In the largest operation in Gaza in decades, several battalions of Israeli troops began searching houses along the Egyptian border for tunnels. Armored bulldozers also came in and began demolishing houses close enough to the border to host one end of a tunnel to Egypt for moving people and weapons. Israel wants to withdraw from Gaza, but cannot do so if the illegal weapons tunnels stay in operation. Israel knows that the radical Palestinian groups will continue attacks on Israel, and the tunnels provide the weapons and suicide bomb making materials.
Israeli casualties have, as usual, been very low. Israel has developed very efficient urban warfare tactics that use helicopters, UAVs and good intelligence work to keep one jump ahead of armed resistance. The armed Palestinians who open fire on Israeli troops quickly find themselves outmaneuvered and overcome by superior firepower.
