Is Raf OK? -- Installment #61
2023-12-26 -- Corfu, Greece
Tags: 5 Min Read; Gaza Tunnel Videos
I am in Corfu spending a week with family. Amazing spot. Discovered that Greeks and Israelis visit each other's countries a lot, and share a "small nation" affinity (similar population). There is much empathy for Israel.
The leveling of a chunk of Gaza isn't pretty. Senior leaders of America's defense department come away from meetings in Israel saying, "The battle landscape in Gaza is complex..."
An understatement. Hamas’ infrastructure is deep, and built to be hard to find, easy to defend, and covered with residences and hospitals. It is created to make urban warfare impossible (a unit sent in would never come out). Thus the intense shelling and bombing. There is no other way to send in ground troops.
Mail Bag: Tel Aviv Central Bus Station
A video of Raf going through the bus station triggered two lengthy responses....
My "old" recollection of the bus station is circa 1983, when the neighborhood was pointed out as the Red Light District. The following recollections predate mine....
Response #1 (S.D.)
I don't think I have ever been in the TA bus station, except maybe once, a hundred years ago (and it was creepy then). Two hundred years ago, when I volunteered at Shefayim and we would go to TA for the afternoon or evening, we went via the prior bus station. The road from the kibbutz was a four lane local road (2 lanes in each direction) with direct entrances and exits from kibbutzim and towns. None of the super highway that exists today with on and off ramps and guard rails. The bus station was spread out over a large area as well as up and down some streets, somewhere near where Kerem he Temanim [where Raf lives] is now. The bus lanes were like stalls that the bus pulled up to, with each stall servicing several bus lines. The place was all pavement, usually hot (because I was there in the summers), dirty and smelled like piss. Ah, the good old days.... I might not be remembering well, but I think there was actually a bus station in between the years of the one that I used and the one that exists now, but I'm not sure I am correct, or where it was, exactly.
Response Two (S.F.Z.)
First or second day after arriving [in Israel] I’m in Rehovot in 1958. Victor and I are wandering the grounds of the Weizmann Institute. Grounds keeper/low key security guy asks, “L’an?” Victor answers something about just looking at the grounds. This is before I have been to ulpan so don’t know a word of Hebrew. I ask Victor what had been asked, and it was just like you in the bus station. Totally forgot this exchange until I heard your’s.
Why oh Why
Is Israel leveling Gaza and going after hospitals?
The Die is Loaded
Hamas spent 12+ years creating a situation that, vis-a-vis the IDF, amounts to: Heads: I win; Tails: You lose.
In other words: We have a huge military infrastructure that is underground and integrated into residences and hospitals. Follow your old rules, our military stays intact. Take on our infrastructure and either thousands of soldiers die or you have to level Gaza.
That's Why…
So much of Gaza is leveled before ground troops go in: There are tunnel exits everywhere. Over 1500 identified (and I expect as many or more lost under bombed buildings). Not widely reported: Closed circuit cameras: Hamas has these everywhere, and watches them from underground. They are used to watch the IDF and set ambushes.
Gaza City Center
(2 min video, in English)
IDF spokesman: IDF forces have completed the takeover of Hamas' "senior quarter" in the center of Gaza City. The governmental and military leadership of Hamas operated and conducted itself from this space in the Palestine Square area. The complex includes a branching network of tunnels connecting hiding apartments, bureaus, offices and living apartments of the senior military and political wing of the Hamas terrorist organization. This complex above and below ground constitutes a central security authority of the military-political arm of Hamas.
The area in question 👆 with the tunnel system of senior Hamas officials lies under Palestine Square in the center of Gaza City, which is seen here in the photo (not to be confused with Palestine Square which is located in the Shejaiya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, where the statue commemorating the APC Disaster was destroyed).
More footage from these tunnels (each clip is 1.5 min):
Hospitals
Asked more than once:"Why are there dozens of hospitals in Gaza? That doesn't correspond to anywhere else or to the population served." Here is an answer:
A Gaza hospital director talks about how the hospital and ambulances served as a Hamas office building and courier service (4 min, Arabic with English subtitles).
More tunnels
K-9-cam. 40 seconds.
IDF Spokesperson:
Soldiers of the Yahalom Unit and the Oketz K-9 Unit examined the significant and strategic underground tunnel route beneath the "Issa" post - used as an underground base by the Hamas terrorist organization. This multi-level structure served as an underground post. Its floors were used for storage, hideouts, command and control, and movement of operatives between different areas. After investigating with various technological means and in collaboration with the combat engineering forces of the 99th Division, the soldiers destroyed the underground tunnel route.
The IDF released footage from the Marom Brigade's Oketz K-9 Unit's dog cameras, revealing a tunnel network hundreds of meters long, including command and communication rooms, hideouts with dozens of meters of space, concrete bunkers, and water and electricity installations. So far in the war, the unit's soldiers and dogs have scanned dozens of tunnels, locating findings that allow the forces to enter the tunnels.
More Tunnels
IDF Spokesperson: The IDF has completed an extensive operation to dismantle Hamas' northern underground headquarters in Gaza; Underground infrastructure where bodies of hostages were recovered by IDF soldiers is revealed
In recent weeks, the 551st Brigade of the 162nd Division secured control of the area of the Jabalya camp – one of Hamas' operational centers in the Gaza Strip. The operations included fierce battles during which many terrorists were killed by IDF soldiers and hundreds of weapons were located.
As part of the operation, and following advanced intelligence, the soldiers, in cooperation with the Multidimensional Unit and the Yahalom Unit, exposed a strategic tunnel network that served as Hamas' northern headquarters in Gaza. The underground headquarters, which included two levels - the first approximately 10 meters deep and the second dozens of meters deep. The tunnel network, with many routes, was used for directing combat and the movement of terrorists. At the depth of the military headquarters, weapons, infrastructure for manufacturing weapons, and emergency hideouts were found. The network was connected to a shaft leading to the residence of the Commander of Hamas' Northern Brigade, Ahmad Andur. The underground network also passed beneath a school and a hospital.
In a centralized intelligence effort, led by Unit 504 of the Intelligence Directorate, the soldiers located and recovered the bodies of five hostages abducted on October 7th and brought them to be buried in Israel: Warrant Officer Ziv Dado, Sergeant Ron Sherman, Corporal Nik Beizer, Eden Zacharia, and Elia Toledano. May their memory be a blessing.
The findings were presented to the families by IDF representatives. The IDF expresses its condolences to the bereaved families and will continue to accompany them. The IDF, in cooperation with other security organizations, is continuing to act through a variety of intelligence and operational means to return the hostages.
Upon completion of this mission, the forces dismantled the subterranean headquarters. The demolition of the headquarters in Jabalya is part of the effort to deal with Hamas' tunnel infrastructure and to strike at its senior commanders and its strategic capabilities. This effort is continuing at all times and is now being carried out in Khan Yunis and the southern Gaza Strip.
90 seconds: Shows tunnels, and at the end an ammunition factory in a tunnel.
Rocket Launchers in Ordinary Back Yard
Engineering Battalion 8170 located rocket launchers in the yard of a private house. The power switch is inside the house above the refrigerator...
Try to imagine how many more of these there are/were and how they would launch rockets into Israel without even leaving the kitchen....
In the attached video, the engineering soldiers are destroying the building located in the Al-Atatra area in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Relief Area
Alef
Bet
Gimmel
You need to know the geography of the Middle East before you start jabbering.
Today was rock climbing (they climb, I watch). Tomorrow, some other adventure.
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., M.T., Twitter)