One of the interests I held as an Army Officer was Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT), formerly known as Combat in Cities. Part of that interest stems from my time in Europe where one thing my unit got to do was train at the German Infantry School's MOUT facility in Hammelburg. That facility is a 600 A.D. village taken over by the school.

One of the lessons I learned training there, even in a peacetime training exercise, was how taxing the environment was. You take a lot of casualties just from the being there in the form of twisted ankles and and knees and broken bones. When you do things for real, explosions effects are multiplied by the glass, wood and metal in the area.

Some of the techniques you'll read about in this article are standard, such as blowing holes in the wall instead of using the door. Others are more unique. There has always been the use of booby traps, but this is a unique use of mannequins.

Note how well the Israeli Army is equipped and task organized for the conflict. In my opinion this is a result of a couple of factors. First, the Israelis only have to worry about their environment. They don't have to train for an Arctic environment, for example. Second, Israel demands all its citizens serve in its Army. That means its Parliament has something close to 100% veterans, while our Congress has about 20% veterans. Further, those members of Parliament are likely to have people in the force related to them. Don't tell me that doesn't make a difference.

Here is a link to the article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/world/middleeast/11hamas.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&th&emc=th