naraburns nihil supernum
1yr ago
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Israel-Gaza Megathread #1
This is a megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.
Something we don't know that impacts their effectiveness for non-Jihadists: how many of the IPG operators survived the day and successfully returned to Gaza? My initial guess would be none, and certainly I suspect that the expectation among both Hamas' planners and the operators themselves was that this was a purely one way trip, any that did ultimately survive were a result of success that exceeded expectations. They expected to insert these militants deep into Israel, where they would effectively shoot in random directions before being killed, but in the process they would distract Israeli response forces and allow other militants to achieve direct aims.
Gaza, for a variety of reasons both religious and material, has an unusually large supply of young men willing to kill themselves for the cause. While countries like Ukraine and Azerbaijan have a plentiful supply of nationalist psychopaths willing to die for the nation, a certain-death suicide mission is a different animal. Le Guard Meurt Mais Ne Se Rend Pas! is a very different attitude than that of the suicide bomber. The Gazans also did not need to be particularly talented or trained, they were sent to attack a music festival. Send them to attack even a soft military target, or to achieve any real sabotage or destruction of infrastructure that might impact a battle, and they'll need training and skills. Training, skills, and courage that you won't particularly want to sacrifice for a single battle. It's not clear that the IPG would have any value if you didn't have men you were willing to sacrifice who were willing to be sacrificed.
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Notes -
Something we don't know that impacts their effectiveness for non-Jihadists: how many of the IPG operators survived the day and successfully returned to Gaza? My initial guess would be none, and certainly I suspect that the expectation among both Hamas' planners and the operators themselves was that this was a purely one way trip, any that did ultimately survive were a result of success that exceeded expectations. They expected to insert these militants deep into Israel, where they would effectively shoot in random directions before being killed, but in the process they would distract Israeli response forces and allow other militants to achieve direct aims.
Gaza, for a variety of reasons both religious and material, has an unusually large supply of young men willing to kill themselves for the cause. While countries like Ukraine and Azerbaijan have a plentiful supply of nationalist psychopaths willing to die for the nation, a certain-death suicide mission is a different animal. Le Guard Meurt Mais Ne Se Rend Pas! is a very different attitude than that of the suicide bomber. The Gazans also did not need to be particularly talented or trained, they were sent to attack a music festival. Send them to attack even a soft military target, or to achieve any real sabotage or destruction of infrastructure that might impact a battle, and they'll need training and skills. Training, skills, and courage that you won't particularly want to sacrifice for a single battle. It's not clear that the IPG would have any value if you didn't have men you were willing to sacrifice who were willing to be sacrificed.
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