Posted on 12/24/2014 4:38:02 AM PST by SJackson
Defense minister: In north, Hezbollah remains deterred, and Free Syrian Army-linked groups are preventing radical Islamists from approaching our border. gaza tunnel
A Palestinian tunnel in Gaza. . (photo credit:REUTERS)
Hamas has begun to reconstruct its network of tunnels within Gaza, and Israel is watching for signs it is working on cross-border attack tunnels as well, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Tuesday.
Under no circumstances will Israelis have to get used to a “drizzle of rockets” anywhere, “not in the North and not in the South,” Ya’alon vowed.
Israel retaliated for Friday’s Gazan rocket attack on the Eshkol region by carrying out an air strike on a cement factory in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, which Hamas has used to rehabilitate its tunnels. The rocket hit an open area.
“We saw that Hamas acted immediately to arrest those who fired the rockets,” Ya’alon said. “In other words, Hamas does not want an escalation. I hope this situation remains as is. It means that Hamas is deterred in the Gaza Strip. I don’t think it has an interest in an escalation. Nevertheless, we have to be prepared for all developments. We certainly see reconstruction of defensive tunnels, there is such activity. With regard to offensive tunnels, we are following all developments.”
So-called defensive tunnels enable Hamas members to move within the Gaza Strip underground, transfer weapons and coordinate hit-and-run more varied. I cannot go into detail,” the commander said.
Drones can spend more time in the air than manned aerial platforms.
They are cheaper to run, and there is no risk to the lives of operators, which the school’s commander said is “the most significant” factor. It is these capabilities, and others, that are behind the drone’s rising prominence in the military.
“The operators stay in a secure environment, enabling us to take the right decisions during missions. This makes it more attractive to pass on missions to the unmanned world. This trend will only increase,” he said. The operators are not physically in the battlefield, but they are very much in the thick of things mentally, the commander stressed. That requires unique training.
“They are exposed to difficult sights of combat. They see what the platform sees, and often, not from a high altitude. They are fully connected to the battlefield. The mental training is very important,” he said.
During training, one instructor is assigned to every two cadets.
Cadets spend many hours on simulator, and then begin real flights, first over open areas, then over built-up regions.
During flights, each cadet is overseen by an instructor. Their intensive routine is made up of pre-flight briefings, two sorties a day, and a debriefing.
Drones have played a key part in all of Israel’s campaigns since the Second Lebanon War of 2006. Veteran officers who become instructors bring along their experience to the school.
After completing the training, cadets “are quickly exposed to difficult operational activity.
They have to be mentally prepared for that. Those who don’t meet our standards don’t finish the course,” the commander said. “Within a year, they are going to be mission commanders. They have to meet the standard.”
Drone operator cadets, all of whom originally enlisted in fighter pilot courses, will go on to serve for at least five years in squadrons. “After three years they will reach a maximal levels of proficiency,” the school commander said.
The commander of the course, a captain who also cannot be named, told the Post about the shaky start to the latest program.
Weeks after it began, the 50-day war with Hamas in Gaza erupted. “We faced a dilemma: Do we continue, or stop the program? We ended up sending instructors to their operational units, as all of them serve in squadrons. They then continued to instruct during the conflict, under a lot of pressure and mental burden. But we could not delay the course. We cannot disrupt the buildup of our military force.”
Why hit an empty area?
Why not get dry ice and fill the tunnels with CO2.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Defensive tunnels?
The rocket from Gaza hit an empty area in Israel. The Israeli response hit a cement factory.
These murdering Gaza scum need to be removed from Israel one way or another. If necessary, kill them and bet it over with. Any other government would have finished the job last time, Bibi. Your humanitarian restraint just enables the islamonazis to regroup rearm and re- attack you. Every time. To defend your people Abd land you will have to eliminate the enemy.
Actually, you have a very good idea with that rodent blaster, but in a militarized form.
To start with, you just need some way of getting a 2” pipe inserted through the ground into the tunnel. Then hook it up to an armored high pressure propane tank. It doesn’t have to kick much gas underground, because the purpose is not to burn, but overpressure. It will kill anyone in the tunnel, but also ruins its integrity, so it collapses.
That tunnel is not going to contain any significant pressure. You do not want that or you will leak propane in multiple places above ground.
Add enough propane for 10~20% mixture with the air inside.
Ignite.
My take was that the unaimed Gazan rocket hit an empty area while the IAF strike hit the cement factory
Amazingly, I said Gazan rocket because Hamas apparently quit the rocket attacks which is at the very edge of believability
Needs garlic.
Hey, an article about the construction of terror tunnels by Hamas is disproportionate. /s
Hamas is the attacker so why do they need defense tunnels?
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