Hamas Prepares 15,000 Soldiers, Civilian Human Shields For Full Confrontation With Israel

Over the last few years Hamas's army - with significant help from Iran and Hezbollah - has been transformed from a terrorist gang into a heavily armed modern army. There's a clear chain of command at the top of well-defined regiments that operate in discrete areas. This will be a real war against a significant fighting force:

Hamas has split the Gaza Strip into five sections corresponding to five different brigades in the north, center, Gaza City, and two brigades in the south. Each brigade has a commander as well as several battalions under its command. Alongside the battalions there are Special Forces - units with expertise in rocket fire, mortar attacks, roadside bombs and commando forces. In Gaza, if the IDF embarked on a ground operation it would face an army of close to 20,000 armed men, among them at least 15,000 Hamas operatives. The rest are from Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Resistance Committees.

Underground the entire Gaza Strip is now a series of tunnels and bunkers. There are two purposes to this network. The first is operational: moving soldiers and assets, coordinating battlefield communication, etc. The second is more crudely military: they're going to blow up tunnels underneath IDF troops. Above ground Gaza City's narrow alleys and streets have been mapped out, heavily mined, and prepared as ambush sites. Hamas has installed soldiers throughout Gaza's densely packed neighborhoods, hoping - as they've been trying to do for months - to create another Beit Hanoun propaganda payoff. Their military infrastructure stretches from the internationally-funded C3I facilities that they captured from Fatah - just-released IDF pictures here - to the mosques where they store weapons and use loudspeakers for mobilization. And - of course - schools and apartment buildings:

The first wave of Saturday's air strikes targeted Hamas training bases, military facilities, weapons stores and other locations used by the Hamas security apparatus; Hamas has some 15,000 armed men in the Strip, defense officials estimate. In the second wave, targets included underground rocket-launch sites - where Hamas had readied rockets for remote-control fire. Other such sites, as well as weapons stores and factories, located near schools or on the lower floors of apartment blocks, were not touched. At this stage.

The Israelis seem to have concluded that an extended ground operation will be necessary to degrade Hamas's army:

The Israel Defense Forces on early Sunday began mobilizing tanks and reinforcing ground troops near the Gaza border, in preparation for a possible ground incursion. Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Sky News that he would not rule out widening the offensive in the Gaza Strip to include a ground invasion. Barak on Saturday also said Israel "cannot really accept" a cease-fire with Hamas, rejecting calls by the United Nations and the European Union for a truce after Israel Air Force strikes killed at least 230 people in Gaza. "For us to be asked to have a cease-fire with Hamas is like asking you to have a cease-fire with Al-Qaida," Barak said in an interview with Fox News. "It's something we cannot really accept."

Not the best analogy since the Europeans have been begging Al Qaeda for a ceasefire since before Spain shamefully collapsed post-3/11. But not an unfair point.

References:
* Israeli Intel: Hamas Military Buildup "Most Intensive In Modern History" [MR]
* Analysis: The Hamas army [JPost]
* Hamas Launching Dozens Of Rockets From Palestinian Neighborhoods, Attacking Israeli Troops (Plus: US Announces $14 Million In New Aid) [MR]
* Beit Hanoun Meme Watch - (2) "The Palestinians Are Really Pissed Off" - And The NYT Will Publish Death Porn To Prove It [MR]
* IDF Releases Photos of Hamas Targets, Terror Training Facilities [A7]
* Analysis: Fighting Hamas in the shadow of 2006's mistakes [JPost]
* IDF mobilizes tanks, reinforces troops along Gaza border [Ha'aretz]