Hi,
In the first two weeks of war, it was all about when the ground maneuver would start. But since IDF forces had entered Gaza strip, it is all about the underground maneuver in the tunnels spread underneath it.
IDF forces seem to fight not only above ground but also underneath it simultaneously. That is something new, and I am not sure if other armies have experience in this kind of fighting underneath the ground.
Till this war, when we bumped into tunnels, we avoided entering into them and had methods to seal them, look into them from above to (to save us getting into them), fill them with smoke (to run away the terrorists inside it), but mainly explode them. The fighting was above the ground, and the idea was to eliminate the underground fighting level as much as possible.
But the amount of tunnels, which their numbers are way above the most pessimistic intelligence information we had, create a shift in the way this war is handling and the fighting is done underground as well as above (only in Khan Yunis, more than 400 tunnels shaft were located). On 2021 it was estimated 500km of tunnels exists under the ground in Gaza strip, and now the estimation goes up to 720 km and more than 5,700 entering and exit shafts.
Now, the soldiers are not only getting down into the tunnel to explore them, but they also fight in them. As the fighting happens in a dark place, it is done with night vision devices on the heads of the soldiers. The soldiers clear kilometers tunnels in each one of those fights. In many cases, the tunnels have many branches, and the unit breaks into those branches fighting in this underground maneuver.
Take Care
Gad
A soldier carrying landmines into a tunnel in order to demolish it (Source: IDF spokerman)