ALBAWABA - Al Jazeera has released video showing the Israeli army using more and more explosive military robots to destroy homes in Gaza City. This is part of a larger plan to take over the city and force people to leave.
Dr. Munir Al-Barsh, Director-General of Gaza's Ministry of Health, says that the Israeli army has been sending between seven and ten explosive robots to Gaza City every day. Each robot can carry up to seven tons of explosives. These robots are being used a lot in the city's eastern and northern neighborhoods, where they are destroying a lot of civilian housing and infrastructure.
The vehicles used are American-made M113 armored carriers. They were originally made to carry troops, but they were taken out of service after a lot of deaths in the 2014 Gaza war. Israel has since turned these vehicles into explosive robots that can be controlled from a distance by taking out the seats and control panels and filling them with a lot of explosives.
These vehicles are used to level whole blocks of homes and are controlled from safe command centers. The full destruction radius of each explosion is about fifty meters, and the partial damage radius is about one hundred and fifty meters.
The plan behind using these robots is to flatten cities so that Israeli troops can move around more easily, avoid being ambushed by Palestinians, and stop resistance fighters from hiding in buildings and crowded urban areas. Israel wants to cut down on its own military deaths by using a lot of remote-controlled destruction instead of direct ground combat.
The Israeli military said that Gaza City is not part of any temporary tactical truce because it is a "high-risk combat zone" as troops get ready for a big attack. Military operations on the outskirts of the city have already begun, with Israeli troops working to gain more control before launching a larger attack.
Palestinian resistance groups have responded by taking explosives from disabled Israeli robots and using them to attack Israeli troops and vehicles. Even though the bombings have gotten worse and new technologies have been introduced, Israeli troops are still having a hard time in urban combat. Palestinian fighters are using ambushes and improvised explosive devices to slow their progress.
