page_title: Gaza War (2008–2009)
section_title: Ground invasion
hierarchical_section_title: Gaza War (2008–2009) / Proceeding / Israeli offensive / Ground invasion
caption_attribution_description: English: The Samouni Family
context_page_description: The Gaza War, also known as Operation Cast Lead, also known in the Muslim world as the Gaza Massacre, and referred to as the Battle of al-Furqan by Hamas, was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israel Defense Forces that began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009 with a unilateral ceasefire. The conflict resulted in between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths.
  The Israeli government's stated goal was to stop indiscriminate Palestinian rocket fire into Israel and weapons smuggling into the Gaza strip. Hamas stated its rocket fire, which resumed in November 2008, was in response to an Israeli raid of a tunnel leading from Gaza, which it characterized as a ceasefire violation. Israel said the raid was a preemptive strike against a tunnel they believed would be used to abduct Israeli soldiers guarding the border. In the initial air assault, Israeli forces attacked police stations, military targets including weapons caches and suspected rocket firing teams, as well as political and administrative institutions in the opening assault, striking in the densely populated cities of Gaza, Khan Yunis and Rafah.
context_section_description: IDF infantry and armor units amassed near the Gaza border on 28 December, engaging in a blockade of the strip. On 29 December, a Palestinian mortar attack hit an Israeli military base along the Gaza border, killing one soldier and wounding several others.
  On the evening of 3 January Israel began the ground operation with a massive artillery barrage all along the Gaza boundary, and ground forces were sent into Gaza for the first time since the start of the conflict. The ground invasion, termed the 'second stage' of Operation Cast Lead, sought to control open areas and encircle towns and refugee camps from which militants continued to launch rockets, but not penetrate densely populated areas.
  The Paratroopers, Golani, and Givati brigades simultaneously entered the Gaza Strip from several unexpected directions to avoid reported booby traps while also outflanking opposing forces. The 401st Armored Brigade used Merkava Mark IV tanks to quickly block access from Rafah and Khan Yunis to Gaza City, cutting supply lines to Hamas from the south. The move put psychological pressure on Hamas while also forcing combatants to withdraw from the front line. Israeli forces took strategic hilltops to better control areas.
  The Israeli advance was spearheaded by Combat Engineering Corps sappers opening routes and allowing the ground forces to advance while dismantling booby traps set up in great numbers by Hamas, often set to detonate upon entry to a building. Improvised explosive devices (IED) were a concern for Israeli soldiers. One Israeli commander said that booby traps were found in a mosque and one-third of the houses. He said that some of the traps were designed to assist in taking IDF soldiers captive. All such attempts failed. The IDF used D9 armored bulldozers to ensure that paths were cleared of IEDs. These bulldozers were also used to destroy tunnels. The unmanned, remote-controlled version of the D9 (called Black Thunder) were also used. In one case an armored D9 knocked down a door, which triggered an explosion of a building full of explosive on top of the D9. The D9 survived the explosion and building's collapse. Combat engineers that inspected the rubbles found a tunnel, cache of weapons and remains of a suicide bomber. Viper miniature robots were deployed by Israeli forces for the first time. These were used for various tasks including the disabling of IEDs. Along with blocking mobile phone communication, the IDF employed electronic jamming equipment to disable remote operated explosives. Among others, The IDF used the new Bull Island system for the first time to identify booby traps in buildings. Bull Island uses a camera shaped like a tennis ball that can be thrown into a building to transfer 360-degree imagery to the troops outside of the structure.
  Israeli artillery units worked closely with battalion commanders. For the first time, the Sheder Ham digitized data, mapping, and command-and-control system linked the Artillery Corps into the Army's overall C4I network. Israel artillery fired approximately 7,000 rounds during the conflict. An Israel Defense Forces colonel stated that tactics and procedures had to suit the difficult urban environment. The number of rounds in the 22-day conflict was 5% of the total fired during the 34-day Lebanon war. Under the condition of anonymity, another officer said that close air support missions accounted for more than 90% of rounds fired. He also said that about half of those were MA25A1 incendiary-based smoke rounds used to mask troop movements.
  The Oketz Unit, the IDF's dog-handling corps, performed 33 successful missions during the war, with specially trained sniffer and attack dogs and their handlers leading advancing forces. In every mission that involved Oketz dogs, there were no casualties among soldiers. Three dogs were killed by enemy fire during the war.
  Hamas guerrillas sometimes emerged from tunnels to fire at IDF soldiers, then pulled back to lure troops into built-up areas. In one case, a Palestinian dressed in an Israeli Army uniform opened fire on a group of soldiers, 
caption: ISM photo:"Damage to the Zeitoun neighbourhood"
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