Q+A: Face-to-face in Gaza: tactics of Israel and Hamas

(Reuters) - Israel kept up its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip for a 17th day on Monday. Following is an overview of the tactics and weapons deployed by each side.

Q - What are the strategies?

A - Israel's aim is to stop rocket fire from Gaza on its southern towns and to do so it has set about pummeling Hamas from the air and the ground to a point where the Islamist movement is either unwilling or unable to seek another confrontation with the Jewish state. It has not, however, made a commitment to breaking Hamas's control of the coastal enclave.

Israel is also intent on ensuring Hamas cannot rearm again, and to that end it wants to destroy smuggling tunnels between southern Gaza and Egypt and stop them from being rebuilt. To do so, it is considering seizing the land along the border, known as the Philadelphi corridor, a potentially risky escalation.

Hamas, whose ultimate goal is an Islamic state in all of what was Palestine in 1948, appears intent on firing as many rockets as it can each day as a show of defiance and as a signal that it remains unbowed. It may well hope to claim victory just by living to fight another day.

The length of Israel's offensive faces pressures from international diplomacy and an Israeli election on February 10 -- heavy losses among troops would not be popular with voters.

Q - What is the balance of arms?

A - Israel has among the world's most technologically advanced militaries, with more than 150,000 active personnel. Several thousand well-trained regular troops and reservists are already inside Gaza or on standby. They benefit from high-tech surveillance and communications equipment and can call on massive firepower from tanks, aircraft and navy gunboats.

Hamas has an estimated 25,000 fighters with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. Israel says it also has more advanced anti-tank missiles and may have shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles capable of hitting helicopters or low-flying planes -- though it is not clear such weapons have been used. Palestinian gunmen say they have prepared a matrix of deadly ground obstacles, from minefields to trenches and booby traps.

Hamas has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel and says its men -- and women -- could resume the tactic now.

Q - What are Israel's tactical advantages?

A - Though Israel's troops withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation, its intelligence services have studied the territory extensively, anticipating a showdown with Hamas.

Wary of repeating the setbacks in their 2006 war against Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, in which 157 Israelis died, the army has trained extensively and improved communications. Popular anger among Israelis at some 8,000 rockets and mortars fired into Israel from Gaza, killing 18 people from 2000 until the offensive began, has helped motivate the troops.

Israeli commanders have imposed new levels of censorship and information security to prevent leaks from the battlefield which might tip off the Palestinians as to military deployments.

The relatively slow progress of Israel's armed forces in Gaza so far, and their relatively low casualty rate, suggests they are advancing slowly and carefully to avoid being ambushed.

Q - What are Hamas's tactical advantages?