Iran Press/Middle East: About 13 miles from the Gazan border, the Israel heavily equipped army forces rehearsed urban combat like that it would encounter during an incursion into the Gaza Strip.
The maneuvers reportedly drew heavily from the Israel's 2014 attack on Gaza, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, which included a heavy air war on Gaza but also a ground invasion of the Shuja'iyya neighborhood, RT reported.
“Without a doubt we are ready to win the next war,” Captain Noam Karavani from the 601st combat engineering battalion of the 40th armored brigade said. The officer didn’t mention how large the drilling forces were.
"They’ll have to step up their game, because Hamas has been drawing lessons from their past engagements, too," He added.
Last Wednesday, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas conducted a massive drill that aimed to “test the readiness” of its forces "for a scenario of an extensive attempt to harm public order and stability in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas’ Interior Ministry said in a statement.
At the climax of the drill, which involved police, intelligence units and the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ paramilitary wing, Gazan forces rehearsed capturing an Israeli special forces team that had penetrated Gazan territory.
The Gazan drill was based on a more recent engagement: the botched Khan Younis incursion last November, in which an Israeli special forces team was discovered in the northern Gazan neighborhood and a shootout ensued in which one Israeli commando were killed.
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