Hamas adapts its defense tactics as the Israeli army continues tu push around Gaza city

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00:00 Well, for more analysis, I'm joined here in the studio by France 24 journalist,

00:03 Owasim Nasser.

00:03 Owasim, welcome to the program.

00:05 Let's begin by talking about Israel's offensive inside Gaza.

00:08 Where are we right now?

00:09 Well, actually, we have a map.

00:10 We're going to deploy the map.

00:12 We'll see what are the areas of advancement of Israeli armed forces.

00:17 So here we see what's in red are the areas where Israeli forces succeeded

00:22 in advancing.

00:23 And we see that mostly we are talking about the seaside

00:28 of the northern part of Gaza Strip.

00:31 There are fights in Beit Lahya, fight in Beit Hanoun.

00:34 And the area which is still preventing Israel from making the junction

00:40 is the Shati Camp, which is the Palestinian refugee Shati Camp,

00:45 a very dense area.

00:47 And as you see on the map, they are all around Gaza City,

00:50 but not yet in the streets of Gaza City.

00:53 And we see the main roads going through the south,

00:56 meaning Arashid Street on the coast,

00:58 Street 10 cutting into also the northern part of Gaza,

01:04 and the areas where Israeli forces are in control.

01:07 And we have a photo where we can see which proves that the Israeli forces

01:12 are next to the Shati Camp from the south.

01:15 And on this photo, we'll see a big wheel, which is actually next to the port.

01:21 Here it is.

01:23 So this big wheel is south of the Shati Camp on the seaside of the Gaza Strip.

01:29 So here is proof with photo where Israeli forces are actually in control.

01:35 Yeah, we were talking about that theme park yesterday,

01:36 not you and I, but our correspondent in Jerusalem,

01:38 saying it's the only thing left of that theme park.

01:41 Now, when it comes to tactics,

01:43 what have we been seeing on both sides in the last 48 hours?

01:46 Well, when we look at the footage that was released by the Israeli army

01:50 and by Hamas, we can see there's a shift in tactics.

01:53 And here we see those are the images of the Israeli army.

01:56 So, of course, bombardment, as they are doing since day one.

02:00 But here we see foot soldiers on the ground,

02:04 meaning we are not in incursion mode.

02:06 We are in control mode.

02:08 And here it's an old Santerians tank made as a troop transport.

02:13 And here we see Javelin rockets on Israeli forces.

02:17 But the most important thing is they are on foot,

02:20 meaning to protect their tanks and their vehicles,

02:24 meaning also that they are not scared of being shot by Hamas militants.

02:29 Here we see the first phase of fighting in the outskirts of Gaza City,

02:34 open areas, small houses.

02:37 And we see that the Hamas crews were by two, a shooter and a loader, you see.

02:43 And here we see how they tried to prevent Israeli forces

02:49 from going into those areas.

02:51 But as you see, one more time, we are talking about open areas.

02:54 We're not talking about densely populated areas.

02:57 And we have another footage too.

02:59 Here it is also.

03:01 You see the footage of mortars.

03:03 So we are talking about 120 millimetres mortars to delay

03:08 or to prevent Israeli forces from advancing.

03:10 And one more time, we are in open areas.

03:13 We are not talking about heavily or dense populated areas

03:18 where this kind of mortars wouldn't be anyways efficient against advancing forces.

03:23 And this is the last phase of the fight.

03:25 And here we are seeing urban fighting,

03:27 as we saw in Aleppo, in Syria, as we saw in Homs, in Mosul, in Iraq.

03:32 And here is the hardest part of the fight,

03:34 either for the Israelis or for Hamas militants

03:37 or other Palestinians who are into this fight.

03:41 And you see the destruction by airstrikes or by artillery.

03:45 And in this phase of the fight, urban warfare,

03:47 destructions like this become an asset for the defender.

03:51 And they prevent actually the attacking forces from attacking very, very fast.

03:57 So this is the hardest part of the fight.

03:59 And we're going to see also on this footage,

04:01 because Israeli forces will be shot at from above and from beneath.

04:07 And here we see from high buildings with only a simple Kalashnikov,

04:11 you can prevent a convoy from advancing.

04:15 And as you see on those pictures, because as we talked earlier also,

04:19 you only see tanks advancing, bulldozers, but no on foot soldiers,

04:23 meaning those are incursion areas and not controlled areas yet.

04:29 Okay, and just lastly, I mean, do we know anything more about what Israel has planned

04:33 for the post-conflict scenario there in Gaza?

04:36 Well, actually, the Israeli prime minister was vocal about controlling Gaza,

04:40 the security in Gaza, but we don't know how it's going to unfold.

04:43 Because even the Americans, Blinken said that they do not,

04:47 they wouldn't accept a new occupation of Gaza.

04:50 But beside this political aspect of it, occupying Gaza militarily

04:54 would be very costly for the Israeli forces,

04:57 and materially and in human resources.

05:01 And I don't know if they want to go into such a thing

05:03 after being withdrawn from Gaza in 2005.

05:07 Another option was on the table, meaning international forces, you see.

05:11 But we were commemorating a few days ago,

05:14 the attack on French forces in Beirut back in 1983,

05:18 where French and American Marines forces and Italian forces

05:21 were supposed to monitor Beirut after the Israeli invasion in 1982.

05:27 And we know that the Marines lost many men, the French lost many men.

05:30 So which country today will accept to put on foot soldiers in Gaza

05:36 to monitor the security in Gaza?

05:38 So the question still is open as we speak,

05:42 because even the Palestinian Authority was kicked out of Gaza by Hamas.

05:45 So I don't know if they have the means or the political will

05:48 to go back into Gaza and to control Gaza.

05:51 So this is the most important question

05:53 that should be answered after the end of the fight.

05:56 Okay. Colonel-General Fawzi Nasser, thank you very much indeed for your analysis.

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