Shejaiya absorbed more than 100 tons of explosives, which
inflicted massive destruction on the neighborhood. Israeli
forces were able to pull back and evacuate their casualties.
Palestinians reported that 40 people, both combatants and
civilians, were killed in the bombing.
The following day, the Golani brigade reentered Shejaiya
to complete its mission. Word about the extremely close air
support that the brigade received quickly spread to other
brigades, which then
asked the air force to
provide them with the
same support. The air
force did that at sev-
eral other locations,
practically destroying
the fi rst few rows of buildings on the outskirts of Palestinian
urban areas.
“Those days taught us that from now on, any ground ma-
neuver into a dense urban area will have to be very close-
ly supported from the air,” says an air force of cial, “and
that the entry ticket into a serried [compact] urban area is
100-200 tons of munitions.”
After 18 days of ground fi ghting, Israeli forces detected and
destroyed the known 32 tunnels and withdrew from Gaza.
But the fighting
did not stop; Israel
and Hamas contin-
ued to exchange
fire for 22 days,
during which the
IAF suppressed
Hamas’s rocket
fi re on Israeli pop-
ulation centers.
Many believe
the turning point
of the war oc-
curred on the 46th
day, when the air
force began strik-
ing high-rise build-
ings in the more
upscale neighbor-
hoods of Gaza,
which housed the
command posts of Hamas. The air force was using what is
known as the “knock-on-roof procedure.” After asking in-
habitants to evacuate, the IAF fi red a small munition to the
corner of the roof of the building—a signal that it was about
to be destroyed.
Three high-rises were struck that way. Days later, Hamas
agreed to a ceasefi re. “I believe we should have struck those
buildings earlier,” says an air force of cial. “That might have
shortened the length of the war.”
And that is a tactic the air force command is likely to ap-
ply elsewhere.
“Looking at a potential conflict with Hezbollah in
Lebanon, which even more than Hamas, is deeply dis-
guised inside the civilian infrastructure, our lesson
is that every ground maneuver should have a clear
purpose and a dedicated ground support [by] fighter
aircraft,” says another senior air force official. “And,
yes, in such a scenario, collateral damage will be huge,
and so would be the number of civilian casualties.”
After almost nine years of relative calm between Israel
and the Lebanese militia, tension has been rising along the
Israeli-Lebanese border. Hezbollah has launched attacks with
improvised explosive devices against Israel, allegedly in re-
taliation for Israel i air strikes in Syria and Lebanon. While
Israel believes that Hezbollah, which is deeply immersed in
the Syrian civil war, has no interest in opening another front,
a recent intelligence assessment points to a greater risk of
unintended escalation.
“Since the end of the Lebanon war in 2006, Hezbollah has
been planting its missiles and rockets underneath [its] civil-
ian infrastructure,” a senior Israeli intelligence of cial says.
And with a suspected arsenal of 100,000 missiles and rockets,
Hezbollah poses the most signifi cant military threat to Israel
of any non-state force.
This leaves Israel planning to strike heavily, and early, if
there is a confl ict. “That means that those civilians who would
stay around Hezbollah military infrastructure will be killed,”
says an IAF of cial. “We will not have time to wait.”
One achievement of the air force in Gaza would not be
repeated in a confl ict with Lebanon: Israel’s Iron Dome sys-
tem almost negated Palestinian rocket fi re on Israeli towns
last summer. With 4,341 rockets fi red from Gaza, 4,335 were
detected by the air force’s warning systems, consisting of
Elta’s EL/M-2084 multi-mission radar and Rafael’s Ma’amin
optical sensor. Of those, Iron Dome intercepted 736 rockets
fi red at populated areas. It missed 85 rockets, which fell in
areas protected by the system. But not a single Israeli was
killed in an Iron Dome-protected area.
With Hezbollah’s vast arsenal of rockets, Iron Dome would
only be able to defend strategic assets. The meaning of this,
says the air force of cial, “is that any confl ict with Lebanon
would be much more aggressive and, hopefully, shorter.” cDEFENSE ANALYSISIsraelGazaShejaiyaJordanSyriaLebanonEgyptMediterranean
SeaWest
BankGaza CityTel AvivJerusalemHaifaBeit Hanoun50 mi.100 kmGolan
HeightsBBOEINGIsraeli forces disregarded safety
procedures during the campaign,
dropping Joint Direct Attack Muni-
tions within 100 meters of friendly
forces and infl icting destruction on
a Gaza neighborhood.Some of the heaviest bombing
during Israel’s 50-day campaign
against the Palestinian Hamas
movement took place in the She-
jaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.COLIN THROM/AW&STDTI18 MARCH 30 -APRIL 12, 2015 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL AviationWeek.com/dti