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Israel Dominates Battlefield with Technological Advantage over Hamas
(Wall Street Journal) Dov Lieber - In the Negev Desert, commanders from the Givati Brigade watch a bank of screens showing the real-time location of all Israeli and Palestinian forces inside Gaza. They use this information to move around troops and weapons and surveillance aircraft like pieces on a chessboard. This node of a sprawling technological nerve center, receiving thousands of battlefield data points from drones, jet fighters, naval ships, tanks and soldiers, has enabled the Israeli military to carry out a sweeping takeover of a swath of Hamas' stronghold in Gaza City in less than three weeks with fewer than 50 troop deaths. On Saturday, commanders in the Givati command center watched the evacuation of Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City. A video shown to the Wall Street Journal showed a few militants with guns slung around their shoulders leaving the hospital among the crowds of civilians. Should the IDF commanders on the ground engage the militants right then and there or let them leave? The commanders ultimately decided to let the militants go. Later that day, one of those militants was killed by a drone strike while hiding out in a school, indicating his movements were tracked after leaving the hospital.