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Images of Gaza Show the Reality of Urban Warfare, Not Genocide

(Telegraph-UK) Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp - I've seen the level of devastation in Gaza myself from the ground. In places there is nothing other than piles of rubble where buildings once stood, as far as the eye can see. But this ruination should be no surprise to those who understand the way Hamas turned the whole of Gaza into a military redoubt disguised as a civilian population center. If there is greater devastation in Gaza than on some other battlegrounds, it can be understood by Hamas's contemptible way of fighting. Tunnels have featured in armed combat for hundreds of years. But nothing before has come close to Hamas's utilization of the 400 miles of tunnels it dug over 16 years as its primary military infrastructure, shielded beneath populated areas. The interconnected network includes tunnels down to a depth of more than 200 feet. They are used for battle maneuver, weapons storage, command posts and living quarters. In some areas every house or every other house contains weapons and explosives. I have seen boxes of grenades beneath children's beds, rocket launchers in kitchen cupboards, and rifles stashed underneath piles of clothing. Some 40% of buildings in Gaza were also booby-trapped to kill soldiers. In the 1980s, in Belfast during the Troubles, we discovered a house that was similarly booby-trapped by the IRA, with multiple concealed devices intended to kill soldiers and police. In that case, we also decided, rather than risk the lives of our bomb disposal experts, we would use explosives to do the job. Hamas transformed Gaza into an engine of war, harnessing the entire population, every building, every inch of land, along with much of the vast quantity of international aid poured in to help their people. The writer, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, was chairman of the UK's national crisis management committee, COBRA.
2025-08-07 00:00:00
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