"Hamas is working, we must not settle for a security zone" | Report from the Yellow Line
While the "Peace Council" outlines policy, Netanyahu clarified that the 15-point plan for Gaza is unacceptable to Israel, and forces on the ground continue to see Hamas operatives among the ruins. "We are collecting information all day," said the commander of the 202nd Battalion, who described how Hamas works to recruit operatives and creates explosive devices from unexploded ordnance of the Air Force. The commander's main message: "We are protecting the citizens — and we will do everything in our power to prevent infiltration."
Only 150 meters separate the Yellow Line from dense tent complexes, a busy street, and an active market. Beyond them live hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and among them are Hamas operatives trying to raise their heads from the ruins. On the Israeli side, inside the Strip, a different reality has already been built: permanent outposts, dining rooms, gyms, guard posts, and a maneuver space designed to keep the enemy as far as possible from the soldiers and the Gaza Envelope communities.
These days, the "Peace Council" is poised to enter the Gaza Strip and is already deciding on policy, such as the request to cease fire, which Israel is implementing. The American base established in the south of the Strip, near Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, is already manned by armed soldiers. Initially, it was reported that the process of rehabilitating the Strip would begin without the condition that Hamas be disarmed — but later the Peace Council retracted and said it would begin only after it is disarmed. Simultaneously, discussions are taking place around the Council's 15-point plan and the possibility that the IDF will withdraw to the original Yellow defense line, and not to the new line to which it has pushed. As of now, the IDF holds about 70% of the Strip's territory, and today Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified that he has no intention of accepting the current plan, and that the IDF will not begin a withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed.
"Hamas is still working"
A withdrawal of the IDF now is a loss of depth for the forces on the ground. "We are in a 'Meteor' opposite Gaza City at a distance of two km from the city itself and at a distance of another two km from the residents in Israel and are essentially creating a buffer between the citizen and the enemy," explained Lt. Col. J., commander of the 202nd Paratrooper Battalion. "The story here is to prevent enemy infiltration. To prevent the enemy from establishing itself on the Yellow Line, to finish the work regarding the effort above ground and underground. We are systematically destroying infrastructure. Every day we do drilling to locate tunnels."
The IDF has established itself in outposts along the "70 Ridge," or as they call them in the army, the "Meteors." These outposts are spread at distances of about a kilometer and a half from each other. Between them and the Palestinian population, the forces try to maintain a "dead zone" of between one and two kilometers. The commanders on the ground are sober. They understand that the current holding of the defense lines is temporary. "We know that the enemy has underground infrastructure in Gaza City, in Shuja'iyya. There are spaces we haven't destroyed. They held hostages here in some of the places," said Lt. Col. J. He emphasized that the IDF will act according to the instructions of the political echelon: "If it depends on me as a commander in the army — I aspire for us to manage to reach them sometime. We entered, operated, broke contact and went back. You won't see people here walking around armed. We are collecting information with drones all day."
Explosive devices from unexploded Air Force ordnance
Hamas is trying to rehabilitate and strengthen itself, even if its means are scarcer than before. "They take unexploded ordnance from Air Force bombs, treat them, rehabilitate them — and put an explosive device on the axis for you," the battalion commander described. "The rehabilitation is mainly recruiting people, the fact that they use the ground and raw materials and produce things. But there is no rocket threat here now. The centers of gravity, from his point of view, are in a different place: the population and the underground. The moment we take the underground and know how to separate the population and move them away from vital assets, the situation will change."
Regarding the rules of engagement, the battalion commander explained that the Yellow Line is not crossed. However, "there is also a soldier's and commanders' discretion here as to what actions you want to take. If you want to capture that person because he can bring you intelligence value or you understand that he endangers your forces and you remove the threat. This space between us allows me to perform a suspect arrest procedure."
"Slippery slope": The criticism of the reservists
Among the reservists in the sector, the battalion commander's approach, which sees risk management as a tool based on discretion, is a real tactical danger. "We are amazed by the change in the rules of engagement lately," a reserve officer recently told ynet. "The change from the simple order of neutralizing any enemy crossing the Yellow Line towards us, to a suspect arrest procedure that ends in shooting at the knees, is the beginning of a slippery slope. The command is complacent, but we see the preparations and know that the crossings of the Yellow Line are part of a system of checking our readiness."
"Destroyed-crushed"
Meanwhile, inside the territory under Israeli control in the Strip, the landscape has changed completely. Most of the buildings have been flattened completely by an engineering method known in the field as "destroyed-crushed." "We come with excavators, go over the buildings and create actual gravel, so there won't be all the hiding and ruins, we flatten the area," explained Lt. Col. J. "We are making defensive positions so that if there is a maneuver here now — there will be better conditions." Parallel to flattening the area, "statistical drilling" continues to locate tunnels. "I know there are very significant routes that come out of the area and that I still need to deal with. There are ruins here, and fighting in the ruins is a very big challenge."
