Israel making limited ground raids into Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces have already launched limited ground incursions into Gaza, after weeks of softening Gaza with bombing runs. Overnight the IDF sent in several infantry and armored units to attack camps where Gazan infantry were assembling for yet another incursion into the Negev or deeper into Israel itself.

Israel steps up its softening-up campaign

In the latest escalation of the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, the IDF sent “armored and infantry” units into Gaza. New Delhi Television quoted Reuters as gathering this information. It comes from Tat-Aluf Daniel “Dani” Hagari, the IDF’s spokesman-in-chief. (Western news agencies refer to his rank as “Rear Admiral,” since he held IDF maritime offices before his present assignment.)

Hagari further said these raids served to “kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for the our next stage in the war.” That could mean either resisting the planned ground invasion or to make a second sortie like the October 7 raids. The spokesman said the raiders were also gathering intelligence on the more than 200 people missing, presumed hostage in Gaza.

Paul Crespo, writing in American Liberty News, praised the raids as prudent and preferable to charging blindly into enemy territory. This holds especially in Gaza, which apparently is like one long city. Urban warfare has always been the most difficult kind of war to wage. Those who know something about it, predict any ground offensive will be “long, brutal, and costly.”

Israel has accepted young Jewish volunteers who have flown to Israel from all over the world, to enlist. Last Friday one such volunteer, from Maryland, died in action in the northern theater.

Other news from the theater

America does have units based in countries surrounding Israel. Some of these units have come under attack from drones and missiles.

Israel has also formed an elite unit tasked with tracking down and killing everyone involved in the October 7 raids. According to The Jerusalem Post, Shin Bet (Israeli security) calls this unit Nili, an acronym for Nitschayutah shel Israel lo tsqor. (Translation: “The Etenity of Israel will not lie.”) Israel has claimed the killings of several high-ranking Gazan or HAMAS officers. (HAMAS stands for Harakah al-Muqāwamah al-Islāmiyyah – the Islamic Resistance Movement.)