Are the IDF in Gaza heroes or cowards?

Mr. Dajani, the manager of the oldest hotel in Jerusalem the New Imperial, told me on my last visit some years ago  that he looks at young Israeli men and sees that they are softer than the ones  he vividly remembers conquering the old city of Jerusalem in 1967. I love that man and wish I knew his thoughts about what is happening now but they are not hard to guess. 

I think the tens of thousands or, according to an Israeli investigator working for the UN, hundreds of thousands of killings (mostly of civilians) in Gaza show the weakness not the strength of the IDF. 

The killings are not the actions of heroes.

I understand their reluctance to enter tunnels. 

Killing people on the surface is much safer but those people are not usually Hamas.

A large part of the tunnels remain intact. 

The latest estimate I could find on the net was that in January 2024, more than a year after the Gaza killings began 80% of the tunnels were still intact - I do not know how many still are and how many have been emptied of people.

In January 2025 the U.S. estimated that Hamas had been able to recruit between 10,000 and 15,000 fighters since the Israeli attacks began, which was about the same number as had been killed. 

In other words, by January Netanyahu's aim to destroy Hamas (which was always impossible without deporting all the Arabs from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank) had wholly failed. 

Back on January 14 the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his last week in office, warned of “an enduring insurgency and perpetual war.” 

This was always what clever generals in the IDF feared.

The Battle of Stalingrad is a great example of the difficulty of urban warfare against an enemy which will sacrifice the lives of its men without compunction.

It is hard to know what is going on from the traditional media - I recommend reading the Israeli press, especially Ha'aretz, but also looking at the internet to read numerous accounts by Israeli soldiers. 

They include stories of war crimes and in some cases sadism.