In a statement issued on October 31 via the Telegram application by the military spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades (Abu Ubaida), it was stated that the resistance had managed to destroy 22 military vehicles so far, with 105-caliber high-explosive anti-armor Al-Yassin shells, and destroyed guerrilla action bombs from During engagement with enemy vehicles at zero distance and blowing them up by placing explosive devices on them. In this context, the Israeli occupation army announced for the first time 11 of his soldiers died In the ground battle currently taking place.
Improvised explosive devices (1) or “improvised explosive devices” (IED) are homemade bombs that contain military and non-military components. These devices are typically used by irregular military forces and are highly effective against a conventional military force. They may be used in ambushes on the The road is such that it intercepts the attacking forces or their supply lines, and it may be installed at entrances or buildings to strike teams of soldiers, or it may be installed on vehicles and tanks to destroy them.
Regardless of the complexity of the device, it consists of five parts that are positioned differently in different versions of IEDs: a power source, an operating switch, a detonation initiator, a main explosive charge, and a container, the latter usually containing a group of projectiles such as balls or spikes, which Produces lethal shrapnel when detonated.
As for the explosive charge itself, it can be obtained from any military component, including artillery, mortars, aerial bombs, certain types of domestic fertilizer with explosive TNT, or anything like that, so it is flexible and easy to manufacture. As for the resistance, there are infinite ways to build it, and it can be adapted for any purpose depending on the mission, so it can penetrate armor, demolish buildings, and hit soldiers if they are in free teams.
In addition, explosive devices show a great degree of variation (2) in the method of detonation. Either it is an improvised explosive device and is activated by a pressure switch to resemble a landmine, or the operator may be very complex, operating via a radio frequency signal that is timed. It is launched by an individual observing the target, or perhaps an individual attaches it directly to the armored vehicle or tank, as happened in the case of the Palestinian resistance.
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Armor-piercing explosive devices
During the Israeli occupation’s attempts to make a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip in 2014, Hamas carefully organized the defensive battlefield. It deployed explosive devices and transformed civilian areas into defensive areas, directing the Israeli occupation army into pre-prepared “ambushes”, and although the number of occupation soldiers killed at that time was not Significantly, this tactic slowed down the advance of the occupation forces, and in the end they were forced to retreat back.
But what Abu Ubaida talked about is a new addition to the range of explosive devices that the resistance is manufacturing and which entered service, according to his statement, in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, which are penetrating devices (3) or explosively formed penetrators, which is a more complex picture. A combination of explosive devices represents an important development in this scope.
The metal cover of this canister is usually concave and consists of steel or copper. This concavity physically focuses the energy of the explosion in a precise direction, creating a stream of molten metal that can penetrate armor at a speed of up to thousands of meters per second, which helps in penetrating The strongest armor in the world currently. In Iraq, for example, during the invasion of coalition forces, these explosive devices were able to penetrate heavy armored vehicles and Abrams tanks, which are the main battle tanks of the United States Army.
In fact, the invention of the concept of armor-piercing explosive devices was in 1910 in Germany, but it took a full century for us to reach the invasion of Iraq by the coalition forces in 2003, where the use of IEDs was a serious surprise to these forces, and even represented, according to some researchers in this area (4) “The most effective weapon against regular forces” in Iraq, which made improvised explosive devices in general (and explosive devices in particular) a major part of the contemporary form of warfare.
Iraq is a practical model
The forces that faced the coalition in Iraq were also surprised by the effectiveness of these devices, so they worked to improve them so that the fragmentation process would be easier, and the devices would be more resistant to environmental degradation, which provides them with a long shelf life. In addition, they designed a number of smart ways to hide explosives in order to use them against… Attacking forces.
But more importantly than that, this effectiveness led to the construction of a military system centered around IEDs, so their use changed from random operations to a paramilitary organization consisting of an operations director, a planning team, and an implementation team specialized only in IEDs. Instructional manuals were even issued on how to carry out ambushes on the side. The method using IEDs, how to manufacture IEDs from conventional high-explosives and military munitions, and how to completely eliminate attacking convoys. (5)
This led to the diversification of the uses of these devices according to the function. Explosive devices designated for individuals emerged that had a design, working mechanism, and explosive charge that differed from the explosive devices designated for buildings, those designated for armor, those designated for aircraft, and those designated for creating obstacles in front of advancing forces, which were used as a first stage before operating other explosive devices. On the way to destroy all forces, etc.
All of the above led to a significant increase in the use of IEDs, as they were used in more than 100 attacks per month by the end of 2003, and by April 2005 this number had increased to more than 1,000 attacks, and the number rose to more than 2,500 IED attacks starting from Summer of 2006, and by the end of 2007, IEDs were responsible for approximately 63% of coalition deaths in Iraq (and caused more than 66% of coalition deaths in the Afghanistan War).
Hamas strategy
In a previous report entitled “The new Al-Yassin force… How did it break the back of Israeli armored vehicles and tanks?“We spoke in some detail about the mechanism for the resistance to confront the ground deployment of Israeli armor and tanks through anti-tank weapons, but what Abu Ubaida said shows that the explosive devices, along with the Al-Yassin shells, made an effective contribution to the victory achieved in the first battles that took place between October 29 and 31. /October.
In the 2014 operation, Hamas cleverly deployed thousands of fighters in relatively small, heavily armed assault squads; According to Israeli sources (6), the resistance fighters were more effective and ferocious than in previous conflicts, as they surprised the Israeli forces, coordinated their firing, and inflicted casualties on even the best Israeli infantry and armored formations.
And with what appears to us of the development in the capabilities of the resistance, especially after the operational and intelligence success in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation on October 7, and the addition of new weapons to the resistance forces, such as Al-Yassin missiles and the latest explosive devices (and we have not yet talked about the new marches and missiles), This means that the resistance may be able, in this new battle, to inflict a greater amount – and by a large margin – of losses among the ranks of the attacking Israeli forces.
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sources
1- Improvised Explosive Device
2- IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE LEXICON
3- Operational and Medical Management of Explosive and Blast Incidents – The Modern Explosive Threat: Improvised Explosive Devices Brian P. Shreve Chapter First Online: 04 July 2020
4- Improvised Explosive Devices: The Paradigmatic Weapon of New Wars Palgrave Macmillan -CHAPTER 4 – Authors: James Revill
5- The previous source
6- The Combat Performance of Hamas in the Gaza War of 2014
