Israeli newspaper： once you are invited to the urn, you will draw a snake out of the hole to fight with your wits.

Topic: Israeli bombing of Gaza Strip.

　　Xinhua News: On January 6th, the Israeli Jerusalem Post published an article entitled "Gaza will not become Stalingrad", which is summarized as follows.

　　On January 7, an Israeli woman and her child who came to visit her husband on duty at the border lay prone on the ground to avoid the attack of Palestinian rockets at Aza Farm in Caffard, near the northern Gaza Strip. Xinhua News Agency/Reuters

　　Hamas is trying to attract the IDF into the city of Gaza, while the IDF is trying to lure Hamas fighters into the open areas outside the city. Nevertheless, the Israeli army now has time to decide the location and target of the attack. It depends on what kind of lure the Israeli army decides to use or not.

　　The question is how long the Israeli army can stay in the current static defensive position. This situation gave Hamas the initiative to seduce the Israeli army. Once the Israeli army takes the initiative and launches an attack, it will force Hamas to adjust its forces accordingly. The longer Israeli troops wait outside the city, the stronger Hamas’s ability to decide to fight.

　　Hamas lured Israeli troops into the city in several ways. One is the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, which led to the rescue of Israeli troops. Sniper fire is another way to lure, because the Israeli army must take out the fire source. At present, snipers in Hamas are being destroyed by Israeli missiles and helicopter fire. But once snipers shoot from civil buildings in the city, this method will become difficult to deal with.

　　Hamas will eventually fire mortars from its stronghold at the Israeli military camp outside the city, and the Israeli army will then fire at the sniper or mortar fire source. Tanks, artillery or helicopters outside the city will be ideal weapons. In short, either side tries to "influence" the other’s actions, so as to achieve the purpose of fostering strengths and avoiding weaknesses.

　　On January 7th, after the Israeli army launched an air raid, smoke rose from the Gaza. Since December 27th last year, Israeli military operations have been launched against the Gaza Strip, and since January 3rd this year, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,700 injured. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Nasser)

　　Advancing to the stronghold of Hamas will mean a deadly urban war, which is mainly a street fight familiar to Hamas’s 20,000 armed men. Hamas has planted explosives at the entrances of various passages and buildings, thus laying traps in the streets of Gaza.

　　In a densely populated city like Gaza, snipers can shoot from many hiding places; Suicide bombers can come from anywhere. The Israeli army can do nothing about it, but shoot at any moving target.

　　If the Israeli army wants to perform "root canal filling surgery" on the terrorist infrastructure in Hamas, it must enter the city and occupy the core part of Hamas’s military organization. The Israeli army thinks it is very likely to hit Hamas militants hard in the city, because in the past two years, the Israeli army’s training subjects have included testing combat skills in simulated and actual combat situations, while Hamas militants have not faced tenacious ground confrontation in recent years.

　　Even if Hamas has militants with excellent fighting skills in the city, the Israeli army can make use of more effective fighting forces. Technically speaking, the Israeli army wants to invade Hamas’s territory, not occupy Gaza, so its military action is offensive attack, while Hamas is defensive. Since the goal is not to control the population of Gaza or occupy the urban area, the Israeli army can boldly enter and then retreat to the staging area.

　　This is different from the battle of Stalingrad in World War II. At that time, all parties tried to seize and occupy the area. The occupying forces need to guard the fortress, and guerrilla fighters can attack the fortress in various ways.

　　On the afternoon of January 7th, an Israeli helicopter gunship opened fire on the central part of the Gaza Strip. At about 4 pm that day, the Israeli army ended the three-hour ceasefire announced that day on time and resumed air strikes and shelling in the Gaza Strip. Xinhua News Agency reporter Yin Bogu photo

　　There are two kinds of urban warfare, one is army against army, and the other is guerrilla warfare. For the former, anything can happen, including the use of artillery to bomb buildings, a large number of armored vehicles and indiscriminate aircraft bombing.

　　An example of this is the Battle of Stalingrad. Gaza will not become Stalingrad. In Gaza, Israeli armored forces are vulnerable to anti-tank rockets in narrow streets and passages, which is likely to make slow-moving armored vehicles lose their combat effectiveness.

　　The training of Israeli troops in Gaza is to suppress the fire source first, and then treat the wounded, so as not to expose more soldiers to the death zone caused by the first wave of fire. In Gaza, the Israeli army will mainly use infantry without armored support. Before occupying the building, the soldiers will clear the obstacles with bombs. The main purpose is to minimize the number of infantry exposed to the streets. The Israeli army will try its best to kill the enemy from the outside-with the overwhelming firepower of tanks and helicopters.

　　On the afternoon of January 7th, an Israeli tank was driving in the central border area of Gaza Strip. At about 4 pm that day, the Israeli army ended the three-hour ceasefire announced that day on time and resumed air strikes and shelling in the Gaza Strip. Xinhua News Agency reporter Yin Bogu photo

　　Once troops enter dense urban areas to perform their tasks, they will be in an extremely sensitive environment, which requires careful command and control ability and unique combat skills. They will move slowly, but they must move very quickly and actively. Both sides will strive to cause the greatest casualties to each other.

　　The problem with urban warfare is that all the technical advantages of the Israeli army will become worthless to a large extent. The battle will turn into close combat. On the streets of Gaza, Israeli troops are easily attacked by the enemy, because they can’t find the target clearly in time. As the role of technology is weakened, training and skills are particularly important. Effective urban guerrilla warfare boils down to street activities under the cover of firepower fired from several different positions, and the Israeli army has been intensively trained in this respect.

　　In urban warfare, command and control are very important, and the training of the Israeli army in the past two years has also attached great importance to this point. In urban areas, commanders cannot always see the troops under their command. Every deployment must be carefully coordinated to avoid our own fire. This is also an important issue in urban warfare.

　　On January 7th, smoke billowed after the attack in Gaza. Since December 27th last year, Israeli military operations have been launched against the Gaza Strip, and since January 3rd this year, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,700 injured. Xinhua news agency

Editor: Peng Wei