British military expert in Israel says understanding the tunnels below Gaza is key to understanding the war above.
By Rolene Marks
“This war from a military perspective is all about the tunnels. They are used for weapons manufacturing, for storage and for maneuvering. The golden rule for any military is your maneuverability,” says Major (ret) Andrew Fox, in an interview with the writer for JNS. We spoke of the vast damage in Gaza, the visuals of which has many in the international community responding with outrage.
While images of the destruction are used incessantly in the information warfare to typically elicit a robust response from the international community, to fully understand what is happening above ground however, you need to look below ground.
“The tunnels are a weapons system of their own,” asserts Fox. “People, think of them as hidey-holes; a way to avoid IDF airstrikes – and they are. But they are much more than that and to neutralise the tunnels, you need to destroy what is above them.” Fox explains how Hamas tries to weaponise Israel’s tunnel strategy to solicit international support to get it to stop. They have at times achieved success in this because “Every tunnel is connected to a mosque; to a hospital and to a school, and for Israel to nuetralise these tunnels they need to go through the entrances located in these mosques, hospitals and schools. All the while, a hostile global media contorts the facts by exploiting the visuals to besmirch Israel.”
Major (ret) Andrew Fox is a former British Army officer who completed three tours in Afghanistan, including one attached to the U.S. Army Special Forces. He also served in Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East, was a senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and currently serves as a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society focusing on defense, the Middle East, and disinformation. Fox has visited Israel numerous times since the start of the war with Hamas following the atrocities of 7 October and has spent a considerable amount of time with the IDF in Gaza.
In recent weeks, Fox visited Gaza with a cohort from the High Level Military Group (HLMG) “an independent body of former chiefs of staff, senior military officers and cabinet ministers from NATO countries with many decades of expertise at the highest level of land, air and sea conflict and the legality thereof.”
The HLMG has filed a counter-claim at the International Criminal Court (ICC) following the announcement by chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, to issue warrants of arrest for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant.
Fox elaborated of what the HLMG observed, notably:
“The IDF rules of engagement; collateral damage; the presence of civilians; sites of a protected nature, and then what munitions are suitable in the specific circumstances.”
This explains why, “one in every two airstrikes is cancelled,” says Fox. “If the proposed attack fails any one of the established standards, they abort the mission. Our observations of IDF’s conduct in warfare is clearly correct, moral and legitimate.”
To prove “genocide” as South Africa has accused Israel of at the ICC, “you have to establish intent and you can’t take politicians comments in press conferences as intent,” says Fox. “Armies don’t take orders from press conferences; they take orders from war cabinets and the official chain of command.”
Regarding the issue of humanitarian aid, it is Fox and the HLMG’s assessment that Israel has gone beyond the requirements under international law . He elaborates on how Israel has “built and rebuilt damaged roads in Gaza” and food delivered through the border crossings is providing “a caloric 40% daily calorie intake higher than the accepted humanitarian standard.”
This the international media fails to report.
Israel has also facilitated polio vaccines, repaired damaged water pipes and restored electricity supplies. There have been 16,000 aid co-ordinations between the IDF and aid agencies, and “thousands more on top of that,” says Fox.
In recent weeks, UK government announced that they would retract their objection to ICC arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and its Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant. This change in attitude towards their ally was followed by Foreign Secretary, David Lammy’s announcement to suspend 30 out of 350 arms export licenses. The timing could not have been more hard-hitting as Israeli reeled with grief following the brutal execution of six hostages.
Opining on this decision, “The double insult is performative,” says Fox. “The ordnance licence suspensions will not impact at all to the war in Gaza. None of the thresholds of international humanitarian law were remotely breached. This is purely performative and spiteful.”
STAGGERING STATISTICS
Weighing in on the information battlefield, Fox relates the statistics of media networks that exposes their clear bias:
“The media have platformed Hamas. I have seen a study that looks at five key media platforms including Sky News, CNN and the BBC. 100% of the time, they cited Hamas fatality statistics. 75% of the time, they mentioned they were from Hamas but not always, 4% of the time they cited IDF statistics. That is the scale of the imbalance. I am trying to tell the truth as I see it and I have a better idea of the truth because I have been to Israel multiple times, I have been on the ground in Rafah, I have spoken to the IDF at every level,” said Fox. “I know it to be true; I have seen it with my own eyes.”
This past Sunday, The Telegraph published a damning expose showing the BBC’s bias and violation of its own impartiality clause.
In Andrew Fox’s opinion, a number of components need to be understood in order to have a better understanding of this war and Israel’s response to the massacre of 7 October, the taking of hostages and the tunnels.
One area where the IDF could improve, is running its information campaign in parallel with its military campaign. This is a lesson for all Western militaries.
There are many lessons that other militaries can learn from Operation Iron Swords and the IDF’s conduct. Fox believes this war will be studied hard and other militaries can learn from the IDF about “urban maneuverability”. Militaries will have to look at urban warfare above and below ground at the same time, how to integrate air power, how to integrate drones, coordination and other factors that have never been done before. Today, “The IDF are clearing out tunnels today far more rapidly than in the beginning of the war,” because, “The Israelis have had to learn it on the job,” concludes Fox.
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