The surprise attack by 3,000 Hamas operatives, who smashed through the border defenses on the Gazan border with Israel and ended up raping, torturing, and murdering 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping another 260 who were taken back to Gaza, is constantly on the minds of all Israelis, but especially on the minds of IDF strategists who must ensure that such a catastrophe never happens again. There is plenty of blame to go around in the higher echelons of Israel’s defense establishment for the security lapses on October 7, but everyone knows that now — in the middle of a war — is not the time to deal with that contentious matter. The IDF has been making plans for new and more effective ways to defend Israel’s border towns. More on the current state of the IDF’s planning for what should be done on both sides of the border can be found here: “On both sides of Gaza’s border, the IDF is remaking security from the (under)ground up,” by Amir Ben Shalom, Times of Israel, March 21, 2024:
Hamas commandos from the Gaza town of Khuza’a invaded Kibbutz Nir Oz, less than 2 km. away, on Oct. 7. They left behind a demolished kibbutz soaked in the blood of 38 slain victims, taking 77 hostages with them. To ensure such horrors never occur again, the army is fundamentally reconceiving how it defends the towns closest to Gaza.
The process will see the military shift away from more passive defensive measures to a security doctrine that will push Gazans away from the border, together with a beefed-up force along the fence actively engaged in keeping Israeli towns safe, according to a well-placed defense source.
The IDF located an “approach tunnel” that begins at the first line of houses in Khuza’a and leads to the border fence with Israel. Israel estimates there are hundreds of approach tunnels near the border between Israel and Gaza, meant to allow terrorists to mount a surprise attack on the fence.
Israel will not only systematically destroy every one of those “approach tunnels” that begin under the Gazan houses closest to the border, and then snake all the way to the border fence. It will also adopt a policy of constantly bombing new tunnels as soon as they are detected. In the past, the IDF simply let the tunnels alone, satisfied that it knew where they were and could take them out whenever, in the future, they needed to. That was the wrong method. As Hamas has shown, it can mount surprise attacks too swiftly for the IDF to respond in time — as happened with the above-ground attacks on October 7.
The risk of invasion from Gaza underpins the new defense doctrine. This will include a 1 km. buffer zone inside Gaza and a line of military outposts built along the fence and next to communities near the border, promising a massive military presence and immediate response to threats.
The Israelis plan to create a buffer zone inside Gaza, clearing it of all buildings, trees, rocks, and every other conceivable obstacle, so that there will only be a clear flat field one kilometer deep. Should Hamas try to cross that zone into Israel, its operatives can be raked with gunfire.
The Israelis also plan to line the border with many more military outposts — positioned at frequent intervals, right next to the communities (kibbutzim and towns) on the Gazan border, that the IDF is determined to protect. These outposts will require stationing many more IDF soldiers than were stationed in the handful of undermanned outposts in use before October 7, outposts that were quickly overrun by Hamas and the few soldiers and border policemen manning them killed.
Along with manpower, firepower will also be beefed up. The army is looking to station a large number of attack drones in the area, giving soldiers on the border the ability to deploy air power before the air force can arrive….
This is also a new development: stationing drones right on the border, where they can be put to use at once to attack Hamas operatives from the air, without waiting for Israeli planes to arrive. The IDF has in the past used drones to attack arms warehouses in Syria, to destroy the weapons that Iran delivers to Syria for re-shipment to Hezbollah in Lebanon. But now it will also put drones to work on the border, to attack any Hamas units attempting to penetrate Israel on the ground, before airstrikes can be called in.
The “border defense” is now an “offense,” with more manpower and firepower in many more outposts than existed before October 7, outposts to be built right on the border. The Gazans will be pushed back one kilometer away from the border with Israel. The surveillance array will include more advanced equipment, to allow the IDF to watch the same areas from different angles at the same time. And finally, there will be special fighting units of reservists, who have a background in special forces, all of whom will already be living in the border towns or kibbutzim. And any tunnels that Hamas starts to build will be promptly destroyed.
This is what the IDF has planned for the border with Gaza. Let us hope it proves to be enough to keep – from now on — that blood-soaked border secure.
Stive says
Israel must be like America or even Austria and reverse 20 years of BB taking away Israeli gun rights. Believe me, Arabs have illegal guns but Jews just remained unarmed by and large learn from the holocaust please
Fluffy Dog says
that will not solve the problem.
Transmaster says
According to TBN Israel there is going to be a general arming of the public in Israel. I sounds kind of like the Swiss model. You will not be forced to own and carry a personal weapon but if you chose to you will be trained in how to use it.
kenek says
That area could have been monitored with 10 web cams, they had hours to respond. Someone in the Israel military WANTED Oct 7 to happen. There is no other sensible explanation.
gravenimage says
Another claim that Jews are omniscient, so if they are killed by Jihadists they must have wanted it to happen. What rot,
Israeli security is *very good*–but no, it is not absolute. Israel just has to screw up once for her people to be attacked. That is what happened on Octorber 7.
dumbledoresarmy says
I would advise the IDF and the general non-Islamic public in Israel to be very, very careful about what they say and to whom, about whatever self-defensive and offensive measures they are now putting in place; whatever changes they are preparing to make.
Because the enemy is constantly watching and listening. It’s not just us reading this article; the Hamasniks and other jihadi plotters and planners are reading it too.
Prepare to the max; make sure that there are lots of great big sticks that can be instantly brought down hard; but try, try, try to keep the enemy totally in the dark about where those sticks are and what kind they are and how hard they can hit and who will be wielding them. In quiet, in private, where there are NO eavesdroppers, brainstorm every imaginable and barely-imaginable and unimaginable scenario and think through the possible responses.
Israel – just like the rest of the entire non-Islamic world – is up against a cunning, malevolent and deceitful enemy that has ALWAYS specialised in infiltration and subversion. An enemy well-resourced by oil money and the untold millions in ‘aid’ they have tricked or extorted many in the West to provide.
ASSUME that the walls have ears.. always.
And, to be blunt, every identifiable mohammedan within Israel could be a fifth columnist and – as the jewish villagers on the Gaza border found out on 7th October – some mohammedans can come to work in your village, receiving good pay, and smile and drink mint tea with you and pretend to be your friends… or perhaps they are people you sympathetically assist to receive medical care, etc ….and all the while they are plotting to sadistically torture-murder you and your children…. or are gathering information that they will supply to the other jihadis who will carry out the torture-murders.
Israel would be a LOT easier to defend if there were NO mohammedan fifth columnists inside the gates, and NO mohammedan spies/ agents constantly going in and out.
Of course, the rest of the crazed-with-Jew-hatred infidel world doesn’t realize that their OWN countries, by now, are similarly afflicted with hordes of mohammedan infiltrators and subverters who are becoming bolder and nastier by the day.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Good to see you again. Unfortunately, too many Israeli Jews think that their Arabs are different from, and better than, Palestinian Arabs. Nobody wants to confront the fact that all that hatred is derived from islam
gravenimage says
Agreed, DDA–and so good to see you posting again!
James Lincoln says
I would recommend a Berlin-style wall augmented with modern-day cameras, motion detectors, etc.
And yes, sharpshooters.
And NO muslim should be allowed to enter Israel for any reason – period.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
This is the best part of the above story that I read. This buffer zone should consist of Gaza territory, not Israeli. Make it expensive for the Palestinaians, not the Israelis
And I agree w/ James Lincoln above – don’t allow any muslims to enter Israel. Instead, Israel can entice all non-muslims working in countries like Qatar and Kuwait to go to Israel instead. Where they won’t be ill-treated b’cos they are infidels
Blima says
Why is’nt the IDF doing the same on the Northern border with Lebanon where there is supposed to be a buffer zone on he Lebanese side
brenrod says
“Hamas commandos from the Gaza town of Khuza’a invaded Kibbutz Nir Oz, less than 2 km. away, on Oct. 7. “
Obviously 1km is not enough . I hope Israel was intelligent enough to completely destroy the town of Khuza.
James Lincoln says
Thank you for your informative reply, Infidel.
gravenimage says
The IDF Revises How it Will Defend Israeli Towns on the Gaza Border
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So sad that this is necessary–but it is.