Two firms set to begin exploring for fossil fuels in southern Israel, but residents fear seismic surveys could scar landscape and worse could be in offing should drilling progress
Israel sends troops in; death toll in Gaza grows; airlines cancel flights
(Photo / NZ Herald) Fri, 14 May 2021, 11:59AM
Reporters in the Gaza Strip say they are witnessing horrific scenes as Israel sent its air and ground troops to attack the territory – in a major escalation in violence this morning.
An Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from Gaza, says there has been sudden and huge wave of Israeli attacks from the air, artillery and tanks concentrated in the north of the territory.
Another reporter for the network described sounds artillery being fired into Gaza and machine-gun fire from a helicopter as a column of Israeli armoured vehicles headed toward the border.
Hamas s exact troop strength is unknown, but various estimates have put armed manpower at around 30,000 militants if you include non-core personnel who could be mobilised in an emergency.
Urban environment and civilians
The force includes a marine commando unit and an elite unit trained to raid Israel from underground tunnels.
The actual troop numbers are somewhat irrelevant in non-conventional warfare, said Dr Shaul Shay, senior research fellow at the International Institute for Counter Terrorism and a former IDF officer and deputy head of Israel s National Security Council. We have to take in consideration that we are talking about asymmetric warfare, he says. The question is not how many soldiers or combatants Hamas has compared to a conventional force doing a ground manoeuvre into the Gaza Strip, because the two sides are completely different.