GAZA: The Israelis admit Hamas has now hardened into a formidable foe.

Four days after Israel launched a withering ground assault on the Palestinian militants in their stronghold of Shejaia following intensive air strikes, the army still does not have complete control of the area.

Using tunnels, mines, booby traps and snipers, Hamas fighters have inflicted record casualties on Israeli troops waging an offensive in the Gaza Strip, applying years of training in urban warfare with a new tactical acumen and suicidal resolve.

“They have undergone extensive training, they are well supplied, well motivated and disciplined. We have met a more formidable enemy on the battlefield,” said Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner at a media briefing.

“We are not surprised about it because we knew that they were preparing for this battle. They didn’t just invest in the tunnels for the last two or three years. What is remarkable is that in the past eight years they have basically built an underground Gaza. It’s astonishing.”

Speaking off the record, another Israeli army official said: “They have thrown everything at us. Missiles, ambushes, even (bomb-laden) donkeys and dogs. It’s proving a real challenge.”

Exploiting a vast network of secret tunnels to snipe at enemy troops and blast their vehicles even inside Israel, Hamas has so far killed 32 Israeli soldiers — almost three times as many as in the last major ground clashes in a 2008-9 conflict.

“The Al Qassam brigades continue to give repeated surprises, and every day the holy warriors arise from where the (Israeli) occupation could not foresee,” the group said last week.

“They fight... face to face with the enemy in retaliation for the blood of the martyrs that the occupier spills daily.”

DARING ACT: The action has lived up to the fierce rhetoric.

Hamas has far outstripped fellow militants in Islamic Jihad and other groups in sending drones, scuba commandos and tunnel raiders to take the fight into Israel.

In one such action, Hamas fighters emerged wearing full Israeli uniform, but were let down by one key detail - they were carrying Kalashnikov rifles, not standard issue M16s or Tavor assault rifles.

In the most deadly incident for Israel yet, on the first day of its incursion to begin destroying the tunnels on Sunday, Hamas says its fighters watched as an enemy armoured personnel carrier lurched into a web of booby traps they had laid.

“Our holy warriors detonated the minefield with such force that (the carrier) was destroyed. They advanced on it, opened its doors and finished off all left inside,” the group said.

Israel offered a different account, saying the vehicle was part of a convoy and was hit my multiple anti-tank missiles.

Published in Dawn, July 24th , 2014