IDF Builds Arab Village for Gaza

The IDF learning curve stretches all the way from Lebanon to Gaza when it comes to urban warfare; the army is building a modern Arab village as part of its preparations for training soldiers how to fight terrorists on their home turf.

The mock village is modeled after Hizbullah strongholds in Lebanon, where terrorists used underground bunkers to store rockets and other weapons and from where they launched their attacks against IDF soldiers.

The police and IDF three years ago built model Jewish communities in Gush Katif in preparation for the forced expulsion of thousands of Jewish residents in the area. The government promoted the expulsion as part of the solution to Arab terror.

However, the escalation of rocket attacks against Israel since the expulsion and the mass stockpiling of advanced weapons into Gaza have prompted the IDF to train soldiers for the growing likelihood of clashes or even all-out war with Hamas.

Humanitarian Aid Concessions Become Weapons

Intelligence officers have said that Hamas has copied the Hizbullah tactics in Gaza, building a region-wide system of bunkers with cement that was shipped into the region for civilian use as part of the concessions won in negotiations for a temporary truce that went into effect on June 19.

The terrorists have recently begun to connect the bunkers with each other by way of tunnels that are being built with the cement shipments they confiscate as they are shipped into Gaza through the crossings from pre-1967 Israel.

Until the truce went into effect, concrete was delivered to Gaza only in very small amounts due to the frequency of its use as a military tool. As a result, it was difficult to facilitate repairs to the sewage system and water supply infrastructure in the area. New construction was limited as well.

After the ceasefire was negotiated, cement supplies were included as part of the increased humanitarian aid shipments into the region, and intelligence sources reported that Hamas terrorists immediately resumed its seizure of the concrete to build bunkers and tunnels, in violation of the terms of the truce.