How the Israelis flush out Hamas

Was the Israeli strike on the school in Jabiliya on Tuesday, in which at least 40 Palestinian civilians died, was an accident waiting to happen because of Israeli military tactics?

According to Martin van Creveld, an Israeli military historian and strategist writing in the Guardian, the Israelis have to avoid getting too close to the Hamas fighters who are well prepared for close urban warfare. Instead, the Israelis must provoke the enemy to fire first, "coming just close enough to flush him out of his hiding places and bring him to battle".

To accomplish this, writes van Creveld, the Israeli forces "must advance carefully and systematically, using every means; electronic intelligence, signals intelligence, whole arrays of unmanned airborne vehicles, sophisticated night vision equipment and possibly also Palestinian collaborators (human intelligence).

"Once the enemy has been identified they rely on their air force and infinitely superior artillery to blast away the Hamas fighters. To the Palestinians unlucky enough to get involved in the fighting the process is likely to be very costly - mais c'est la guerre."

FIRST POSTED JANUARY 7, 2009