Gaza Field Source: New Weapons Alter Tactics in War with Israelhttps://english.aawsat.com/features/4739861-gaza-field-source-new-weapons-alter-tactics-war-israel
Gaza Field Source: New Weapons Alter Tactics in War with Israel
A frame from a video by Hamas’ media office shows battles between the Al-Qassam Brigades and Israeli forces in Gaza on November 8. (AFP)
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Gaza Field Source: New Weapons Alter Tactics in War with Israel
A frame from a video by Hamas’ media office shows battles between the Al-Qassam Brigades and Israeli forces in Gaza on November 8. (AFP)
Israel and Hamas have started experimenting with new weapons and altering their combat tactics based on past experiences, a field source, who requested anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat.
After a prolonged and complicated battle, fighters have discovered significant changes in the Israeli army’s weapons and tactics, added the source, who is also a member of armed military wings in Gaza.
The source said the Israelis have started using remotely operated weapons, including AI-driven tanks.
The Quadcopter drone, initially designed for surveillance or the firing of gas bombs, has been equipped with mounted machineguns.
Gazans told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israeli forces have used new bombs and missiles not previously tested in any war.
Moreover, there is an increasing reliance on deploying drones, trained dogs, and robots to combat zones, particularly in dealing with tunnels, rather than sending soldiers, noted the source.
After an extended period of combat, Palestinian fighters became aware of Israel’s use of unmanned tanks, prompting them to modify their approach in dealing with these vehicles and making a decision to refrain from targeting them except in specific situations.
These unmanned tanks maneuver with agility and fire like conventional ones. They were discovered after fighters successfully targeted them on multiple occasions.
In addition to the shift in tank-targeting tactics, the fighters completely changed their approach to a hit-and-run style.
Sources within Palestinian factions stated that fighters have transformed destroyed houses into observation points, moving without weapons until obtaining them shortly before launching attacks from specific locations, complicating the task of Israeli surveillance.
In Gaza, Palestinian fighters are using anti-armor and individual weapons and then engaging Israeli soldiers with light arms. Additionally, they are deploying drones in their attacks.
Hamas employs inexpensive and modified drones, some repurposed as “suicide” drones, while others to carry and drop bombs.
Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri speaks during the International Conference on the Legal-International Claims of the Holy Defense in the capital Tehran on February 23, 2021. (AFP)
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Top Iranian Generals Killed in the Israeli Attack
Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri speaks during the International Conference on the Legal-International Claims of the Holy Defense in the capital Tehran on February 23, 2021. (AFP)
Israel targeted leading members of Iran's armed forces on Friday during its unprecedented onslaught hitting military and nuclear targets across the country.
Here is what we know about the two top figures killed:
General Mohammad Bagheri was the highest-ranking officer in the Iranian armed forces and was responsible for overseeing the army, the Revolutionary Guards and Corps and the country's ballistic missile program.
In office since 2016, Bagheri worked directly under the authority of supreme leader Ali Khamenei -- Iran's ultimate decision maker and the commander-in-chief of its armed forces.
As second in command, Bagheri held wide-ranging authority over much of Iran's military formations and appeared regularly on television in uniform, including notably at the inauguration of underground military bases.
He also played a key role in developing Iran's ballistic missile program.
The arsenal, originally developed to compensate for Iran's weak air force during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, significantly increased its range and precision over the years.
Israel has long viewed these capabilities as an existential threat from its sworn enemy and has twice been targeted by massive barrages fired by Iran at its territory.
"The Zionist enemy should know that it is nearing the end of its miserable life," Bagheri once declared, while referring to Israel as "a cancerous tumor".
In 2022, Bagheri stated that Iran was "more than self-sufficient" in arms and equipment, boasting that the country would become one of the world's top arms exporters if sanctions were lifted.
The general was placed under US sanctions during President Donald Trump's first term and later sanctioned by the European Union following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
At that time, Bagheri mocked the EU, suggesting it should use Iran's frozen assets to "buy coal" to heat itself in winter amid Russia's war in Ukraine aided by Iranian weapons.
Born in June 1960, Bagheri succeeded Hassan Firouzabadi, who had served as chief of staff of the armed forces for 26 years -- from 1989 to 2016 -- and had once accused Westerners of using lizards to spy on Iran.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) head Hossein Salami delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the first death anniversary of late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in Tehran, Iran, 15 May 2025. (EPA)
Hossein Salami
Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami was a veteran officer close to supreme leader Khamenei and known for his tirades against Israel and its US ally.
"If you make the slightest mistake, we will open the gates of hell for you," the white-bearded general warned Tehran's arch foes during a tour of an underground missile base in January.
Born in 1960 in central Iran, Salami joined the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1980 at the start of the war launched by then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
He spent most of his career in the Guards, which was set up after the 1979 overthrow of the Western-backed shah to defend the goals of the revolution.
The force is now 125,000-strong grouping, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, although Iran has never released any official figure.
Salami rose through the ranks to become head of the Guards' air force division and was placed on Washington's sanctions blacklist.
He served as the corps' deputy commander for nine years before being promoted to the top job in 2019 as part of a major reshuffle.
Iran's revolutionary leader Khomeini had made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of Tehran's foreign policy and Salami repeatedly alluded to calls for Israel to be wiped from the map.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should "learn to swim in the Mediterranean Sea" in readiness to flee, he said in a 2018 speech.
The IRGC played a central role in Iran's forward foreign policy in the Arab world, which saw Tehran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah lead Gaza and Lebanon into war with Israel.
The twin conflicts were accompanied by the first-ever direct exchanges of fire between Iran and Israel last year and were to lead to the much bigger wave of Israeli strikes on Iran on Friday, one of which killed Salami.
