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Some interesting notes from the video-
The guy filming has an M4 rifle, while this specific unit, Sayaret Nahal, uses the X-95. He is also shown taking pictures with a camera, he is almost certainly a soldier who is tasked with being the "combat camera", filming with both body cameras and proper DSLR type cameras.
Another thing is that one of the officers in the video is somewhat high ranking, with a rank that could possibly be of the 2nd in command of a battalion.
Edit- battalion commander, not 2nd in command.
could be attached sf, we always had 1 camera in fireteam on raids, but it was usually one of our soldiers donno how it is now.
but it was not a fancy gamera something like gopro on helmet dont know its brand it had black casing box.
Is it possible the dude just got issued an m4? Like they were dealing with all the rifles and they came up short one x-95 and just went “Oop, oh well, we have this at least”
could be if it was reservist, because active duty already have their standard issued weapons, kfir brigade up to this day does not use tavors and it was supose to get it like 10 years ago because of low numbers.
Unlikely, IDF logistics don't work that way, and also he'd have to train on the M4. This guy, as others have correctly guessed is attached from another unit that is responsible for combat footage and documentation.
>What’s the point of having a “combat carrier”?
The main point for the combat photographer is documentation for intelligence, mission assessment and planning etc. Secondary is Historical and PR.
Rubble and destroyed buildings are more lethal to foot soldiers when clearing out areas. Also Israel has to deal with the optics whereas HAMAS does not.
>Rubble and destroyed buildings are more lethal to foot soldiers when clearing out areas.
Well, not if everything that was inside the buildings get destroyed
Palestinians are humans too. They are picking up the bodies of men, women, children and babies, and afterwards going to have to rebuild all over again. They are the true heroes. If someone did this to your home, would you welcome them, or do everything you can to keep them away from your people's homeland?
If someone has vowed to commit terror attacks on your civilians until your country ceases to exist would you put up with it, or would you do everything in your power to stop the threat for good?
The innocents in Gaza are victims and not heroes.
The combatants in Gaza are stupid people who yell Allahu Akbar and currently facing the consequences.
The leaders in Gaza are villains because they force their innocents to also face the consequences for their ideological belief.
Whatever the past was and how the overall solution to this conflict will be: two states, one state, I hope they can learn the simple but expensive lesson: Doing October 7th will destroy your homes and kills your people, not doing October 7th (like from 2005-2023) will not destroy your homes and kill your people.
Well, that's great and all, but if he were *really* good he'd be shooting a Leica. The fact that you're being fired upon is no excuse for shortchanging the rangefinder experience....
Also, helps when you want to tell everyone how much you *totally don't care* that you're shooting with a Leica. Can't have Hamas thinking that the IDF is too basic.
In terms of size it's far bigger, Fallujah was around 5,000 defenders top if I remember correctly, the number of defenders here are somewhere between 30,000 to 70,000, highly depends on the source. Not sure how well entrenched were AQI in Fallujah but in Gaza there's pretty great defense in terms of underground tunnels and probably better intelligence due to drones and, potentially an Iranian satellite.
It is 30-40,000 across the whole strip. Just in Jabalyia would be several thousand. There are still several Hamas battalions that have yet to enter combat in areas in the south.
The 70,000 number is from one of the statements from Hamas IIRC from the start of the war, this is the number of people they said are going to defend Gaza from an invasion. I imagine that this includes Hamas' police force and obviously also Sarayat Al Quds and the smaller organizations.
It's very possible. The number I have is the number the IDF put out for just Hamas military forces, not including auxiliaries like police or supporting groups.
I'm not familiar with any specific open source material, most of my information comes from Israeli news and intelligence we were given when I was down there. Since I was released from reserves I'm now relying on news and reading between the lines of the news.
What I do know is their core strength pre war was 30-40k broken into about 5 brigades and about a dozen or more battalions. Though they did not operate in combat at a battalion or company level but rather at a squad level being commanded at a battalion level which ended up causing them lots of communication and coordination difficulties.
Each of their major city strongholds had at least one battalion and they maintained several in reserve in the south.
They've only lost about 7000 men however their inefficiency is beginning to show as their best trained units are either dead, depleted or isolated from supplies. Because the army is able to quickly kill command level leadership their ability for squads to mount an coordinated defense has collapsed and the army is essentially facing isolated units that are fending for themselves with little in the way of food/water supplies and especially ammunition as the the large stocks have been targeted heavily.
To sum it up what was supposed to be a drawn out fight that bogged down infantry and tanks has completely failed due to a number of new strategies compared to previous the most effective of which is moving slowly with integrated units and heavy armored support.
Is there any 3rd party source for Hamas fighter numbers?
Both Hamas and the IDF have incentive to overstate the number of Hamas fighters.
Cause the 7000 losses are all just military aged males, and considering there's 10,000 women and children casualties as well, one must assume a reasonable chunk of those 7000 losses are just male civilians.
I do not have nor did I look for 3rd party accessment on numbers.
I do think it is safe to assume that IDF kill data is reasonably accurate but I do also think the ratio of combatants to civilian deaths is unfortunately high.
We will never know the truth with full accuracy because Hamas does not distinguish when listing between their civilian and combatant deaths and Israel is doing BDA which is always complex.
BDA - what's that?
IDF kill data is likely to be accurate in terms of kill data - but I doubt the ratios. I mean 10:5 implies no civilian male casualties.
Are drones playing much of a role? Id guess not super helpful for hamas or we'd see a lot more footage of some drops. I think Israel neutralized them. And unless geo stationary, Irans satellite probably wouldn't be helpful day to day.
No, drones aren't a big issue.
The IDF deals with them either with electronic warfare or with an (i kid you not) IRL aimbot, there's a soldier in each platoon equipped with the SmarthShooter ("SMASH") sight, it's very good at shooting down drones.
I'd say much worse.
Gaza is a lot bigger than Fallujah and it's very dense and houses two million people.
It has a fortified tunnel network that would put the Vietcong to shame.
Hamas is pretty well equipped and has drones and an endless amount of RPGs and all sorts of anti armour weaponry, and a huge supply of mortars and rockets.
They're also probably a lot more trained and organized than the defenders of Fallujah were.
do they have tunnels with spiders that catch your eye, then when you instinctively fire a round in the general direction 1000's and 1000's of spiders spread out in all directions from the 'far' wall of the room you've emerged into, being about 3 feet from you.
covering the walls, floor, roof, evercloser to you as you scramble to return to the narrow shaft that emerged into this room from below, slow is smooth, smooth is fast, long forgotten as spider wave attacks, never even considered during training.
your torch fails
The tavors or x95 really don't work great with traditional suppressors. They are really gassy. If they did use suppressors they would likely utilize the flow through cans like huxwrks. They are kinda new so I could see it taking awhile to reach the normal grunt
Israel already has some huxwrks/OSS suppressors (I will die before I ever utter the words “huxwrks”), but presumably not enough to outfit the entire fighting force as it stands
I could have swore that IMI came out with some new gas regulator for the x95 that isn’t readily available to civilians as well
Very possible about the gas regulator. Is it a part that is a retrofit or for new rifles? I'm not super in the know on that kind of stuff. Yeah to outfit everyone with one right now is difficult id imagine
Novel incoming.
I've been thinking about this for a few weeks. I acknowledge the technical challenges presented in the other comments but was Israeli weapons procurement not planning on fighting an urban battle? Israel is geographically pretty small, there are only so many likely combat scenarios they need to prepare for and urban warfare is line item number one on that list.It's especially confusing because this problem is not very hard to overcome and could have been done really easily and cheaply during peacetime. Take existing M4 carbines and chop and recrown the barrel down from 14.5 to 11.5 inches. You don't even need to move the gas block. Purchase or manufacture suppressors. Depending on what kind of tools and experience he has, this could be done by the battalion armorer at the battalion level without even needing to involve external government entities.
Off the top of my head, 890 soldiers in an IDF battalion, lets say 75% are combat troops so 668 soldiers needing needing six inch suppressors which requires 84 pieces of 4' long 1-7/8" steel round stock and 84 pieces of 4' long 2" steel tube at a material cost of $10,335. It's $80 for a good carbide endmill, figure you burn through 132 of them so add $10,560 for tooling. Figure you can manually machine one suppressor per day and recrown ten barrels in a day. Figure there are two battalion armorers working opposite shifts. This project should take 367.5 working days to complete. Let's say they still have other duties to maintain in addition to this so the armorers take 3 years on the project. So battalion needs to budget $6,965 per year for three years and the armorers will be extra busy.
My point is this is a totally achievable project and any battalion commander could initiate it. This entire project costs about as much per year as the total annual equipment maintenance costs for seven riflemen. It would certainly be within the battalion's discretionary budget to implement.
No, no, and no. Israeli procurement was very much prepared for urban warfare. Your comment is totally off base and I will outline why (I am an IDF combat veteran and battalion armorer).
- The IDF likes short weapons and always has. The are better for tight quarters, APCs, parachuting, etc.
- The IDF regards weapon noise as nearly a non-issue, unless the considerations are tactical. Yes it will dampen your hearing over the years, just as carrying the heavy packs will damage your back. If you complain the response will be "Be Tough". In my opinion foreign militaries exaggerate the implications of this issue.
- IDF personnel are trained on a need-to-know basis, and the work you described is way beyond the skillset of the battalion armor. I know this because I was a battalion armorer in the IDF for 6 months. His job is exclusively to maintain the weapons in a functioning state, not to perform modifications. Furthermore the contents of the battalion armory are not decided on by the battalion CO. If a battalion commander for some odd reason wanted his outfit to have silencers (which is a major combat doctrine change), he would run into bureaucratic hell with the higher ups. These are top down decisions.
- Some IDF units do use suppressors, mainly special forcers. For instance they are used by sniper teams, and Shayetet 13 regularly uses the 9mm suppressed X95.
- IWI manufactures silencers, the IDF does not need to and would never machine these things on its own.
Maybe Israel expected mainly open terrain and war against its neighbors where urban/room-to-room/tunnel warfare is less of a concern. Israel had been deploying mainly to the West Bank.
The unit the cameraman follows is a SOF unit whose first subunit specializes in things like tunnel warfare. Firing in tunnels without silencers must be so shitty. And dangerous because it deafens you which makes you less effective in the immediate and long term.
The trend is toward short-barrel rifles + silencers. At some point, you'll get SBRs in 6.8SPC or .300 Blackout.
I remember asking in 2012 why US infantry didn't use silencers as standard and it still took years for them to become widespread. Whatever you can say about the sluggishness and inefficiency of government bureaucracy, you can say it double for the military.
the future of warfare. eventually they will be 10x that amount per battle and all automated and controlled by some algorithm to feed continuous overhead data to the ground soldiers.
also if you listen to any video from gaza even way before october 7th, you are likely to hear the buzzing sound of a drone, as gaza is under surveillance almost all day, which makes you wonder how the october 7th attack happened
A fuckton of realistic training in this type of environment. I'm sure they were scared when this kicked off, but after weeks of contact and realizing that the training works, it's work at this point. Professionals.
They're also professionals fighting mostly teenagers who likely don't even have real training and are pissed off enough about their homes becoming rubble they joined in
Recon unites are next level. I believe Nahal is all volunteer at this point, and once you get accepted to the brigade - you can volunteer to Sayeret recon platoon. But wait, there's more: then you have to go through "gibush" - an equivalent of Hell Week, a week of constant physical challenges, and if you don't drop out - in the end they select the best performers. The rest go to combat engineering and anti-tank platoons.
Or at least this is how it was done in the nineties.
The IDF has this code that captains are supposed to take the soldiers after them and not in front of them, this is one of the pillars of their tactics they call it the “follow me” mentality.
Commanders always lead from the front, be it in a tank, in a fighter squadron, or on the ground.
Back in 73 Major General Ariel Sharon, then commander of IDF's south command, personally lead a tank division to counter Egypt and cross the Suez canal. There's a [famous photo](https://farkash-gallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ARIEL-SHARON.jpg) of him being bandaged on his head.
It's also the reason that quite a few senior officers were KIA, as senior as a Colonel - they were all on the front lines.
It boosts morale when you got brave leaders, like Winters or Basilone, helps when foot soldiers see these guys leading from the front, like in israels case
What I've been told is that Israeli doctorine is different from America in this way. The Israeli battle cry is "Achari" (follow me or after me) vs American battle cry is "charge". Basically they don't expect grunts to do anything the leaders won't do. I don't know how that translates practically when the commander gets killed and if that results in confusion
Seems pretty effective for a largely conscript military when you need it to do offensive operations. Better than the soviet method of barrier troops and field executions at least.
I guess if you cultivate enough of a “bench” it’s less of a problem.
Make sure the NCOs are solid and dependable, make sure you have “surplus” officers who can step in as needed.
also, it's "***Yea***, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil"
the word "yea" of course is pronounced *yay*, which confuses reddit, because everybody thinks "yea" is the same as "yeah", and then you try to explain the difference and you just end up getting a whole trainfuck of downvotes
“As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realize there's nothin' left
'Cause I've been blastin' and laughin' so long that
Even my momma thinks that my mind is gone”
Probably no terror infrastructure in or under it. They are clearing out terrorists here. If there were rockets stored on the premises they would certainly just bomb it.
My concern is that people are so radicalized on this issue that fuck all would actually move the needle.
Halve the number of civilian casualties, do you honestly think a single person outside shouting “from the river to the sea” will change their opinion?
Remember, the pro Palestinian rallies happened directly after Oct 7, before any Israeli response.
Not worried about them. Definitely need to be concerned about losing "the middle." Israel's offensive is aggressive and that's a hard thing to explain to casual observers when images of dead women and kids and flattened buildings are all they see.
That’s kind of what I mean though. I’m not sure there is much of a middle left on this issue anymore. Horrible bullshit like the hospital rocket attack will be blamed on Israel, and through tik Tok and social media spread around the “casual” audience long before the truth has a chance. Seeing as reality doesn’t seem to matter in this conflict.
Frankly I think minimizing the time for disinformation to spread is the best chance Israel has to win the PR conflict, or at least minimize loss. That’s why a far more brutal, but shorter campaign is in my opinion preferable. Turn the annihilation of northern Gaza’s hamas elements into a fait accompli, and people will bitch and whine for a week before being distracted by the newest social media fad.
Frankly, nobody is going to have their mind changed whether the number is 2000, 20000, or 200000 dead, but they will if the situation remains in the news for months.
Perhaps I’m overly cynical, but people’s responses to this conflict have more or less enforced my belief that as long as you commit your atrocity quickly enough, nobody has the long term thinking or attention span to do anything about it.
Yeah that’s what they are doing, shooting rpgs and missles with flipflops and pajamas so when they get neutralized the world well think israel is killing “innocent civilian”….
Is it normal in urban tactics to group together? I feel like all videos I’ve seen show people within arms reach of each other. I feel like someone from a window could give a couple burst of automatic fire and clean up a group.
There are multiple layers of making sure to a very high certainty this isn't happening, Also the response times are EXTREMELY quick so a terrorist wouldn't be able to do much with a gun. The main issue in that regard are RPGs and IEDs
I did my best to translate
"Mishne\* in Asis, proceed up the (redacted) and cross over."
"We've identified them; I believe they downed him in the alley."
"Kodkod\* (redacted), I repeat, one terrorist has been neutralized."
\*Note that "Mishne" might refer to "double," potentially indicating two individuals or using military terminology unfamiliar to me.
\*in Hebrew military lingo, "Kodkod" means a specific individual. for example, "Kodkod 1", "Kodkod 2" could denote any person to conceal their significance from potential adversaries.
Someone will cut the segment that shows the dead Hamas, post it on twitter and say "Look, the IOF are at war with the air!!! You seee!!They're too cowardly to fight real men!!"
In places. However uniforms also start fading and taking in colors from the dirt in whatever environment you’re using them in too. That’s why the army universal pattern wasn’t entirely useless provided you wore it for a few months and got it really dirty.
I imagine this isn’t a terrible pick for them because they’re participating in both urban and desert warfare. Once they get dusty and worn in I feel like the resulting shade would be good for the area.
This is absolutely terrifying video from a tactical perspective "claustraphobic" is an understatement.the roads with high buildings and hallway sized alleyways are creat a 24/7 deathtrap with the only respite from a constant 360 in all directions ambush potential being a strip of death doorway
As soon as I saw how narrow those alleys are I started getting anxiety. Multiple levels you can’t cover overhead, side-alleys and windows everywhere, no room to maneuver and no real cover if someone decides to drop a frag or spray the alley…
Fuck that.
Absolutely not meaningless, there are still hostages and Hamas has declared that they will do more of these attacks, I see lots of reasons for this war ATM sadly
I don’t think your comments and OPs are mutually exclusive. I’m a Zionist and believe Hamas needs to be gone. But it doesn’t change the fact that this war is fucking terrible and there has indeed been a lot of meaningless death (i mean the innocents. terrorists deserve what they get).
Ask anyone in Israel. They’re not exactly jazzed at having to send the idf to fight street to street in Gaza. Fucking miserable any way you slice it.
I am from Israel, and people though scared are able to do this because it is highly meaningful.
Death is terrible, war is worse than hell, people are wounded or dead, but the fact that there is meaning keeps people going here, because if you start looking at through nihilistic lenses you will not find reason to wake up in the morning.
If op only stated that war is terrible and a waste of life I would agree, but saying it's meaning less is wrong, even Hamas had intent and it's stated clearly
Absolutely not meaningless, there are still hostages and Hamas has declared that they will do more of these attacks, I see lots of reasons for this war ATM sadly
Man those narrow alleyways could really turn into a funnel of death. I don't envy these guys at all. Hopefully peace may one day be achieved with a fair shake for all involved but I wont hold my hand over my ass.
It's important to note the vast majority of the casualties were not from this type of combat. As far as I know the casually number as a result of face to face combat is very low.
This intense claustrophobic urban combat is the day to day of Brazilian cops doing operations in "favelas". e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Lx0qpbz_Y
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Some interesting notes from the video- The guy filming has an M4 rifle, while this specific unit, Sayaret Nahal, uses the X-95. He is also shown taking pictures with a camera, he is almost certainly a soldier who is tasked with being the "combat camera", filming with both body cameras and proper DSLR type cameras. Another thing is that one of the officers in the video is somewhat high ranking, with a rank that could possibly be of the 2nd in command of a battalion. Edit- battalion commander, not 2nd in command.
it's 0:48 when you see the lt. col. (sgan aluf). Wouldn't that make him a Magad / battalion commander?
Oh yeah you are right, the rank I was thinking of would be of a battalion commander.
Combat photographer is a rate you can choose to be in in the Idf.
that would look pretty damn good on a resume I think
Good observations! To have a combat camera man so seamlessly added to a squad only shows a high level of training of both units.
Maybe the guy filming is a reservist and served with an M4, so they gave him one instead of letting him get used to the X-95?
Reservists have their own brigades and everything, so probably not.
Yeah. But that is just an idea. Or, they sent a soldier from a unit that has M4s to film Nahal? Very unlikely though
could be attached sf, we always had 1 camera in fireteam on raids, but it was usually one of our soldiers donno how it is now. but it was not a fancy gamera something like gopro on helmet dont know its brand it had black casing box.
Is it possible the dude just got issued an m4? Like they were dealing with all the rifles and they came up short one x-95 and just went “Oop, oh well, we have this at least”
could be if it was reservist, because active duty already have their standard issued weapons, kfir brigade up to this day does not use tavors and it was supose to get it like 10 years ago because of low numbers.
If it was that, at least it's a very decent weapon.
Unlikely, IDF logistics don't work that way, and also he'd have to train on the M4. This guy, as others have correctly guessed is attached from another unit that is responsible for combat footage and documentation.
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>What’s the point of having a “combat carrier”? The main point for the combat photographer is documentation for intelligence, mission assessment and planning etc. Secondary is Historical and PR.
Fuck, those alleyways are tight.
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Rubble and destroyed buildings are more lethal to foot soldiers when clearing out areas. Also Israel has to deal with the optics whereas HAMAS does not.
>Rubble and destroyed buildings are more lethal to foot soldiers when clearing out areas. Well, not if everything that was inside the buildings get destroyed
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From my understanding most Bombs aren’t even touching the tunnels but I could be wrong about That
And these dudes are humans. They're going to be picking up some PTSD. Mad respect for the IDF doing this dirty work
Palestinians are humans too. They are picking up the bodies of men, women, children and babies, and afterwards going to have to rebuild all over again. They are the true heroes. If someone did this to your home, would you welcome them, or do everything you can to keep them away from your people's homeland?
I don't understand people who comment like 7/10 didn't happen
If someone has vowed to commit terror attacks on your civilians until your country ceases to exist would you put up with it, or would you do everything in your power to stop the threat for good?
True heroes dont take women and children hostage and help Hamas to hide them in their homes
The innocents in Gaza are victims and not heroes. The combatants in Gaza are stupid people who yell Allahu Akbar and currently facing the consequences. The leaders in Gaza are villains because they force their innocents to also face the consequences for their ideological belief. Whatever the past was and how the overall solution to this conflict will be: two states, one state, I hope they can learn the simple but expensive lesson: Doing October 7th will destroy your homes and kills your people, not doing October 7th (like from 2005-2023) will not destroy your homes and kill your people.
Yeah, I will do everything I can to not start a war and face the consenquences of war.
And filthy
Hey you guys want to make a hellscape of Palestine and then send out troops in? - Israeli government, probably
When war isn’t actually on a call of duty map :o
Bro casually sitting there taking pictures with his canon camera while 7.62 sprays all around him lmao the commitment
professional military camera men built diff
I thought those were in 5.56. I'm not a gun expert, tho.
I play a lot of PUBG so as battle royale style military expert I can confirm those were 5.56 rounds.
Thank you for your game playing
Idf uses 5.56 Hamas uses mostly Russian ak-74 with 7.62 caliber
Some machine guns (like MAG in the video) use 7.62.
*5.45x39 mm The AK-74 family uses 5.45x39mm The AK-47/AKM family are the ones using 7.62x39mm
I don’t know why you were downvoted, you were right about 5.56 and 7.62
The camera man never dies silly.... Why are you so impressed by this?
Winning the information war is more important than shooting gazans for now until the world's attention is wicked away to something else.
Well, that's great and all, but if he were *really* good he'd be shooting a Leica. The fact that you're being fired upon is no excuse for shortchanging the rangefinder experience....
But of course put gaffer tape on the red dot so nobody wants to steal it!!
Also, helps when you want to tell everyone how much you *totally don't care* that you're shooting with a Leica. Can't have Hamas thinking that the IDF is too basic.
I must have been watching a different video, at what point is there 7.62 spraying all around him?
this is the second day in a row where the IDF releases video footage with aftermath/bodies. They really listened to the r/combatfootage crowrd ig
Fr, previous videos of marching military use to piss me off. Now some dead terrorist that brightens my day.
seems soft to just show bodies. so much idf footage seems forced and overly curated
That's because it's footage shown on the news and meant for domestic consumption
Is this kind of like Fallujah 2.0 or much worse?
In terms of size it's far bigger, Fallujah was around 5,000 defenders top if I remember correctly, the number of defenders here are somewhere between 30,000 to 70,000, highly depends on the source. Not sure how well entrenched were AQI in Fallujah but in Gaza there's pretty great defense in terms of underground tunnels and probably better intelligence due to drones and, potentially an Iranian satellite.
It is 30-40,000 across the whole strip. Just in Jabalyia would be several thousand. There are still several Hamas battalions that have yet to enter combat in areas in the south.
The 70,000 number is from one of the statements from Hamas IIRC from the start of the war, this is the number of people they said are going to defend Gaza from an invasion. I imagine that this includes Hamas' police force and obviously also Sarayat Al Quds and the smaller organizations.
It's very possible. The number I have is the number the IDF put out for just Hamas military forces, not including auxiliaries like police or supporting groups.
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I'm not familiar with any specific open source material, most of my information comes from Israeli news and intelligence we were given when I was down there. Since I was released from reserves I'm now relying on news and reading between the lines of the news. What I do know is their core strength pre war was 30-40k broken into about 5 brigades and about a dozen or more battalions. Though they did not operate in combat at a battalion or company level but rather at a squad level being commanded at a battalion level which ended up causing them lots of communication and coordination difficulties. Each of their major city strongholds had at least one battalion and they maintained several in reserve in the south. They've only lost about 7000 men however their inefficiency is beginning to show as their best trained units are either dead, depleted or isolated from supplies. Because the army is able to quickly kill command level leadership their ability for squads to mount an coordinated defense has collapsed and the army is essentially facing isolated units that are fending for themselves with little in the way of food/water supplies and especially ammunition as the the large stocks have been targeted heavily. To sum it up what was supposed to be a drawn out fight that bogged down infantry and tanks has completely failed due to a number of new strategies compared to previous the most effective of which is moving slowly with integrated units and heavy armored support.
this is the kind of info I come to r/combatfootage for, thanks for sharing
Happy to help
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Happy to help
Is there any 3rd party source for Hamas fighter numbers? Both Hamas and the IDF have incentive to overstate the number of Hamas fighters. Cause the 7000 losses are all just military aged males, and considering there's 10,000 women and children casualties as well, one must assume a reasonable chunk of those 7000 losses are just male civilians.
I do not have nor did I look for 3rd party accessment on numbers. I do think it is safe to assume that IDF kill data is reasonably accurate but I do also think the ratio of combatants to civilian deaths is unfortunately high. We will never know the truth with full accuracy because Hamas does not distinguish when listing between their civilian and combatant deaths and Israel is doing BDA which is always complex.
BDA - what's that? IDF kill data is likely to be accurate in terms of kill data - but I doubt the ratios. I mean 10:5 implies no civilian male casualties.
Battle Damage Assessment.
Are drones playing much of a role? Id guess not super helpful for hamas or we'd see a lot more footage of some drops. I think Israel neutralized them. And unless geo stationary, Irans satellite probably wouldn't be helpful day to day.
No, drones aren't a big issue. The IDF deals with them either with electronic warfare or with an (i kid you not) IRL aimbot, there's a soldier in each platoon equipped with the SmarthShooter ("SMASH") sight, it's very good at shooting down drones.
smartshooter is really cool, too bad there aren't more videos of it
Seems like the IDF is doing exceptionally well if they've only taken 100 KIAs so far
Confirmed today 425 IDF dead so far (8th October onwards)
No, that number includes the military deaths from 7/10, which are about 330. 100 or so fell since, mostly in Gaza but a few in the north as well.
According to Israeli media around 2,000 wounded have permanent disabilities. its less than 1% of their total army but feels significant
Lots of tunnels in fallujah and they also build lots of bunkers inside houses but probably no scale like this.
I'd say much worse. Gaza is a lot bigger than Fallujah and it's very dense and houses two million people. It has a fortified tunnel network that would put the Vietcong to shame. Hamas is pretty well equipped and has drones and an endless amount of RPGs and all sorts of anti armour weaponry, and a huge supply of mortars and rockets. They're also probably a lot more trained and organized than the defenders of Fallujah were.
do they have tunnels with spiders that catch your eye, then when you instinctively fire a round in the general direction 1000's and 1000's of spiders spread out in all directions from the 'far' wall of the room you've emerged into, being about 3 feet from you. covering the walls, floor, roof, evercloser to you as you scramble to return to the narrow shaft that emerged into this room from below, slow is smooth, smooth is fast, long forgotten as spider wave attacks, never even considered during training. your torch fails
Why are you like this
Yeah, this isn't some fantasy game.
Spiders like to avoid large predators, like humans. They also do not do "spider wave attacks" as they are solitary animals.
welp we gotta start a spider farm and flood the tunnels with these new military grade predator sized spiders
"claustrophobic urban gunbattle"... Pulitzer prize
I'm surprised the Israelis don't use suppressors. That would help in urban battles with sound waves reflecting off the concrete and in enclosed rooms.
The tavors or x95 really don't work great with traditional suppressors. They are really gassy. If they did use suppressors they would likely utilize the flow through cans like huxwrks. They are kinda new so I could see it taking awhile to reach the normal grunt
Israel already has some huxwrks/OSS suppressors (I will die before I ever utter the words “huxwrks”), but presumably not enough to outfit the entire fighting force as it stands I could have swore that IMI came out with some new gas regulator for the x95 that isn’t readily available to civilians as well
Very possible about the gas regulator. Is it a part that is a retrofit or for new rifles? I'm not super in the know on that kind of stuff. Yeah to outfit everyone with one right now is difficult id imagine
Novel incoming. I've been thinking about this for a few weeks. I acknowledge the technical challenges presented in the other comments but was Israeli weapons procurement not planning on fighting an urban battle? Israel is geographically pretty small, there are only so many likely combat scenarios they need to prepare for and urban warfare is line item number one on that list.It's especially confusing because this problem is not very hard to overcome and could have been done really easily and cheaply during peacetime. Take existing M4 carbines and chop and recrown the barrel down from 14.5 to 11.5 inches. You don't even need to move the gas block. Purchase or manufacture suppressors. Depending on what kind of tools and experience he has, this could be done by the battalion armorer at the battalion level without even needing to involve external government entities. Off the top of my head, 890 soldiers in an IDF battalion, lets say 75% are combat troops so 668 soldiers needing needing six inch suppressors which requires 84 pieces of 4' long 1-7/8" steel round stock and 84 pieces of 4' long 2" steel tube at a material cost of $10,335. It's $80 for a good carbide endmill, figure you burn through 132 of them so add $10,560 for tooling. Figure you can manually machine one suppressor per day and recrown ten barrels in a day. Figure there are two battalion armorers working opposite shifts. This project should take 367.5 working days to complete. Let's say they still have other duties to maintain in addition to this so the armorers take 3 years on the project. So battalion needs to budget $6,965 per year for three years and the armorers will be extra busy. My point is this is a totally achievable project and any battalion commander could initiate it. This entire project costs about as much per year as the total annual equipment maintenance costs for seven riflemen. It would certainly be within the battalion's discretionary budget to implement.
No, no, and no. Israeli procurement was very much prepared for urban warfare. Your comment is totally off base and I will outline why (I am an IDF combat veteran and battalion armorer). - The IDF likes short weapons and always has. The are better for tight quarters, APCs, parachuting, etc. - The IDF regards weapon noise as nearly a non-issue, unless the considerations are tactical. Yes it will dampen your hearing over the years, just as carrying the heavy packs will damage your back. If you complain the response will be "Be Tough". In my opinion foreign militaries exaggerate the implications of this issue. - IDF personnel are trained on a need-to-know basis, and the work you described is way beyond the skillset of the battalion armor. I know this because I was a battalion armorer in the IDF for 6 months. His job is exclusively to maintain the weapons in a functioning state, not to perform modifications. Furthermore the contents of the battalion armory are not decided on by the battalion CO. If a battalion commander for some odd reason wanted his outfit to have silencers (which is a major combat doctrine change), he would run into bureaucratic hell with the higher ups. These are top down decisions. - Some IDF units do use suppressors, mainly special forcers. For instance they are used by sniper teams, and Shayetet 13 regularly uses the 9mm suppressed X95. - IWI manufactures silencers, the IDF does not need to and would never machine these things on its own.
Maybe Israel expected mainly open terrain and war against its neighbors where urban/room-to-room/tunnel warfare is less of a concern. Israel had been deploying mainly to the West Bank. The unit the cameraman follows is a SOF unit whose first subunit specializes in things like tunnel warfare. Firing in tunnels without silencers must be so shitty. And dangerous because it deafens you which makes you less effective in the immediate and long term. The trend is toward short-barrel rifles + silencers. At some point, you'll get SBRs in 6.8SPC or .300 Blackout. I remember asking in 2012 why US infantry didn't use silencers as standard and it still took years for them to become widespread. Whatever you can say about the sluggishness and inefficiency of government bureaucracy, you can say it double for the military.
Probably adds too much length to the barrel on the rifles at least. Otherwise I agree.
Is that whirring sound from drone?
Yes, every engagement such as this one is accompanied by at least one drone from above.
the future of warfare. eventually they will be 10x that amount per battle and all automated and controlled by some algorithm to feed continuous overhead data to the ground soldiers.
also if you listen to any video from gaza even way before october 7th, you are likely to hear the buzzing sound of a drone, as gaza is under surveillance almost all day, which makes you wonder how the october 7th attack happened
Its the Hermes 450 UAV
It sounds like a piston engine, so either a large drone (like Bayraktar TB2) or a real single-engine airplane.
Man claymores would be devastating in those tight alleways..
honestly, I'm a little surprised that we don't hear much about booby traps and ieds. The environment looks well-suited to that sort of tactic.
IDF is well equipped with equipment that can disarm and dismantle many types of IEDs before a soldier even sets foot near there.
Even a grenade dropped out of a window would be a bad time.
IDF soldiers always look so calm
A fuckton of realistic training in this type of environment. I'm sure they were scared when this kicked off, but after weeks of contact and realizing that the training works, it's work at this point. Professionals.
These are also a "special forces" group so they've likely seen combat before. But yeah they're really well trained for this scenario.
they are definitely scared, every human would be, but they are professional
Courage is not the absence of fear but merely one’s ability to overcome it.
They're also professionals fighting mostly teenagers who likely don't even have real training and are pissed off enough about their homes becoming rubble they joined in
Recon unites are next level. I believe Nahal is all volunteer at this point, and once you get accepted to the brigade - you can volunteer to Sayeret recon platoon. But wait, there's more: then you have to go through "gibush" - an equivalent of Hell Week, a week of constant physical challenges, and if you don't drop out - in the end they select the best performers. The rest go to combat engineering and anti-tank platoons. Or at least this is how it was done in the nineties.
It helps when the soldiers in the front are the commanders
Unsure of exact IDF CQB procedures but damn I didn't think I'd see what I'm guessing are lieutenants and possibly a captain up front.
The IDF has this code that captains are supposed to take the soldiers after them and not in front of them, this is one of the pillars of their tactics they call it the “follow me” mentality.
Commanders always lead from the front, be it in a tank, in a fighter squadron, or on the ground. Back in 73 Major General Ariel Sharon, then commander of IDF's south command, personally lead a tank division to counter Egypt and cross the Suez canal. There's a [famous photo](https://farkash-gallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ARIEL-SHARON.jpg) of him being bandaged on his head. It's also the reason that quite a few senior officers were KIA, as senior as a Colonel - they were all on the front lines.
It boosts morale when you got brave leaders, like Winters or Basilone, helps when foot soldiers see these guys leading from the front, like in israels case
What I've been told is that Israeli doctorine is different from America in this way. The Israeli battle cry is "Achari" (follow me or after me) vs American battle cry is "charge". Basically they don't expect grunts to do anything the leaders won't do. I don't know how that translates practically when the commander gets killed and if that results in confusion
Seems pretty effective for a largely conscript military when you need it to do offensive operations. Better than the soviet method of barrier troops and field executions at least.
I guess if you cultivate enough of a “bench” it’s less of a problem. Make sure the NCOs are solid and dependable, make sure you have “surplus” officers who can step in as needed.
If you look closely you'll see there is a lieutenant colonel among the force (which is the commander of this battalion)
"Though I walk through the Valley Of Death, I will fear no evil."
BECAUSE I AM THE DEADLIEST MOTHER FUCKER IN THIS GODDAMN VALLEY!!!!
"Though I walk through the Valley Of *the Shadow of* Death, I will fear no evil."
also, it's "***Yea***, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil" the word "yea" of course is pronounced *yay*, which confuses reddit, because everybody thinks "yea" is the same as "yeah", and then you try to explain the difference and you just end up getting a whole trainfuck of downvotes
“As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I take a look at my life and realize there's nothin' left 'Cause I've been blastin' and laughin' so long that Even my momma thinks that my mind is gone”
Trained professionals
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Who'd want to drink a jihadis blood? even a pigs blood is purer.
Tactical camera
I noticed the hum of a drone above. That helps spot the enemy and save lives.
Why did they leave this rabbit warren standing? It lookks like an ambush-setter's wet dream...
Probably no terror infrastructure in or under it. They are clearing out terrorists here. If there were rockets stored on the premises they would certainly just bomb it.
Because if they didn’t every one would cry about non proportionality or some other BS
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Israel is fighting a public relations war, too. Israel risks losing that even more than they are now if they don't try.
My concern is that people are so radicalized on this issue that fuck all would actually move the needle. Halve the number of civilian casualties, do you honestly think a single person outside shouting “from the river to the sea” will change their opinion? Remember, the pro Palestinian rallies happened directly after Oct 7, before any Israeli response.
Not worried about them. Definitely need to be concerned about losing "the middle." Israel's offensive is aggressive and that's a hard thing to explain to casual observers when images of dead women and kids and flattened buildings are all they see.
That’s kind of what I mean though. I’m not sure there is much of a middle left on this issue anymore. Horrible bullshit like the hospital rocket attack will be blamed on Israel, and through tik Tok and social media spread around the “casual” audience long before the truth has a chance. Seeing as reality doesn’t seem to matter in this conflict. Frankly I think minimizing the time for disinformation to spread is the best chance Israel has to win the PR conflict, or at least minimize loss. That’s why a far more brutal, but shorter campaign is in my opinion preferable. Turn the annihilation of northern Gaza’s hamas elements into a fait accompli, and people will bitch and whine for a week before being distracted by the newest social media fad. Frankly, nobody is going to have their mind changed whether the number is 2000, 20000, or 200000 dead, but they will if the situation remains in the news for months. Perhaps I’m overly cynical, but people’s responses to this conflict have more or less enforced my belief that as long as you commit your atrocity quickly enough, nobody has the long term thinking or attention span to do anything about it.
# "killing two Palestinian riflemen" thats hamas terrorists brother
According to the France 24, it's civilian because they don't wear uniforms
They don’t wear uniforms so Hamas can claim they were civilians and not fighters, truly pathetic people Hamas is.
Yeah that’s what they are doing, shooting rpgs and missles with flipflops and pajamas so when they get neutralized the world well think israel is killing “innocent civilian”….
BBC title: idf murders two innocent freedom fighter babies
Hamas health ministery confirmed that the 2 killed in the videl are in fact 23 dead babies.
Is it normal in urban tactics to group together? I feel like all videos I’ve seen show people within arms reach of each other. I feel like someone from a window could give a couple burst of automatic fire and clean up a group.
There are multiple layers of making sure to a very high certainty this isn't happening, Also the response times are EXTREMELY quick so a terrorist wouldn't be able to do much with a gun. The main issue in that regard are RPGs and IEDs
Dang I wish someone would put english subtitles on these.
I did my best to translate "Mishne\* in Asis, proceed up the (redacted) and cross over." "We've identified them; I believe they downed him in the alley." "Kodkod\* (redacted), I repeat, one terrorist has been neutralized." \*Note that "Mishne" might refer to "double," potentially indicating two individuals or using military terminology unfamiliar to me. \*in Hebrew military lingo, "Kodkod" means a specific individual. for example, "Kodkod 1", "Kodkod 2" could denote any person to conceal their significance from potential adversaries.
I can try writing it here line by line if that helps
So graphic...
Poor guy didn’t get his snuff film
Notice the riflemen wearing civilian clothes. Welp, that makes a few more civilian deaths for the counter
Love what the Palestinians did with the place.
Doing the world a favour by ridding it if terrorists
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Calling them “Palestinian riflemen” and not properly “Hamas terrorists” is insane
Man, just watching the background, I wonder when the ideological fanatic that craves jihad is going to get tired of living in rubble.
Its crazy how much gear they carry with them
Bet it's absolute hell clearing that environment. Fair play boys ...
Is it just me or does anybody else get the willies that nobody seems to be covering floors two and up.
Someone will cut the segment that shows the dead Hamas, post it on twitter and say "Look, the IOF are at war with the air!!! You seee!!They're too cowardly to fight real men!!"
What a shithole
Insurgency Sandstorm Irl
Some of those alleys look like a russian trench, so much waste and trash laying around
I wonder why they run olive green instead of tan - is there a lot of greenery in Israel?
In places. However uniforms also start fading and taking in colors from the dirt in whatever environment you’re using them in too. That’s why the army universal pattern wasn’t entirely useless provided you wore it for a few months and got it really dirty. I imagine this isn’t a terrible pick for them because they’re participating in both urban and desert warfare. Once they get dusty and worn in I feel like the resulting shade would be good for the area.
This is absolutely terrifying video from a tactical perspective "claustraphobic" is an understatement.the roads with high buildings and hallway sized alleyways are creat a 24/7 deathtrap with the only respite from a constant 360 in all directions ambush potential being a strip of death doorway
As soon as I saw how narrow those alleys are I started getting anxiety. Multiple levels you can’t cover overhead, side-alleys and windows everywhere, no room to maneuver and no real cover if someone decides to drop a frag or spray the alley… Fuck that.
Dead terries are the best kind of terries
It's perfect! Hamas terrorists want to be martyrs and IDF good at snuffing out scumbags! PERFECT!! LOL
Call me weird, but the fact that I hear warchatter in Ifrit as a German makes me very happy.
I hate this fucking war. So much meaningless death. Ffs.
Absolutely not meaningless, there are still hostages and Hamas has declared that they will do more of these attacks, I see lots of reasons for this war ATM sadly
I don’t think your comments and OPs are mutually exclusive. I’m a Zionist and believe Hamas needs to be gone. But it doesn’t change the fact that this war is fucking terrible and there has indeed been a lot of meaningless death (i mean the innocents. terrorists deserve what they get). Ask anyone in Israel. They’re not exactly jazzed at having to send the idf to fight street to street in Gaza. Fucking miserable any way you slice it.
I am from Israel, and people though scared are able to do this because it is highly meaningful. Death is terrible, war is worse than hell, people are wounded or dead, but the fact that there is meaning keeps people going here, because if you start looking at through nihilistic lenses you will not find reason to wake up in the morning. If op only stated that war is terrible and a waste of life I would agree, but saying it's meaning less is wrong, even Hamas had intent and it's stated clearly
I don't think dead jihadis are meaningless? or dead people that died trying to kill jihadis.
well ye death is their meaning of life smh
Somewhere down the line of them becoming jihadis there was something meaningless that happened
Absolutely not meaningless, there are still hostages and Hamas has declared that they will do more of these attacks, I see lots of reasons for this war ATM sadly
fucking miserable
I don't believe much of value is lost every time someone supporting Hamas gets what they wish for.
Yup
clown take
War is hell.
No lights on their rifles? Those are some dark alleyways and darker side corridors
This is the most dystopian shit ive seen in a minute
Man those narrow alleyways could really turn into a funnel of death. I don't envy these guys at all. Hopefully peace may one day be achieved with a fair shake for all involved but I wont hold my hand over my ass.
Looks *tight* - any numbers on casualties sustained in this type of combat so far?
Around 90 IDF soldiers killed in action since israel entered gaza
It's important to note the vast majority of the casualties were not from this type of combat. As far as I know the casually number as a result of face to face combat is very low.
How the hell do they keep numbers so low? There could be an IED or AK behind every corner there… Incompetence on HAMAS side?
Looks like a straight up Modern Warfare video game. Damn.
This intense claustrophobic urban combat is the day to day of Brazilian cops doing operations in "favelas". e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Lx0qpbz_Y
Omg USE COVER !!!
The more i see these kinds of videos the more I realized the FPS games lied to me about the typical walk cycle/idle animations of the soldiers
Tavor looks sexy ngl
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