I don't know much about Fallujah so this was an interesting read regards combat in a dense urban environment:
Cities are claustrophobic, casualty-heavy places in which to fight – we speak to those who have experienced the horror of it first-hand
www.telegraph.co.uk
I really hope the IDF has plenty of Iraq veterans to help them out with this, it's going to be tough...
Look, I'm not into habit of inane kind of patriotic chest beating. However, it's need to be understood, that maybe apart from Americans (and Brits to a lesser extent) with their Iraq experience, I struggle to think of other Western military (I'm obviously not talking Russians and Ukrainians now) with as much experience in urban warfare and better prepared for it, than IDF.
IDF had plenty of urban fighting during the Defensive Shield in West Bank (2002), Second Lebanon War (2006), Cast Lead operation in Gaza (2008), not to mention more or less continuous anti-terror operations in the West Bank for the last 20 years. This, including the subterranean/tunnel warfare, which again, is not new to us (there are special engineering units for dealing with it, technology, tactics etc.). IDF has been preparing for this contingency at least since Hamas coming to power in 2007.
There is a reason we (in partnership with US) built a whole frigging city in Negev solely for the purpose of urban warfare training, where we are constantly hosting our Western friends:
In maze of tight alleyways and drab buildings, decorated by army's sole official graffiti artist, soldiers hone skills needed for conflict in Gaza Strip, West Bank or even Lebanon
www.timesofisrael.com
Now, all of this is not to say that taking Gaza or part of it, is going to be "easy" by any stretch of the word. Gaza city is not Ramadi or Fallujah, it's several times both of them combined, where the enemy has been also preparing for this contingency for the last 15 years or so. It's going to be a very long, very bloody affair with most probably hundreds of killed IDF soldiers. But there simply no other military in the world right now better prepared for dealing with it, than IDF.
The only very, and I mean
very, optimistic possibility that we will not have to actually conquer and clear the whole of Gaza is the Beirut 1982 scenario. That is, when as a result of partial ground invasion, and them running out of supplies and options, we reach the deal, where the remaining Hamas leadership is spared in return for hostages and expulsed to, say, Qatar. This, of course, is going to be only the end of the most active/intensive phase of the war.