Chapter 161: Hamas's Mercenary Request

However, shortly after Lin Yi finalized the order with Dragon Country,

he subsequently received a mercenary commission.

The client commissioning the mercenaries was the Gaza organization Hamas.

Although at this time Hamas was well-stocked with weapons, excellently equipped, and numerous in personnel,

and furthermore united as one,

while also having adopted strategies such as surprise attacks right from the outset of the war,

Hamas was thus advancing rapidly on land.

By now, they had already passed Gat Village northeast of Gaza and invaded southern Palestine, specifically entering Hebron, a city in the Israeli West Bank region.

This city is located 30 kilometers south of Jerusalem.

Hebron is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East and also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

It was a capital of the ancient Canaanites, and according to archaeological discoveries, the city may have been built in the 35th century BCE.

After the Six-Day War in June 1967, Israel effectively controlled the West Bank region, including Hebron.

A group of Jewish settlers began to settle in the city.

Later, after the Oslo Accords,

After the Hebron Protocol was signed in early 1997, the city was divided into two sectors: H1 and H2.

The H1 sector was home to 120,000 Palestinians.

However, when Hamas attacked Hebron,

it immediately drew a warm welcome from many Palestinians in the city.

01 Although this city had always been ruled by Israel, in reality,

Israel was deeply unpopular there; the Palestinians of this city had risen up in revolt several times, but all were suppressed.

Consequently, many Palestinians suffered collateral consequences.

This further deepened the hatred between the two sides.

Hamas's assault on Hebron gave these Palestinian civilians a glimpse of hope.

For decades, there had never been a single day when Palestinian armed forces could advance this far.

Most importantly, this place was only 30 kilometers from Jerusalem, the holy land in the hearts of the Palestinians.

Once Hamas could capture this southern strategic stronghold,

their next target could point directly at the holy city of Jerusalem.

Of course, for Israel, Jerusalem was also a holy land they could absolutely not lose.

In fact, although Israel's capital was Tel Aviv, in the hearts of Israelis, Jerusalem was their true capital.

Yet, only a few countries worldwide, such as the United States and Guatemala, acknowledged this.

Naturally, in Hebron, Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces engaged in fierce combat.

Although Israel possessed advanced equipment like Merkava main battle tanks and ATMOS 2000 self-propelled artillery systems,

with support from Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon,

Hamas was no longer the poor underdog limited to using seamless steel pipes and gas canisters as weapons.

At this time, Hamas was fully re-equipped.

Although most of their arsenal consisted of cheap firepower like RPGs and Katyushas,

seeing how Syria had humiliated the United States, the high-morale Hamas inflicted significant casualties on Israel with just this level of firepower.

In less than a month since the outbreak of hostilities,

over a thousand Israeli soldiers had been killed.

It could be said that Hamas had fully demonstrated Palestinian bravery.

Furthermore, more and more Palestinians began joining the organization.

This made Hamas unprecedentedly powerful.

As the battle unfolded, even Fatah, the other Palestinian armed group, began to join the fray.

In fact, regarding this action by Hamas, or the Palestinians in general,

the Israeli authorities had completely failed to anticipate it, leading to severe unpreparedness in the early stages of the war.

This was why Hamas could sweep through and capture the southern strategic stronghold of Hebron with such ease.

Or rather, Israel had severely underestimated Palestinian armed strength.

They believed that by blockading Gaza, where even essential supplies like water needed to be provided by Israel,

the Palestinians would be unable to organize any resistance.

However, Israel clearly never expected the emergence of the DWS platform.

Its appearance gave the Palestinians true hope for resistance.

Otherwise, lacking guns and ammunition, Hamas could only resort to crude methods to manufacture seamless steel pipe rockets,

which had very limited lethality and would invite severe retaliation.

Unlike now, in urban warfare, these Palestinians feared the Israelis not at all.

Both sides engaged in fierce contention in Hebron.

Even with tanks and other heavy equipment, Israel gained no advantage against Hamas.

After all, among the stockpiled munitions of Hamas, the most abundant were RPG rockets.

Knowing they might need to ambush Israeli armored units,

Hamas had purchased large quantities of PG-7VL warheads; these warheads were larger and more powerful,

capable of penetrating approximately 500 millimeters of RHA, roughly double the armor-piercing capability of the original RPG's PG-7V rounds.

Even against the Israeli military's Merkava main battle tanks,

a single hit would basically reduce them to scrap, turning them into iron coffins.

And such weapons, on the DWS platform,

cost less than 200 US dollars per round plus the RPG launcher.

This asymmetric warfare

allowed Hamas to continue fighting even against the well-equipped Israeli military.

The only thing Hamas remained powerless against, however, was

the Israeli Air Force.

Whoever came up with the idea, in order to hinder the Palestinian advance,

the Israeli Air Force began frequently bombing the Gaza Strip, especially targeting hospitals and schools.

This caused a massive humanitarian disaster.

Yet, facing accusations from nations around the world at the United Nations,

the Israeli representative's statement at the UN General Assembly was:

"This is merely so-called retribution for what Hamas has done... As for the so-called humanitarian disaster, they should be looking for Hamas!"

In response, the representative of John Bull expressed support.

The Ugly Country also indicated its agreement.

Even the Chairman of Euro-Meng stated that this was Israel's right to counterattack.

Facing Israel's arrogant aggression,

and with many Batan warriors particularly worried about the safety of their rear lines,

Hamas had no choice but to follow Syria's example, hoping to hire the DWS Platform to intervene.

To teach those Israeli Air Force pilots a lesson.

Upon seeing this ten-million-dollar hiring commission,

Lin Yi pondered for a moment and agreed that Israel indeed deserved some teaching.

Come to think of it, Lin Yi still remembered Israel's provocation against the Dragon Country at the Lianheguo Assembly meeting last time.

Although he did not care about the ten million dollars, as an arms dealer,

what he feared most was the tipping of the scales of victory toward either side.

Ground combat between the two sides depended on tactics, courage, and equipment.

In these aspects, Hamas lacked neither courage nor tactics; the only deficiency was equipment.

However, if quality was lacking, quantity could make up for it.

Hamas had also found a method to deal with Israel.

By using RPGs costing less than two hundred dollars to exchange for a latest-model Israeli Merkava main battle tank,

at such a rate of attrition, even if the Israeli military had endless money, they would struggle to sustain the burn.

However, regarding the one thing: Israel's Air Force,

Hamas had absolutely no solution,

and for Hamas, having lost air superiority was extremely disadvantageous to the overall war situation.

If the Israeli military were allowed to continue attacking Gaza indefinitely, Hamas's morale would inevitably be affected,

possibly leading to a total collapse and handing over such a favorable situation on a silver platter.

After some thought, Lin Yi decided to accept this hiring commission.

However, this time he did not plan to use the Lin Lin Jian-20 from last time.

Instead, he would use the Ugly Country's 2020-model F-22 fighter jet.

Combined with his ten percent title bonus from "True Arms Dealer."

Since the Ugly Country itself had not yet fully equipped the F-35C fighter jet, Israel currently, in terms of air power,

possessed only a batch of F-16C/D/I and F-15A/B/C/D/I fighter jets.

There was only a pile of F-16C/D/I fighters and F-15A/B/C/D/I fighters.