The Israeli army is “fundamentally reconceiving how it defends Israel, especially the towns closest to the Palestinian enclave,” writes Amir Bar Shalom.
The process will see the military shift away from more passive defensive measures to the adoption of a security doctrine that will see Gazans pushed away from the border and a beefed-up force along the fence actively engaged in keeping Israeli towns safe by building deterrence, according to a well-placed defense source who briefed the Times of Israel on the development of plans for securing the border with Gaza. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity.
On the Gaza side of the border, the building of tunnels will no longer be tacitly tolerated.
The IDF has said that a zero-tolerance approach to tunnel digging will be part of its post-war operational standards; any identification of tunnel digging will be immediately attacked on the ground or by air.
Actions on the Israel side
will include a line of military outposts to be built along the fence and next to communities near the border, [as well as] promising a massive military presence and immediate response to threats. . . .
On the morning of October 7, there were four IDF battalions stationed along the border with Gaza, comprising a few thousand soldiers. That number will now double, if not more.
Finally,
it’s clear that even after the war ends, troops will need to continue operating inside Gaza. Once the buffer zone is established, the army is hoping to build up deterrence by deploying an immediate response to any possible disturbance, keeping things from snowballing out of control. On Tuesday, for instance, forces in Khuza’a fired warning shots multiple times at Palestinian civilians trying to reach homes in the buffer zone.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/on-both-sides-of-gazas-border-the-idf-is-remaking-security-from-the-underground-up/