As the 100th day of the war that Israel wages on Gaza completes, including a ground operation ongoing for more than two months, a decisive military resolution remains elusive.
The first goal of the war as declared by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the eradication of Hamas, and the recovery of hundreds of Israeli prisoners now in the grip of Palestinian resistance.
After 20 days of intense bombardment in various parts of the region, Israel began a limited ground incursion carried out by heavy machinery, a few soldiers, and within a brief window of time, what seemed an effort to scout the land and environment of the battle.
While the limited forces tried to gauge the readiness of the resistance to fight, larger and more equipped forces stood at the borders of Gaza, ready to launch a conventional maneuver in terms of form and execution.
Israel adopted a method of continuous bombing with bunker-busting bombs to terrorize and reach the tunnels, considered the strongest weapon of the resistance. It executed about 500 hours of flying and dropped nearly 20,000 tons of explosives, between October 7 and 27, when the ground operation began.
As the incursion began, Israeli forces advanced from three axes – Beit Hanoun in the north, and Beit Lahia in the northwest – aiming to cover the area stretching from the Mediterranean Sea west to the eastern separation barrier.
From the center, occupying forces crossed the agricultural land from Juhor ad-Dik to Salah al-Din Street, aiming to sever the northern part of the strip with latitudinal lines, all while maintaining a near-constant cover of artillery, aerial, and naval bombardment.
The Resistance Reveals its Hidden Face
On the other side, the task of the Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas – and the other resistance factions were theoretically more difficult due to the imbalance of power in terms of equipment, armament, and soldier numbers.
However, the resistance showed aspects of its often ambiguous face, manifesting various combat units with different missions and multiple brigades, and an effective system for communication, coordination, and issuing commands.
The resistance's ability to quickly decipher the invading forces' plans worked in their favor, enabling them to formulate an operational ground method based on their knowledge of the nature and environment of the combat theater, which doesn't exceed 365 square kilometers, one of the most densely populated and built-up areas in the world, and has been under a tight siege for nearly 17 years.
Observers agree that just as the people of Gaza know the details of their region, so does the resistance know its land like the back of their hand, which caused the occupying forces to encounter harsh combat complexities.
The Shuja'iyya neighborhood in the north of the strip was one such complex, where the elite Golani infantry brigade was cornered and suffered the heaviest losses in its bloody history with the Palestinians.
In the central Al-Bureij refugee camp and in the south, in Khan Younis, the occupation faced, and continues to face, fierce resistance that prevented it from achieving any tactical gains, inflicting painful human losses on them.
New Tactics Without Victory
With the beginning of the second month of the land war, military operations expanded to attack the southern part of the strip, and then the central area was attacked almost simultaneously with the south.
Israel pushed the brigades that fought in the south of the Gaza Strip up Salah al-Din Street without being able to encircle the city of Khan Younis or Qarara, where the attacking force stopped without making any progress.
The forces that attacked these two areas suffered losses in both soldiers and machinery, which forced them to reorganize their troops after about two months of the ground operation. Israel then withdrew notable brigades like "Golani" and pushed 8 brigades to the south.
The United States estimates the number of Israeli soldiers in the north at about 50,000, according to the "New York Times".
Simultaneously with these Israeli reinforcements, the Qassam Brigades intensified their attacks, relying on ambush tactics, minefields, and entrapment operations. Al-Qassam also adjusted its combat tactics, confirming the integrity and continuity of the chain of issuing and executing field orders, as apparent from the images broadcasted of the operations.
After 100 days since the battle commenced, field data suggest that the likelihood of Israel achieving a military victory seems distant or unlikely, as stated by the Hebrew newspaper "Haaretz".
