At noon on November 2, in a small town in the northeast of the Gaza Strip, the sun was shining, and a convoy of Israeli Merkava tanks was moving along the road, and the soldiers were in a relaxed mood, chatting about their plans after the end of the war, unaware of the crisis around them.
In the bushes not far from them, a Hamas militant got out of an underground tunnel, quickly approached a "Merkava", placed a ** device on its back side, and then quickly retreated, and a few seconds later, the ** device detonated, and the militants fired another ** missile with a bazooka, completely destroying this "Merkava".
The scene was filmed and quickly went viral on TikTok, where the militant earned the nickname "Hamas Superman" by blowing up the tank.
This is not Hamas's only achievement, as can be seen from a large number of battlefields**, in the ground battle in Gaza, which lasted more than ten days, the Israeli army lost at least 60 tanks and armored vehicles.
The Israeli army itself admits that since the ground forces entered Gaza, as of 8 November, 38 people have been killed and more than 260 have been seriously wounded, and the total losses are close to the size of a battalion.
If we count from October 7, the number of casualties exceeds 340, and the number of wounded has doubled, and the losses are equivalent to the size of two battalions.
However, even such data is doubtful whether it is true, because the proportion of officers among the Israeli army casualties is too high, with as many as 30 colonels and more than 60 lieutenants, and most of the rest are non-commissioned officers, while there are only 12 privates.
A total of 340 people died, and there were hundreds of officers with the rank of captain
This kind of strange war report, the last time it appeared, was the Japanese invasion of China, the Japanese army in order to reduce the **, will hide the data of ordinary soldiers, or simply do not report, but officers can not hide it, especially middle and senior officers, in the end, it leads to a high proportion of officers**, and almost no ordinary soldiers.
For example, a Fox News reporter who followed Hamas said that he had seen Hamas kill two ordinary Israeli soldiers, but these two soldiers did not appear in the officially approved Israeli briefing.
It is no wonder that some people joke that "ordinary soldiers will never die without permission".
However, regardless of whether it is true or not, it is an indisputable fact that the Israeli army lost at least one battalion of personnel and equipment within a week of entering Gaza.
You must know that this is only the initial stage, the Israeli army has only occupied some relatively open areas, cutting off the communication between the north and south of Gaza, and most of the Israeli army is still near the separation wall, and has not penetrated deep at all.
Hamas only carried out some harassment and did not fight back with all its might, and the Israeli army's losses were already so heavy, and if it reached the stage of street fighting, the Israeli army's losses would be even more miserable.
Situation map of the northern Gaza Strip on 5 November, with Israeli-occupied areas in purple.
What is particularly surprising is that there is almost no infantry around the Israeli tanks, and they do not carry out "infantry and tank coordinated operations", but hide in the vehicles, which surprises all parties.
How did the former military power in the Middle East become so unbearable now?
Some people say that it is because the wages are too low, and the mobilized troops can only buy two or three hundred cans of Coke with a monthly salary of two thousand new shekelsSome people say that it is because the Israeli army is too backward, and it is still using the traditional establishment of infantry brigades and tank brigades, which are not synthesized, and they do not practice infantry and tank coordination in peacetime, nor can they do it in wartimeIt is also said that it is the active defense system of the "Merkava" tank that is easy to injure the infantry by mistake, so the infantry does not dare to approach, resulting in the separation of the tank and the infantry, which is easy to attack.
There is some truth in all these reasons, but I believe that these are not the main reasons, and the main reason why the Israeli army is not fighting well is that its opponents are improving.
In the past, when it came to armed forces in the Middle East, our first impression was that they carried RPGs on their shoulders, wore headscarves, shouted slogans, and only used human bombs, without any tactics.
This was true in the past, but times are changing, and people learn, as an example of Hamas's tactics.
During the "Al-Aqsa flood" operation on October 7, Hamas sent a large number of quadcopter rotor drones to cooperate with ground troops, and these modified drones can carry four bombs, which played an important role in attacking Israeli tank turrets and striking Israeli base guard towers.
Originally, at this time, Israel should have paid attention to drones and taken some measures, such as the most basic, not to gather people, but the fact is that there is none.
From top to bottom, Israel is arrogant, believing that the breach of the line on October 7 was just an accident, a sneak attack, and no improvement.