Jerusalem: Israeli army is ready for a fierce fight in Gaza city, where Hamas fighters are deeply entangled.
Security experts warns that the operation will be difficult and expensive due to dense urban environment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to target Hamas’s last strongholds in Gaza city and central camps.
Gaza City, once a house of 760,000 people, its population has been seen with displaced citizens running away from the northern fighter regions.
The city now has a mixture of bomb-affected buildings and temporary shelters.
Israeli General, Amir Avivi called Gaza City “Heart of Hamas’s rule in Gaza”.
He notes that it is the strongest brigade in Hamas and serves as the administrative center of the group.
A major challenge is emptying citizens, with around 300,000 residents still in the city.
Israel has urged citizens to move south in human areas, but space is limited.
“You cannot keep one and one million people there. It would be a terrible humanitarian crisis,” said a former military intelligence officer Michael Milstein.
According to Aviv, humanitarian aid is being directed to the south of Gaza city to encourage the movement.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation plans to expand the assistance places from four to 16.
However, Gaza’s Civil Defense Agency reported firing on citizens near these sites to Israeli soldiers.
Human Rights Watch has called the zone a “death trap”, while the United Nations criticizes the militarization of aid.
Millstin estimates that Hamas’s Gaza City has 10,000 to 15,000 fighters, which have been recruited many new recruitments.
He said, “It is very easy to convince 17, 18, 19-year-old Palestinian to be a part of Al-Casam Brigade,” he said.
Hamas is preparing for urban war, comparing Milstin Stalingrad’s upcoming battle.
The Israeli army will face tunnels, IEDs and human slopes in narrow streets and high-growth buildings.
“It is almost impossible to go there without creating both hostage casualties and a large human disaster,” said Mirav Zonesen of the International Crisis Group.
She predicts massive destruction, saying, “They will just destroy everything, and then nothing will be left.”
Despite informing the disagreement, Army chief Ile Zameer stressed that forces could catch the city of Gaza as they had done Khan Younis and Rafa.
“Our army has worked there in the past, and we know how to do it again,” he said. – AFP
