The 'Devil's Playground' of Urban Combat That Israel Is Preparing to Enter

[WarGamer]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-invasion.html

Heavy fire from rooftops and booby-trapped apartments. Armor-piercing projectiles blowing up troop carriers. Fighters blending in with civilians, launching drone ambushes, or surging from tunnels full of enough ammunition, food and water to sustain a long war.

As the Israeli Army gathers tanks at the Gaza border for a threatened invasion aimed at crushing Hamas, experts are warning that the country’s troops could face some of the fiercest street-to-street combat since World War II in Gaza City and other densely packed areas.

Urban warfare studies and American officials offer dire comparisons to Iraq: Think of Falluja in 2004, the most intense battles that American troops had faced since Vietnam, or the nine-month fight to defeat the Islamic State in Mosul in 2016, which led to 10,000 civilian deaths. Then multiply the destructive toll, possibly exponentially.

I agree with this guy:

“It’s going to be ugly,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Arnold, a U.S. Army strategist who has published studies on urban operations in the Middle East. “Cities are the devil’s playground — they make everything infinitely more difficult.”

[Mister Ed]

1. I can't help but think this is the battle Hamas wanted.

On an open battlefield, they'd have no chance against the Israeli military. In the urban-jungle setting, all of that changes. And non-combatant Palestinians by the hundreds of thousands will be caught in the horrific crossfire.

[radicalleft]

2. Of course its what they wanted

The leaders calling the shots are safely tucked away in Qatar and Turkey...

I think the Israeli IDF forces are walking into a trap that will ultimately lead them to be seen as the oppressors more so than they have been up til now. This will play out much like the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and we all know how well that turned out.

[brewens]

3. The Germans found out they made a big mistake bombing Stalingrad to rubble before trying to

take it. Street fighting with intact buildings is bad enough, but at least you can spot where the enemy can be firing from, windows and doorways and the rooftops. In rubble, it can be any crack.

[harumph]

4. Some have suggested flooding the tunnels.

Seems like a pretty good idea to me. They're probably all connected in some way or another.
Does Israel have the stomach required to do what is necessary. We shall see. I hope so. Moreover,
IMO they should take a lesson from Putin and begin a long term "cleansing" process for the political leaders of Hamas living abroad
complete with the whole plausible deniability stand up routine.