John Spencer
Arguably, no modern army is more familiar with the brutal reality of high-intensity, contested, dense urban warfare and fighting ‘small wars’ than the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In Gaza, the enemy is embedded in hundreds of miles of tunnels, inside a labyrinth of concrete and steel, narrow streets and alleys, with improvised explosives hidden in walls, rooms, and roads. They use civilians as shields and civilian infrastructure as cover.
And now, as the operation has evolved, the IDF is increasingly facing situations where its forces are operating near large groups of civilians. These include humanitarian zones specifically designed to facilitate the delivery of aid directly to civilians rather than that aid having to go through Hamas. While some IDF soldiers provide perimeter security in these zones, other soldiers—often only hundreds of meters away—are forced to make decisions under fire, under pressure, and under constant global scrutiny.
Urban Combat and the IDF’s Dual Role in Gaza
The IDF has a long history of operating around civilians in Judea and Samaria, including during the First and Second Intifadas, and in southern Lebanon. In Gaza, the current Israeli approach is to isolate civilians in designated humanitarian zones while destroying Hamas in other areas. This is a strategy that attempts to separate the civilian population from enemy forces.
This strategy also includes distributing aid directly to the people in four designated distribution sites. The IDF, however, does not distribute the food. Rather, they provide security, almost like police at a major sporting event, so that aid workers can ration the food.
But soldiers are not police. This has put the IDF in the difficult but necessary transition of being asked to conduct combat operations to locate and destroy Hamas in one zone while securing humanitarian centers in another.
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