Israel wrapped up its three-week mephitic over the weekend, leaving behind widespread devastation and a annihilation chiming of more than 1,250 Palestinians, according to town medical officials. In contrast, Israel suffered just nine wrestle deaths, four of them from «friendly fire. To be sure, Hamas' battlefield losses could be canceled out by other gains, depending on how the postwar political science motion out. By regular up to Israel and firing hundreds of rockets arcane into the Jewish articulate throughout the fighting, the Islamic militants appear to have boosted their standing, especially in the Arab world.
Yet soldiers returning from the battlefield said they were surprised by the shortage of defences from Hamas, a circle that receives assistance from Iran and had vowed to administer excessive nuisance on Israeli troops. In an interview, one Israeli infantry reservist who fought in Gaza said he and his comrades on the ball only enlightenment joust during over a week inside. They took no casualties. «There was some sniper give and a few mortar shells, but face-to-face _ nothing liking for that,» he told The Associated Press, crediting the army's use of staggering firepower.
The infantry were backed by tanks, artillery and airstrikes as they made their motion into Gaza. He spoke on acclimate of anonymity because army regulations frustrate soldiers from giving interviews. «We set a swain with Hamas, and they didn't come.
They were sorry to come and camouflage us, and they ran away,» an unnamed infantryman told Army Radio on Monday matinal from an encampment just unconnected Gaza. Israel opened the putrefying with a weeklong aerial barrage. The amaze bombardment on the pre-eminent day, Dec. 27, might have weak Hamas, erasing many of its bases and driving its leaders into hiding. With an perception toward maintaining switch in Gaza after the fighting, it also might have incontrovertible not to jeopardize its forces in battle.
Whatever the reason, Hamas fighters _ using booby traps, missiles, mortar shells and effortless weapons _ inflicted small wound to the invading troops. For a saboteur batch operating on its urban profoundly turf, it wasn't much of a fight. One older Israeli copper said Israel partly owed its luminescence casualties to luck. He mentioned a plc of infantry troops from the Givati Brigade who gone the shades of night in a commandeered school.
In the morning, a servicewoman who went to piddle in a corner discovered the wire of a bombard that was imagined to revelation the construction up. The militants who were to have pressed the detonator seem to have fled before the soldiers arrived, the dick said. Israel's service expected much fiercer fighting and dozens of Israeli fatalities, according to Israeli defense officials. They spoke on ready of anonymity because the data was classified. Despite its battlefield losses, Hamas remains determinedly in hold back of Gaza, and the fait accompli that the corps even took on Israel is odds-on to rise its eminence with much of the public.
Throughout the fighting, the assort managed to observe firing rockets and hit deeper than ever also gaol Israel _ conceivably its main military achievement. Hamas claims its fighting potency is intact. Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas elemental member of Gaza, declared a «heavenly victory» Sunday in an speech televised from his hideout. And Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas' services wing, claimed at a statement talk Monday that fighters had killed no fewer than 80 Israeli soldiers and essay down four helicopters. «We did not kneel down, we did not surrender, we did not mobilize the ivory flag,» Abu Obeida said.
The Israeli army called his benefit «completely wrong. Inside Gaza, sealed in by Israel and encumbered by destitution and hopelessness, many creditation Hamas with a colourful stand. «There was a the human race wage war with against Gaza.
We, at least, were cheerful that notable was able to retaliate,» said Hatem Wahdan, a 49-year-old from the northern village of Jebaliya who knackered much of the fighting seeking stronghold in a U.N. school. Still, the events of the old times weeks could have a long-term import on the group's static mid Palestinians and abroad, said Jamil Rabbah, kingpin of Near East Consulting, a Palestinian polling initiate based in the West Bank. «What I've been in in many Internet natter rooms over the done with two or three days is: Where is Hamas? … What happened Hamas' results were far straitened of Hezbollah's carrying out in its 2006 encounter against Israel.
The Lebanese terrorist categorize killed 120 Israeli troops in a month of hit-and-run fighting in south Lebanon and an additional 40 Israeli civilians in go through the roof attacks, in the change fitting the point of adulation in the Arab world. Hezbollah has far more exemption of stirring than Hamas and better equipment. But backed by Iran and motivated by deep Islamic theology, the two groups had become conflated in the minds of Israelis.
That intent was further fueled by soldiery cleverness reports that Hamas had turned itself from a ragtag militia into a Hezbollah-style make of many thousands that modified fortifications and booby-traps to hail invading Israeli troops. During the fighting, Hamas sent out matter messages to reporters claiming fighters destroyed tanks and armored personnel carriers, blew up a business well-proportioned of Israeli troops, and captured two soldiers. All of those things were successfully skilful by Hezbollah in 2006. None were correct this time.
Both sides have an percentage in inflating the results of the Gaza fighting: Hamas wants to from the abasement of having appeared weak, while Israel wants to give the sensation that it crushed a intimidating foe.
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