A growing number of Israelis have questioned the decision last Tuesday not to topple the building inside a Hamas compound in Shejaiya before Golani fighters entered the scene, with the tragic outcome of 10 dead from the Golani Brigade and the 669 rescue unit (10 Infantry Soldiers including Battalion Commander Killed in Northern Gaza Fighting).
The IDF on Wednesday provided several, sometimes contradictory explanations as to why the 4-story building under construction inside the compound had not been designated for a bombing by Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet. One source said the tunnel shaft would have been buried under the rubble, making it impossible to pursue the terrorists who were hiding underground. Another source cited the need to verify the elimination of terrorists at that spot which must be done the old-fashioned way, by infantry soldiers storming it.
Some commentators speculated that Hamas was harboring valuable assets in that compound, so it boobytrapped the site and laid an ambush to keep the soldiers away.
Some suggested the failure to bomb was part of the IDF’s response to the Biden administration’s pressure on Netanyahu’s war cabinet to reduce the bombing of “civilian” areas, which the Americans have dubbed “indiscriminate.”
Maj. Gen. (res.) Itzhak Brik, not known for defending the failures of the IDF command over the years, told Maariv on Wednesday the decision not to order an air assault was made by the forces on the ground.
“In the end, the Air Force arrives on missions by the request of the ground forces,” Brik said. “There is no change, I say this in the clearest, most decisive way, there is no change in the operation of the Air Force in the northern Gaza Strip. The decisions there are tactical.”
“The army aims to eventually reach, even in these areas, not a situation where you end up in face-to-face combat, but to how to bring in the air force, the tanks, etc. and take advantage of the IDF’s technological advantages, but we see that this is not always possible,” Brik said.
“I honestly think there is no change in the operation of the Air Force, certainly not in the north of the Gaza Strip where there are no civilians,” Brik continued. “I think that in this matter that was not the issue, it was a tactical matter of continuing to advance within an area where there are a great many of our forces. I don’t think there was a dilemma or a problem there, but a matter of tactical decisions on the ground. The set of considerations was operational-tactical, it was not related to a change in the application of Air Force policy.”
Brik agreed that such a shift may happen later, in the south of the Gaza Strip (to appease the Americans – DI), but “unequivocally, there was no such thing related to the fact that the Air Force was not there,” in the Shejaiya tragedy.
On the future of Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip, Maj. Gen. Brik said, “Notice how the explosive chargers are becoming a focal point. Even after the IDF is finished and there will be operational control in Shejaiya, we will continue to see in the entire northern Strip the characteristics of Hamas guerrilla warfare, and IEDs will be the most significant and central weapon that Hamas will be using.”
“The dilemma will be when to cut off the engagement with the northern Strip and focus only on the south. But you have to remember, as long as Shejaiya and Jabaliya are not truly stripped of their military capabilities, the residents of the Gaza envelope would not be able to return to their homes.”
