The hospital shown on the news was just a ruin. I know nothing about warfare, but if an army like the IDF couldn't flush out the opposition, then they are incompetant.
Urban warfare....FIBUA as we used to call it (Fighting In Built Up Areas).... is tough. Most armies teach it, but the reality is that it's a skill only really learnt by doing it.
Unfortunately you can lose a lot of troops in the intial phase of learning how to do it effectively with minimum friendly casualties. A skilled enemy will set up kill zones, rat runs and IEDs, all of which cost lives to assault. You have to treat every building is a fortress, every door a boobytrap, every street a kill zone, every person you meet as the enemy and the only way to win is to make use of maximum force with minimum delay and keep the momentum. The problem with that is, these days most senior officers are permanently looking over their shoulders at the lawyers waiting in the wings, so they issue orders to include minimum collateral damage. Troops on the ground do not want to hear that as it translates to excessive casualties for them and hesitancy and delays in the chain of command.
Now if an army fighting in an urban environment has no real interest in minimising collateral damage or civilian casualties then it puts less emphasis on FIBUA and more on the delivery of indiscriminate ordnance to deal with an entrenched enemy.
Which seems to be Israel's preferred method.
www.theguardian.com
