Khan Yunis has been visited recently by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar, with intentions of helping to concentrate the military’s efforts in the Gaza Strip. They are hoping to help forge the path to finding the hideouts of the Hamas military leadership, who are using hostages as their “human shields.”
One of the challenges the forces face in the Gaza Strip is a branched system of tunnels. The tunnels and shafts are used for several purposes, including logistics (food, water, medicine, etc.), ventilation, electricity, and the entry and exit of activists and senior officials from area to area during battle. The deeper they went, the greater the passage of the activists in the tunnels.
Another important challenge that must be faced, which allows Sinwar to partially control the Gaza Strip, is a command and control system, which provides him with a situational picture of what is happening on the ground.
According to estimates in the security establishment, Hamas surrounds the tunnel system in Khan Yunis – where the top of Hamas is hiding – in various circles of observers and messengers.
Who are Sinwar’s observers?
These observers can be women, boys, and men of all ages, who report on the location and extent of the IDF forces, and any unusual activity in the area, which can be useful to Hamas’s plans. According to army officers, “some of the observers will stand on the roofs of houses or under the cover of buildings without weapons, only with a walkie-talkie or a telephone, and some of them will probably communicate what is happening with shouts or other signs. Some women will also cross the street with a baby carriage or children in order not to arouse suspicion.”
But the cynical and cruel step, according to army officers, is the use of children who are sent to battle zones and places occupied by the IDF, where there is no reason for civilians, especially children, to be.
“You know that the child arrived at Tzafat, you know that he is part of a larger system, but in the end he is a child and we as commanders are in a dilemma, to shoot or to carry out a pursuit while risking our fighters. So we do not shoot at children under any circumstances, but Hamas certainly puts us in a very complex dilemma. We feel that we are getting closer to the goal. In the end it will happen. We will crack what is needed. We need a lot of patience. Every day that passes we are more than enough,” explained one of the officers who left the Khan Yunis area.
The assessment of security officials is that in this way, Yahya Sinwar and his brothers Muhammad, Muhammad Daf, Marwan Issa, and the other members of the political leadership actually manage to communicate with each other, establish contact with foreign officials, and build a situational picture of what is happening in the Gaza Strip, except for what they seen and heard in the Arab and Israeli public media.
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