Israel Defense Forces have been working to perfect their urban warfare tactics,
in an effort to eliminate militant cells in the disputed zones of the West Bank
and Gaza Strip.
The goal is to gradually shift from a defensive to an offensive posture, said
Col. Boaz Cohen, a military envoy to the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C.
On the offensive, the Isreali military hunts down potential suicide bombers
and their handlers before they launch their operations, said Cohen.
“We realized that we cannot deal with the reality of suicide bombers,”
he said. “Through the years, we realized that there is no real [suicide
bomber] profile.”
Taking the fight to the terrorist cells is the only acceptable solution, he
added. Previously, Israeli intelligence experts thought that suicide bombers
were young, disadvantaged and poor. Now, they have realized that there is no
clearly defined profile, Cohen said.
An offensive posture creates significant challenges for Israeli soldiers, who
must be prepared to identify a terrorist cell and launch an attack without killing
innocent civilians, said Cohen.
That is not an easy task, particularly in the old cities that often resemble
labyrinths—they have narrow streets and are densely populated. Long-range
weapons are not effective in these confined areas. In most cases, weapons are
fired at ranges in the tens of meters, said Cohen.
In an offensive operation that may include multiple locations, an IDF brigade-level
unit stages a mounted attack to encircle suspected areas that harbor terrorists.
Soldiers start attacking from different flanks, to break the resistance, said
Cohen.
Israelis are known for their swarming tactic, or “planned unpredictability,”
according to Yagil Henkin, a military historian. Instead of using conventional
tactics, such as taking the outskirts of a town first, they systematically attack
from many directions. Swarming techniques, however, can create coordination
nightmares.
When they operate in small tactical units, soldiers typically focus on a single
target. They enter neighborhoods in civilian armored vehicles, rapidly penetrate
the area and isolate the target. Once that is accomplished the heavier, “noisier”
forces come in, said Cohen.
“The first challenge is to encircle the target or the objective, and
then start acting when you have all your forces with you,” Cohen said.
“We call it a surgical operation, trying not to affect the civilian population.
... We move through houses, through walls. We have breaching equipment,”
he said. “Although we are causing some damage, we are saving lives.”
Israeli soldiers blast holes in the walls between houses, so they can avoid
moving in the streets, Cohen said.
IDF planners are known for using unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor the operations
in real time.
Despite the IDF’s refined tactics, the enemy they face is tough to break.
“It is not a question of using all your military power,” he said.
“We have more military power than any terror organization that we are
fighting.”
The conundrum is how to keep civilians separated from the terrorists, he said,
a problem that U.S. soldiers also face in Iraq. “Capturing those terrorists
sometimes does not break resistance,” he said. Soldiers have to avoid
killing civilians who blend with the terrorists, by mistake or sometimes willingly
to distract and trick the soldiers.
U.S. forces in Iraq employed some of the same tactics the Israeli military
uses. They set up impromptu checkpoints, kept militants on the defensive with
frequent arrest raids and encircled villages.