Weekend Hamas ambush lays bare vulnerability of Israeli-held Gaza buffer zone
Well-armed terror cell likely knew of IDF logistics road near border, where unarmored vehicles drive to one of over a dozen static army posts inside Strip
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
On Saturday, a Hamas cell of at least six operatives emerged from a tunnel on the side of a road in the northern Gaza Strip. The well-armed terror operatives hid in the shrubbery, waiting as Israeli military vehicles passed by, then opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire at one they misidentified as belonging to a senior commander.
The unarmored army car was flipped over on the side of the road. Three servicewomen, including an officer, were seriously wounded inside it, with no other forces in the area to return fire.
After the attack on the vehicle, the terror operatives laid a bomb on the side of the road and detonated it when rescue forces arrived around 25 minutes later, killing a soldier, Warrant Officer G’haleb Sliman Alnasasra, and seriously wounding another.
The Hamas gunmen were able to flee back through the tunnel they emerged from, as other operatives stationed further away shelled the area with mortars.
The tunnel used in the attack had already been discovered by the Israel Defense Forces, and the army was in the process of mapping it out and demolishing it. Hamas apparently realized it would soon lose the tunnel and decided to use it in the deadly attack.
This incident did not occur on the frontlines deep inside Gaza.
Rather, it took place in an Israeli-held buffer zone along the border, close to the town of Beit Hanoun in the Strip’s northeast, an area that the IDF has operated in repeatedly since the beginning of the war.
The Hamas operatives did not randomly stumble on the IDF logistics road where the attack was carried out.
The road leads to one of the military’s forward posts inside the Strip, which are aimed at providing better defenses for Israeli border communities and being the first line of contact for potential Hamas attacks on Israel.
Hamas more than likely knew of the semi-permanent IDF position near Beit Hanoun — one of more than a dozen in the Israeli-held buffer zone — and of the logistics road where unarmored vehicles drive on, like the one the operatives targeted.
Unlike the frontlines, the military’s positions inside the buffer zone are static and exposed to Hamas rocket and mortar fire. The roads leading to them are known to Hamas, whose operatives spend days tracking the movement of Israeli vehicles inside Gaza.
When the IDF held the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza and was stationed in several semi-permanent forward operating bases, Hamas would shell the sites relatively frequently with mortars. The terror group also tried to launch assaults on small posts inside the corridor several times.
Amid the latest offensive in Gaza, the IDF’s buffer zone in Gaza has been expanding, reaching up to around two kilometers (1.2 miles) in most areas. In addition, the military is in the process of conquering the entire city of Rafah, which will also be included within the buffer zone.
Currently, the IDF holds more than 30 percent of the Strip’s territory, a figure expected to rise as the fighting continues. Additional army posts are also likely to be constructed in the buffer zone, as Israel seeks to better its defenses on the Gaza border.
With semi-permanent posts inside Gaza, and Hamas determined to launch attacks on troops, an incident like Saturday’s is likely to recur, unless the IDF makes changes to its deployment and operations in the buffer zone.
The Times of Israel Community.