A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery | Hacker News Reader

A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery

nytimes.com

14 pointsechair19 comments

  Israel has also managed to block cellphone bandwidth, so
  very few amateur cellphone photographs are getting out 
  of Gaza.

Is this Israel just pulling the plug on their own hardware...or is this a technology that attacks another country's hardware?

That is a good question. I suppose that the IDF is jamming the narrow band of the EM spectrum used by cellphones to transmit information. If such is the case, they would also prevent the enemy from using cellphones as detonators.

The jammers need not be omni-directional. After all, Gaza is an enclave facing the sea, so a few well-positioned directional jammers might be able to block cellphone bandwidth in the entire Gaza region without affecting much the cellphones outside of Gaza.

Just speculating. I am, by no means, an expert in RF and jamming technologies.

The Israelis are experts they make cellphone jamming equipment, I think even the US Secret Service owns some of the briefcase models which can jam a 1 mile radius.

I wonder if they've done something similar to GPS.

Smart bombs require GPS info to be precise. It would make no sense for the IDF to jam GPS signals, though it would make a lot of sense for Hamas.

Some "smart" bombs require GPS, but not all. It's my understanding that certainly the US military (and thus one imagines the IDF) possesses the ability to interfere with the C/A code but not the P(Y)-code. This being the case it would be next to useless for Hamas to attempt to jam GPS (unless Israeli troops were carrying civilian GPS units for personal use), but advantageous for the IDF.

You're right, not all "smart" bombs require GPS. I assumed that the IAF is using JDAM smart bombs, which use IMU & GPS integration. I don't see why one should use infrared or laser-guided bombs when one can use JDAMs.

The IDF could interfere with the C/A code indeed. Since Hamas seems to use obsolete equipment, I honestly don't see what tactical advantages would the IDF gain from jamming the civilian GPS signal.

because the idf doesnt use commercial grade gps. so everyone else who might possibly, re hamas, should get blocked ;)

why would the idf want anyone else having positioning information in an active war zone?

Blocking commercial GPS would make a lot of sense if there are palestinian forward observers watching the maneuvers of the IDF on the ground and communicating the coordinates of the IDF units so they could be shelled by (precise) mortar fire.

how about blocking coordination between groups of hamas fighters in their movements on the ground in gaza opposite the idf?

One uses laser-guided bombs for improved accuracy. The USAF has embarked on an LJDAM program to combine the fair condition accuracy of laser with poor condition performance of IMU/GPS in to a single weapon system.

Those laser-guided JDAMs require the target to be "illuminated" by laser until it is hit, right? If so, LJDAMs are not "fire & forget" kind of bombs, which is OK, since the IAF owns the sky over Gaza anyways.

Since the IAF wants to minimize the collateral damage (at least that's what they say), then LJDAMs would indeed make sense. I stand corrected.

What else are they supposed to do? The other side has better weapons.

Sad that humanity is still entralled to degenerate tribalism at the dawn of the 21st century. I wonder if those delusional Bronze and Iron age cult leaders had any idea of the damage they would be inflicting centuries hence.

Laughing in their graves: "Oh, come on, you didn't get it? We thought you could see we were bullshitting!"

Your comment looks like an observation, but it includes an implicit interpretation of the events. It is a clever technique, but harmful to the pursuit of transparent discussion.

What else are they supposed to do? The other side has better weapons.

So they use civilians to defend themselves and to attack with their tricky weapons. But there are only weapons because there is a war. And there is only a war because people hate each other. They could start by not hating each other...and trying to talk it out. But with both sides demanding preconditions, it won't work out. Ever.

Alas, peace in the middle east is not to be had.

What else are they supposed to do? The other side has better weapons.

What they should do is give up - they lost. And then they should work to get the best situation possible for their people. Instead they are trying to keep their cause alive, and who cares about the casualties. They lost and everyone knows it - but they refuse to allow themself to admit it, and so they kill their own people.

Sad that humanity is still entralled to degenerate tribalism at the dawn of the 21st century

What makes you think the 21st century is anything special? Humans haven't changed in the slightest since those "delusional Bronze and Iron age cult leaders". (That comment doesn't even make any sense since the bronze age was before, or at the very edge of, recorded history, but whatever.)

I checked some of your other comments, and they seemed normal - this one isn't. Are you just a troll trying to provoke responses?

No, but I can see how it could be interpreted as such.

Just tired of seeing people killing and being killed for what I feel are absurd reasons. (That comment doesn't even make any sense since the bronze age was before, or at the very edge of, recorded history, but whatever.)*

FYI,

The bronze age in the M.E. is commonly held to have occurred between 3300-1200 BCE, directly overlapping the time period of Moses, who is said to have authored the Pentateuch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_age

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses

That range 3300-1200 is for everywhere.
In that part of the world the bronze age was over. The bible talks about worked iron, and it's known it was over for Egypt and the Levant as well.
The palestinians didn't exist then, when they did come along it was over for them as well.

It is known that there was iron use at the time, but it is apparently referred-to as "iron use in the Bronze Age".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_age#Iron_use_in_the_Bronze...

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