Al-Monitor reviewed a military document from the so-called Air Defense Unit of one of Gaza’s factions. It stated that the Israeli air force had greatly contributed to the targeting of dozens of the faction’s members through its ability to monitor their movements. The air force also had thwarted a number of plans during the previous two wars by engaging Palestinian units firing rockets at Israeli settlements or assassinating fighters advancing toward Gaza’s eastern border.
The document, only distributed to members of the unit, which is an element of all the Palestinian factions, went on to say that the unit had endeavored over past years to develop military plans to confront any Israeli invasion of Gaza. They sometimes succeeded, according to the document, in repelling ground incursions, as occurred during the 2008 war on Gaza City’s southern border. The Israeli air force, however, was on the lookout for vanguard Palestinian armed units spearheading the face-off with the Israeli army. The primary objective of acquiring anti-aircraft weapons was to paralyze the air force, but this remains a challenge given the small number of such weapons in Gaza and the difficulty to acquire more due to the destruction of the smuggling tunnels.