Israel, which has been launching continuous attacks on Middle Eastern countries in recent times, finally ushered in retaliation. According to the Times of Israel, on September 18, local time, in Rafah City in the southern Gaza Strip, an Israeli "Hummer" military vehicle drove towards The roadside triggered an explosive device, killing 4 people and seriously injuring 8 people.
So, who exactly planned this revenge? How will Israel respond?
The elite rockers became live targets.
For Israel, what was taken in one pot this time was not an ordinary patrol, but a mobile "future commander incubator", which is the future hope of the Israel Defense Forces.
The death list itself explained everything, a major, with three lieutenant-level officers, this combination, in the army is the typical "teaching + fighting" teaching group.
Major Omri Hay-Ben-Mose is a senior instructor at the officer school, with a glowing history, who had served as commander of the 35th Parachute Brigade of the Royal Army.
And the three “students” he brought with him, and also the men and females, respectively from the Golan Infantry Brigade, the 89th Assault Brigade and the General Assembly of the Intelligence Forces, which are the most sophisticated units of Israel, they should be the central force of the future of the Israeli army.
In the execution of the task, the theoretically have the strictest safety procedures, in front of their fleet, there will always be a huge D9 armored bulldozer to open the way, with a thick belt to crush an absolutely safe passage.
The conventional principle of clearing obstacles is engraved in every soldier's mind like an iron law: the car behind must strictly follow the mark of the bulldozer, keep the distance between them, and never move, let alone stop.
However, the tragedy happened in a small "accident". The Hummer carrying the hope of the future, for some reason, slightly deviated from the lifeline that the bulldozer crushed, and made an action equivalent to suicide in a street fight-"bicycle pulled over".
For Hamas volunteers, the move is simply a textbook-level opportunity, and they have long been buried in the weak links of the road, such as the hole or corner of the wall, with targeted or overlayed explosives, waiting for a target to make a mistake.
A small tactical negligence instantly transformed an elite group that should have been teaching combat in a controlled environment into enemy hunting targets.Hamas precisely hit the Israeli talent chain with a low-cost volcano, causing long-term damage far more severe than the destruction of dozens of ordinary soldiers.
The territory is mine, but it doesn't matter
Ironically, Rafah, the site of the attack, is not a front-line zone, where the Israeli army has been long-running and has declared control of the crucial Philathe Corridor as a “safe zone.”
Such a devastating strike on its own ground, in the back of what it believes to have been cleared, has itself struck the Israeli Defense Army with a fierce eyelight and completely torn the illusion of so-called “effective control.”
This magnificent mirror reflects the cruel reality of modern urban warfare: between physical occupation and real security, there is an invisible divide.
The control of the Israeli army seemed to remain only on the ground, and their patrol routes, their barrier patterns, were almost entirely transparent to opponents familiar with the network of underground channels like mice.
The United Nations report reveals an astonishing fact: After the war began, Gaza's tunnel network was not only not destroyed, but expanded by an astonishing 47%. In Rafah alone, 23 new cross-border tunnels were discovered.
These paths are the life lines of Hamas’s operation, and they have long abandoned the traditional tactics of holding a position, instead of using a more cunning, more deadly, asymmetrical combination of fights: “Anti-Clear Barrier Volcanoes + Ground Machines + Short Attacks.”
The Israeli ground troops, like a squad moving on a huge chessboard, while the opponent is hidden underneath the chessboard, can be drilled out anywhere at any time and launch an attack in your most unexpected places.
The cost of this war mode is completely disproportionate to both sides. The Israeli military has assessed that thoroughly clearing a one-kilometer-long tunnel will require huge troops and a long time, and the casualty rate is three times that of conventional ground operations.
In contrast, Hamas only needs an explosive device and an observer to replace an Israeli army with a future commander group.This consuming war has caught an Israeli army with absolute military advantage into unprecedented passivity.
Their so-called "clean-up" has actually evolved into "consumption". Every step of advancement is accompanied by huge risks and costs. However, the enemy can rely on the tunnel network to flexibly shuttle between North and South Gaza, allowing the Israeli army to The decisive blow will always fail.
The fist is hard but I don’t know where to go.
The raft in Rafah was not an isolated event, and on the same day, Israel was faced with multi-line pressure, a shooting at the Port of Alenbi on the West Bank, and the Red Sea resort city of Eilat was also attacked by drones.
These simultaneous events together formed a massive storm that pressed Israel from military resources, social psychology to political decision-making.The pressure of multi-line operations has likely dispersed intelligence and logistics resources deployed in Rafah, creating a viable opportunity for this shock.
The deeper problem is that Israel’s military action seems to have lost its clear political direction.Netanyahu’s administration is facing triple pressures: massive pressure from the international community for a ceasefire, ongoing protests from domestic hostage families, and threats from far-right allies in the ruling coalition.
In this contradictory political environment, military action itself has been alienated and has become a "performance" that serves political needs. It should show toughness to appease the right wing; It is also necessary to avoid excessive casualties in order to cope with internal and external public opinion.
This state of “both fighting and not winning” plunges the forces of the front into the continuous bloodshed of unknown targets.
Hamas has seen through this. Their strategic goal has never been military conquest, but to slowly bring down Israel's will to war and international legitimacy through sustained, low-cost attacks.
The Casanon Brigade promptly issued a statement in Hebrew after the attack, which was not only a demonstration of the outcome of the war, but a precise psychological battle that directly conveyed a sense of panic and defeat to Israeli society.
conclusion
The Raphael explosion, like a ruthless alarm bell, used the lives of four young officers, brutally exposed the systemic trouble facing the Israeli Defense Forces.
A seemingly insignificant tactical mistake broke the chain of valuable talents.A successful wave-off broke the illusion of control under the pressure of the great army.And a series of seemingly isolated tactical losses, eventually gathered together, exposed the confusion and powerlessness of the entire national strategy.
However, as long as the goal of the war remains vague, Israel will remain trapped in this bloody dungeon, and the next time that ruthless “amplification mirror” will only shine on deeper, more deadly cracks.
Source of information:
Jiemian News 2025-09-19 "The Israeli military says 4 Israeli troops died in southern Gaza"
Global Times 2025-09-19 "Two Israelis killed in West Bank shooting"