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Hamas has developed sophisticated new tactics with a special bombing technique to cause maximum Israeli casualties, The National can disclose.
Its leaders have also ordered a “tactical shift” since the seven-day truce ended on December 1 – from delaying Israeli advances to decisively defending their ground in southern Gaza.
They are also using “complex ambushes” in which drones, mortars, mines and small arms fire are used simultaneously on Israeli formations.
But for the first time in the war they have used multiple EFPs – explosively formed projectiles – against armoured vehicles and have hit at least one tank.
In addition, entire houses have been rigged with explosives in what is called an HBIED (house-borne improvised explosive device).
Analysts suggest that a decision has been made to inflict a high number of Israeli military fatalities in an attempt to weaken domestic support for the war.
“The EFPs will increase the risk of casualties for Israeli forces,” said Noam Ostfeld, an Israeli-born analyst at Sibylline intelligence company. “In the long run, the casualties from EFP on [Israeli forces] will increase pressure from the domestic level to reach some kind of ceasefire.”
Deadly cone
EFPs are made from copper machined into a cone with explosives packed behind it. Detonation collapses the cone from its apex sending a slug of hot metal travelling at speeds of more than 3km a second or 11,000 kph.
If the slug penetrates armour it then fragments into “ridiculous amounts” of spalling and shrapnel inside, causing several casualties, said military analyst Sam Cranny-Evans.
“This is a sophisticated tactic as an EFP travels so quickly and it has so much kinetic energy, it's really hard to stop,” he said. “They can be effective from up to 50 metres, so this will be a big challenge and problematic for Israel’s armoured fighting vehicles.”
Another advantage is that an EFP can be initiated by an infrared trigger rather than waiting for a vehicle to drive over it and can be planted in houses while still achieving penetration.
Amael Kotlarski, of Janes, the defence intelligence company, said another advantage of EFPs was their “reasonable ease of manufacture”.
“It can defeat an active protective system as it is moving too fast to be intercepted by the Israeli Trophy system. In some cases, it can also defeat explosive reactive armour because it punches through it rather than initiating the defence.”
In the past week Hamas has used EFPs at least six times against targets advancing into southern Gaza and around Gaza city.
Tactical shift
Since the truce ended it appears that Hamas has moved into a “deliberate defence” mode “to attrit [weaken] and degrade the Israeli will to continue the ground operation into the Gaza Strip”, the Institute for the Study of War think tank said.
“The shift in tactics suggests that Hamas and Palestinian militias are preparing to become decisively committed to defending against the Israeli ground operation,” it added.
The new tactics are based on lessons learnt during the first month of fighting in which it was observed that Israelis were not using main roads when advancing.
Planting EFPs is one method in which the Palestinians can “more effectively counter this Israeli approach” with a Merkava tank struck by a device on Tuesday near Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
It is also highly likely that Hamas used the seven-day truce to revise its tactics and devise new methods of halting the Israeli advance across Gaza.
“Hamas had a bit more time to refresh the troops to gain a bit more understanding where everyone is because basically the IDF [Israeli forces] stayed in the same area during the truce,” Mr Ostfeld said.
Until recently, Hamas had been staging “shoot-and-scoot” tactics using a couple of fighters armed with an assault rifle and rocket-propelled grenade, usually accompanied by a cameraman, firing a few rounds before withdrawing.
This was designed as a delaying tactic to help Hamas move personnel and equipment through its 500km tunnel system into the southern strip.
Al Qassam attacks
It now appears that Hamas has committed its well-trained military wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, to the main defence.
In a deliberate, complex ambush on Tuesday, Al Qassam claimed that it detonated numerous claymore and anti-personnel mines east of Khan Younis.
In another attack Hamas detonated a house-borne improvised explosive device, collapsing the building close to Israeli forces.
Its fighters also filmed Israeli soldiers relaxing in temporary quarters in Gaza before filling a tunnel beneath them with explosives and detonating it under about 60 soldiers.
It is unknown how many casualties the Israelis suffered in the attacks but since the Gaza operation began, 82 Israeli soldiers have been killed.
“If they are fighting with the Al Qassam Brigades, then these are more highly trained and well equipped and it would stand to reason to see more complex ambush patterns using different types of weapons systems on Israelis,” Mr Kotlarski said.
This would include “layered effects” in which, for example, an anti-tank device such as an EFP would immobilise a vehicle, which would then be attacked by fighters with shoulder-fired weapons.
Antipersonnel mines would also be used in side streets to prevent infantry moving up in support of the armour.
“Once ambushes move to that much more determined and complex phase it means that every time it happens, the Israelis have to fight through,” Mr Cranny-Evans said.
Iran technology
It is almost certain that Iran has provided the extremists with the technological knowledge to make EFPs, which require an industrial lathe and high-quality explosives.
After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Iran supplied militias with thousands of EFPs that had significant success in targeting British and American armour.
“Iran has got a complex and advanced history of IED development, so it’s entirely possible that they've had technical input from the Iranian manufacturing,” Mr Cranny-Evans said.
Mr Kotlarski agreed that Hamas received some technical assistance from Iran “as some of the EFP are clearly right from Iranian designs”.
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When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
