendishly, horribly difficult situation for Israel".
"The big idea here, stated by Prime Minister Netenyahu when he declared war, is that they must achieve more than just the return to the status quo and, in other words, the defeat or destruction of Hamas," he said.
"But think about the challenges in doing that.
"There are over 100 hostages that Hamas has seized, you're talking about a population of 2.3 million very densely populated, especially in Gaza city itself, high rises."
Gen Petraeus said the "casualties are going to be tough" but also said "the enemy doesn't wear a uniform", making it hard to identify them.
"You have to clear every building, every floor, every room, every basement, every tunnel and you have to leave substantial forces behind to prevent those from being reinfiltrated by the enemy through various means," he said.
"And those have to be sufficiently substantial that they can't be swarmed by individuals you thought were civilians and taken hostage, adding to the problems."
Gen Petraeus added it is unclear who else could become involved in the conflict.
"Could Syria do something? Could there be challenges in the West Bank from the Palestinians there? Could Iran get involved in some way here? We still don't know the real nature of their involvement," he said.
"We know obviously they fund Hamas… Hezbollah and other militias throughout the region, but the difficulty of the task that lies ahead for the Israeli soldiers is very, very considerable.
"As a commander who oversaw operations on multiple occasions that involved large urban areas, hundreds of thousands of people, I have some idea of the challenge.
"But those weren't cases where everybody was against us by any means, especially during the fight to Baghdad, they wanted to get rid of Saddam [Hussein].
"They didn't have the kinds of high rises that you have here or, I think, what I fear will be buildings that will blow up or rooms that will blow up – suicide bombers again, that kind of situation makes it again, incredibly difficult for individual soldiers.
"The result will be very considerable collateral damage, both in terms of infrastructure and civilian loss of life.
"The food, fuel, water, electricity have been shut off to Gaza so it's going to become a humanitarian catastrophe very quickly as well."
The full interview is on the Sitrep pod today which is available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
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