What you need to know about the Gaza Strip ahead of the Israeli offensive

“We have no choice but to go in,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted during a phone call with US President Joe Biden, according to NBC. It involves a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, which is under the control of the terrorist organization Hamas. Only the Israeli generals know what this offensive will look like. The Israeli Defense Forces’ two previous ground operations in 2008 and 2014 provide clues: Operation Cast Lead and Operation Rock in the Surf.

The Gaza Strip is 41 kilometers long and 6 to 12 kilometers wide (365 square kilometers). For comparison, Lake Neuchâtel is 38 kilometers long and a maximum of 8 kilometers wide (218 square kilometers). About 2 million people live in the Gaza Strip, which corresponds to a density of more than 5,300 people per square kilometer. The city of Zurich has a population of 4,655 people per square kilometer. The entire Gaza Strip is surrounded by a barrier. It was built in 1994 and modernized from 2019 to 2021. It is six meters high and has cameras, motion detectors and various sensors to prevent tunnels from being built underneath. However, this continues to happen, but at a depth of up to 40 meters.

Adjacent to the fence is a zone of 100 meters wide that may not be entered. Palestinians are also not allowed to leave the Gaza Strip by sea. From ten kilometers onwards, Israeli motorboats dominate the water.

The residents owe this to the fact that weapons and rockets, but also building materials and – in addition to the goods already supplied by Israel – food and medicine are brought to the Gaza Strip thanks to an enormously extensive tunnel system that leads to Egypt, but also to Israel . . It is estimated that more than 1000 tunnels exist with an average length of one kilometer. Some are made of concrete and can even be used by trucks.

There are few regular crossings. Before the October 7 attacks, only Erez (for people) on the northeastern border and Kerem Shalom (for goods) on the southernmost tip were operational. Since a bloody power struggle against Fatah, the Gaza Strip has been controlled by the radical Islamist terrorist group Hamas, which rules with an iron hand. It is estimated that Hamas earns hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes paid by tunnel operators in Gaza alone. Yet half of the inhabitants are dependent on foreign aid. Youth unemployment is over 50 percent.

In 2008, Hamas fired more than a thousand rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israel, which responded by cutting off official supply channels through the border crossings. A peace agreement was reached through Egyptian mediation, which was broken several times by both sides shortly afterwards. In December, Hamas withdrew from the agreement and again fired excessively into Israel with more than 300 rockets in one day. At the initiative of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who was about to become Prime Minister, Israel decided to invade Gaza in the form of ‘Operation Cast Lead’.

The shelling began on December 27 in the form of air strikes. During the days of bombing, artillery, Hamas infrastructure and civilian facilities were razed to the ground, among other things. While Hamas accused Israel of showing no respect for civilian victims, the accusation from Jerusalem was that Hamas was using civilian shields to protect its terror infrastructure. An example of this is the University of Gaza City, whose bombing also destroyed a rocket factory and liquidated a high-ranking member of the Islamic Holy War.

After days of shelling, Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza Strip for the first time on January 3. According to eyewitnesses, they used the Erez entrance in the north. As a result, there were intense fire battles, especially in the countryside. Israeli forces refrained from penetrating too deeply into urban areas. The number of Palestinian casualties continued to rise, while Israeli forces suffered few casualties. Despite the advance, Hamas fired rockets into Israel almost daily.

On January 12, a local Hamas commander agreed to negotiate peace. But the top of the terrorist organization was divided. The exiled leaders in Damascus (Syria) ordered the fight to continue.

On January 18, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip after Prime Minister Olmert declared that the mission’s objectives had been achieved. Depending on the information, between 300 and 900 civilians and 500 to 900 Hamas fighters were killed during the mission. Israel reported 13 deaths.

Operation Rock in the Surf lasted more than twice as long, from July 8, 2014 to August 26, 2014. Not only the duration, but also the number of deaths increased. Israel recorded 60 to 70 dead soldiers and civilians, the Palestinian side complained of 2,000 dead, although the distribution of civilians and fighters varies widely depending on the source.

According to Israeli information, the cause was renewed rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, but also the murder of three young people by Hamas in the West Bank. Young Israelis took revenge by killing a Palestinian in East Jerusalem. The commander-in-chief of the Israeli forces was Benjamin Netanyahu, then and now Prime Minister. The procedure, course and ending were roughly similar to those of Operation Cast Lead: Israel started with days of bombing and later invaded the Gaza Strip with ground troops. Meanwhile, Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel.

Meanwhile, the controversy over human shields reached a new level. Twenty Hamas rockets were discovered in a building of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Israeli ground forces have also uncovered dozens of smuggling tunnels, shedding new light on the scale of the underground construction. Some of this ended up in mosques, refugee camps, schools and UNRWA buildings, sparking international protests.

A planned massacre was also revealed: hundreds of Hamas fighters would be smuggled into Israel through the tunnels to murder and kidnap as many civilians as possible in neighboring Israeli settlements. Nine years later, Hamas has succeeded in its diabolical plan. What remains to be seen is Israel’s response.