Hamas snipers and traps will target IDF after Gaza invasion delay, ex-Army commander warns
Hamas will have prepared booby traps and ambush positions in Gaza with snipers and suicide bombers targeting Israel soldiers entering the strip, a former British Army commander has said.
Colonel Richard Kemp said Hamas will have spent time before and after the 7 October massacres in Israel fortifying their positions ahead of an expected ground operation by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Mines and booby traps could be concealed in the rubble of bombed-out buildings damaged in Israeli air strikes, said Colonel Kemp, who commanded British forces in Afghanistan in 2003.
Militants armed with rifles, RPGs, anti-tank missiles, mortars and machine guns would target Israeli troops, with concealed improvised explosive devices (IED) similar to those that caused British casualties in Afghanistan detonated by trip wire or by hand, he told i.
Tens of thousands of Israeli troops with tanks and weapons have massed along the border of Gaza, where 222 hostages are confirmed as being held captive, with 300,000 IDF reservists recruited since 7 October. However, a ground invasion is yet to materialise.
“Urban warfare is the most difficult form of warfare there is, it causes the most casualties,” said Colonel Kemp, speaking from Israel.
“It’s particularly hard for an attacker who’s trying to attack an enemy within a town or a city, which has had plenty of chances to prepare the ground with booby traps and ambush positions, snipers, and attack tunnels.
“They [Hamas] will be operating in small groups. They’ll have sniper teams positioned in buildings and in the open country as well.
“They have had plenty of time to prepare. Before they attacked Israel, they will have known that it was highly likely the IDF will carry out operations against them from the air and probably expected there will be ground operations as well.”
Hamas will have moved weapons and ammunition to areas of Gaza where they will be most useful to them, he added.
Israeli military chiefs would be braced for “fairly significant casualties”, he said, with any operation to destroy Hamas taking a considerable amount of time.
The focus of the IDF’s operation was likely to initially be Gaza City where the fighting would be made even more deadly by Hamas tunnels used to store weapons and move attack teams around to ambush Israeli forces, he continued.
Since arriving in Israel shortly after the 7 October attacks, Colonel Kemp has seen the build-up of forces around the Gaza border, and up in the north around Lebanon.
He added: “In war one of the most important factors is surprise. And the IDF are very skilled, I think at exercising surprise. So whatever the enemy expects, we should expect the IDF to do something different.
“Talking to soldiers on the ground, around both the Lebanese and Gaza border, I met a large number of them, they know the dangers they face.
“I think one of the differences between, for example, British troops fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, and places like that, is that these people are fighting on their own doorstep.
“They know what happened on the seventh of October and they know that they have to do what they need to do in order to defend their people. So there’s a lot of resolve.”
The US and other Western allies have reportedly put pressure on the Israelis to hold off from launching any ground invasion until more hostages are released.
On Sunday, Israel says its forces went west of the Gaza Strip fence to clear the area of terrorists and weapons, and try and find hostages, with one solider killed and three others injured when Hamas fired rockets at them.
Another concern was the IDF fighting on a second front on the Lebanon border against Hezbollah, which is estimated by US defence chiefs to have around 150,000 missiles aimed at Israel.
“It’s a strong possibility, I would say that once the IDF launch their operation in Gaza on the ground then we can expect to see an intensification of Hezbollah attacks in the north,”
“I think they’re capable of fighting on both of those fronts and and on the Syrian front, if necessary, as well, because Iran also has proxies in Syria, that it will use may may use to attack Israel from.
“And then of course, you’ve got, you’ve got the West Bank where there’s been an upsurge in violence there. So they are really on pretty much four fronts, maybe more.”
