RPGs take a toll on the IDF
Unsurprisingly, RPGs are Hezbollah fighters’ favored weapon. The Jerusalem Post has an article on Israeli soliders hurt by the cheap and pesky Rocket Propelled Grenades.
As the article points out, while RPGs are routinely referred to as anti-tank weapons, they’re actually more effective against unarmored targets like dismounted infantry or trucks. The RPG is useful because it requires little training to use, is easily maintained and packs a powerful punch. They can also be used against helicopters.
Lt. Ohad Shamir was commanding a surveillance team hiding in Maroun a-Ras. Their mission was to locate Hizbullah fighters still operating near the village after it had been captured by Golani and Paratroopers units. Shamir’s men felt pretty safe - during the 10 days they spent in the village, not a shot had been fired at their building. But then an antitank missile hit the structure and Shamir was lightly wounded.
On Wednesday, he was being treated at Safed’s Ziv Hospital for fragments in his back.
“They are small teams, three of four people, hiding in the undergrowth, firing out of nowhere. They’re the biggest danger,” he said of the Hizbullah gunmen.
The same story repeats itself time and again in the hospital wards where wounded solders are recovering and comparing experiences. No one has yet begun analyzing the causes of casualties in this war, but the indisputable fact is that the great majority of wounds and deaths were a result of antitank missiles - more than from gunfire, grenades and other explosive devices together.
Hezbollah has done a thorough job in preparing the battlefield with stacks and stacks of weapons and ammo, caches that can are difficult to detect and that be quickly retrieved by Hezbollah fighters at short notice.
Over the last two weeks, the tactic used by many of the Hizbullah teams has been to avoid close-range combat, where IDF soldiers’ high level of training gives them the upper hand. Instead, the Hizbullah men have been moving to positions high above villages and continuing to fire missiles at the IDF forces. Large stores of missiles were prepared in the hills in advance, for this eventuality.
IDF officers have voiced frustration at the fact that even in areas where the IDF has been operating for more than a week, the missile threat still exists. On Monday, tanks that had been fighting for two days in the villages opposite Metulla came under missile fire when they were returning through the border fence.
War Nerd recently had an article on the lethality of RPGs.
