Zero gains, high losses: Inside the collapse of Israel’s “Chariots of Gideon”

While Yossi Yehoshua, military analyst for Israel’s i24 News, predicted the operation would wrap up by next week, most Israeli media outlets and military experts now admit the operation has achieved nothing but defeat.

Colonel Hezi Nahama stated: “In the past three months, over 40 soldiers have been killed in Gaza without retrieving any hostages or achieving victory over Hamas. Why did they lose their lives?”

General (Res.) Yitzhak Brik also acknowledged in Maariv that the Chariots of Gideon operation has failed, and that the Israeli army currently lacks the capacity to defeat Hamas.

Israeli media sources have reported that armored vehicles used in the operation performed poorly, despite high expectations from the army. These vehicles did not withstand the realities of the battlefield, and their deployment resulted in the deaths of 44 soldiers and officers. On the intelligence front, Israeli forces suffered repeated ambushes and attacks by Palestinian resistance fighters, who continue to strike IDF assembly points.

What is "Chariots of Gideon"?

On May 5, Israel’s security cabinet, backed by far-right ministers, approved a plan under which, if no ceasefire or hostage deal was reached with Hamas by May 15, the IDF would launch a full-scale operation to occupy Gaza indefinitely.

The stated aim was the "complete defeat of Hamas" and the establishment of camps for Gaza’s population in the south, with 4 to 5 armored and infantry divisions gradually taking control of the strip and retrieving Israeli hostages.

However, as the operation dragged on, despite causing massive destruction across Gaza, none of its stated goals were met. In contrast, Palestinian resistance forces launched increasingly creative and deadly operations, luring Israeli troops into deadly traps, and publishing videos of successful ambushes, which exposed Israeli military losses despite government censorship efforts.

Satellite imagery has shown the devastation caused, particularly in southern Gaza and Khan Younis, where destruction is described as widespread and unprecedented.

Mounting criticism from within Israel

General Noam Tibon noted that more than 40 Israeli soldiers and officers have died since the start of the operation, without a single hostage being recovered.

“Our forces are deeply exhausted,” he said. “The right course now is to end the war and pursue a prisoner exchange deal.”

Eyal Ofer, a leading economist and Hamas affairs expert, told Maariv that Chariots of Gideon is “one of the most disastrous military campaigns in Israel’s history.”

He heavily criticized both the military and political leadership.

Ofer pointed out that Israeli media has frequently confirmed Hamas’s narratives of success in guerrilla warfare, with those same claims later being validated in official reports. He added that public opinion in Israel is gradually growing accustomed to soldier casualties, which are being used politically, even though the reality is far more complex than what is publicly shown.