Israeli forces are moving slowly in their ground offensive in Gaza in part to keep open the possibility of drawing Hamas fighters to negotiate the release of more than 200 hostages, military specialists consulted by Reuters said.
The relative caution with which Israeli troops have taken and secured slices of territory in the first days of sustained ground incursions in Gaza stands in contrast to the past three weeks of unrelenting airstrikes on the Mediterranean enclave, as well as to Israel's previous land offensives there.
Not going directly into Gaza's most built-up areas with the full force of Israel's ground troops is simultaneously aimed at wearing Hamas' leadership down with a long campaign, and leaving space for a possible deal over those
held as hostages, according to the assessment of three Israeli security sources.
After amassing hundreds of thousands of soldiers, including reservists, on its border with Gaza, Israel made the first sustained ground incursions of the offensive on Friday.
The government has given the Israeli military two objectives — to dismantle Hamas, including its infrastructure and operational capabilities, and to bring home the hostages, chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
Backed by helicopters and drones, tanks and armoured personnel carriers have pushed into the semi-rural area to the north of Gaza City, the enclave's main urban centre.
Forces have also entered south of the city, threatening Salah Al Deen Road, the main transport artery that runs the length of the 40km long strip, local residents and the Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency said on Monday.
The tanks met resistance on the road, according to fighters and residents.
Abu Ahmad, a senior spokesperson for Islamic Jihad, a smaller movement allied to Hamas, said Israeli forces had failed to make any sustained breakthrough.
Hamas' deep network of Gaza tunnels has been described by security sources as an underground city that includes rocket launching sites, command centres and attack paths targeting Israel forces.
Omri Attar, a reserve major in a special operations brigade, said ground troops were also trained to locate air vents and escape hatches leading to tunnel openings and to place explosives inside to seal them off.
He said other special units within the Combat Engineering Corps, which in the past have used robots and dogs, would deal with any fighting inside the tunnels.
The approach so far is different from previous offensives on Gaza, a mostly urban strip of land home to 2.3 million people subjected to Israeli assaults in 2008, 2014 and in 2021 against Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have sworn Israel's destruction.
In 2008, Israeli military forces entered built-up areas with massive strength, prompting Hamas to pull back and engage periodically.
Israeli military forces are aware of the dangers with heavily built up areas in Gaza and the dangers of sending in broad forces. Underscoring the risks, in 2008, Israel lost nine soldiers during its incursion. In 2014, the number killed soared to 66.
Since Oct 7, 315 Israeli soldiers have been killed, most of them in the initial Hamas attacks, according to the latest data released by the Israeli military.
Ben Milch, who was a commander in 2014 with the Combat Engineering Corps and tasked with destroying tunnels, said their mission was not to go more than 3km into the network at the
time.
"Where we only had to take out tens of tunnels, today's challenge is going to be hundreds of tunnels and kilometres upon kilometres, and a real underground fortress that Hamas has built."
Clearing tunnels was also beset with other difficulties, including hostages held, as well as making decisions on whether to shut off ventilation shafts.
"In my opinion, that's why the IDF (Israeli military) is taking a methodical, slower approach to make sure that they're covering all their bases and making sure that they eliminate the tunnels as they go, so they're not going to be ambushed from behind, from the side and so on," Milch said.
"We don't want to lose soldiers, so we're going to go slow, and we're going to make sure that we minimise casualties as best as possible."
* The writer is from Reuters news agency