[On Thursday, the Israeli military reported the death of a soldier and
the injury of another three when their jeep blew up along the Israeli border
with the southern Gaza Strip. The military said the jeep was destroyed by a
landmine near the Kissufim border crossing. The Iranian-sponsored Islamic
Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.]
The two-day operation in the northern Gaza Strip was conducted by the
Givati Brigade and the Barak Armored Brigade. Givati commander Col. Ilan
Malka was with his troops throughout the fighting in the Jabalya refugee
camp as well as neighboring Gaza City.
During the Lebanon war, brigade and divisional commanders watched the
battles against Hizbullah from headquarters in northern Israel. The officers
remained behind to demonstrate the military's new command, control,
communications, computers and intelligence, or C4I, network, designed to
enhance situational awareness and fuse air and ground assets.
Instead, the sources said, the C4I system often failed to provide key
data on Hizbullah's whereabouts. Unmanned aerial vehicles, which provided
much of the reconnaissance to headquarters, encountered heavy morning fog in
Lebanon that prevented commanders from seeing their own or enemy combatants.
In a debriefing on March 4, company and battalion commanders assessed
what was regarded as the incomplete operation against Hamas. Military
sources said Hamas, with two brigades in the area of operations, was
heavily-armed and well-equipped but did not fight in an organized manner.
"They fought more like a militia rather than an organized force," the
source said. "I think they are probably disappointed with their
performance."
