Palestinian resistance managed to surprise Israeli military analysts and caught the military logistics unprepared; Israel was forced to call up an additional 16,000 reserve soldiers and to dip into a locally-based ’emergency’ stockpile of American munitions for continued attacks on Gaza.
The United States confirmed it had restocked Israel’s supplies of ammunition as the Israeli security cabinet on Wednesday ordered the Israeli army to “forcefully hit Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in Gaza.” The army subsequently announced Thursday it will call up an additional 16,000 reserve soldiers.
The soldiers will be joining some 70,000 reservists who had already been called for service, making up a total of some 86,000 reservists who will be on active duty.
A Palestinian delegation, that includes Hamas and Islamic Jihad representatives, arrived on Thursday morning to Cairo to discuss a potential ceasefire agreement with Israel.
Israel believes that Hamas has suffered unprecedented damage and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he would not agree to a ceasefire that will not allow the army to destroy all tunnels in Gaza.
However, Palestinian resistance managed to surprise Israeli military analysts and caught the Israeli military logistics unprepared.
A US defense official recognized on Thursday that the United States allowed Israel to tap a locally-based US arms stockpile in the past week to resupply with grenades and mortar rounds.
The munitions were located inside Israel as part of a program managed by the US military, the War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel (WRSA-I), which stores munitions locally for American use that Israel can also access in emergency situations.
Israel, however, did not cite an emergency when it made its latest request some 10 days ago, the defense official said, speaking with the Israeli press on condition of anonymity.
The United States allowed Israel to access the strategic stockpile anyway to resupply itself with 40mm grenades and 120mm mortar rounds to deplete older stocks that would eventually need to be refreshed.
Additional Israeli requests for US-manufactured ammunition were also being processed in the United States, the official said. The official did not offer further details on quantities or costs of ammunition already supplied or requested.
Perhaps the growing Palestinian resistance led the prime minister to recognize that prospects of success during the current offensive are not high.
‘I said at the start of the campaign: There is no guarantee of 100 percent success, just as Iron Dome does not provide a complete answer’, said the prime minister.
See also: 07/15/14 Defense Expert: Iron Dome is a Bluff
