"The principal killer in the May 2021 Israeli-Hamas war was Israeli air power, which surged up to 160 sorties in a single operation at its peak. The mainstay of the bombardment were U.S.-built short-range F-16 jet fighters... Israeli ground forces fired over 500 shells at Gaza with both direct and indirect fire, which appeared to issue primarily from 155-millimeter M109A5 armored self-propelled howitzers of U.S. manufacture."
The Israeli Defense Force reportedly conducted a total 1,500 strikes in the 11-day war, injuring 1,900 Palestinians and killing 248. The IDF claimed it had killed at least 225 Hamas fighters and 25 of their leaders. Gaza health authorities meanwhile reported 35 women and 66 children among the dead.
www.forbes.com
I think helicopters as opposed to artillery and fighter jets pose far less threat of collateral damage when it comes to Israeli missions into Palestine. America extensively used helicopters in the Vietnam War where Viet Cong militants in the rainforests were far more concealed than urban guerrillas in Palestine. The Somali 1993 operation where America launched air-raids against local warlords had a similar city-setting and climate to Palestine and yet America choose to use helicopters as opposed to jets. Despite the fact that some of their helicopters in Somalia were shot down the mission was an overwhelming military success given the extremely one-sided casualties against regional militias. It was a PR failure simply because of America's unwillingness to get bogged down in a war with any American casualties whatsoever rather than it being an actual Somali victory. Therefore reports of extreme anti-aircraft threats to Israeli helicopters in Palestine are grossly exaggerated. Reducing civilian casualties are important not only from an ethical standpoint but also for minimising the radicalisation of Palestinian youth. Therefore even if Israeli pilots suffered casualties from Palestinian rockets there's still the argument that more Israeli soldiers would be saved overall by reducing the frequency of future conflicts.
"However, the helicopter also has some disadvantages. Of primary concern is the high vulnerability of an expensive and sophisticated platform to cheap and unsophisticated weapons such as antiaircraft artillery (AAA) or machine guns. The helicopters that fly at low attitudes are more exposed to AAA. Thus, for example, in October 1993, Somali rebels using RPG-7 unguided, shoulder-launched, antitank rocket-propelled grenade launchers shot down two US UH-60 Black Hawks in Mogadishu, Somalia, during Operation Gothic Serpent... F-16 attack airplanes were used to destroy entire buildings belonging to the Palestinian Authority, including command and municipal centers and ammunition dumps. However, whenever the need arose for surgical bombing due to fear of potential civilian casualties, the Apache was deployed... However, the danger of collateral damage persists even in targeted killing. In future operations, the IDF must always consider the damage to a terrorist organization versus the impact such an attack will have on the image of Israel if noncombatants are hurt.
This article examines the Israeli Air Force’s (IAF) use of helicopters in the war against terrorism to demonstrate the specificity of the IAF’s use of attack helicopters as compared with other armies
www.airuniversity.af.edu
"President Clinton's special envoy to Somalia and a Marine Corps general who directed United States military operations there say there were 6,000 to 10,000 Somali casualties in four months last summer, either in clashes with United Nations peacekeepers or in fights between rival factions... Somali casualties have been largely overlooked by reporters, who have focused on the allies' casualties. United Nations and Pentagon officials say they have no accurate estimates because Somalis remove their dead and wounded before they can be counted. Somali custom requires that the dead be buried as quickly as possible...
By comparison, 83 United Nations peacekeepers have been killed in combat and 302 wounded since May 4. Of those, 26 Americans were killed and 170 wounded. The death of 18 Americans in a clash on Oct. 3 and the ensuing outcry at home led the Administration to pull back from the aggressive United Nations policy... Relief officials, who based their estimates on the number of Somalis treated in Red Cross hospitals, said at least 300 Somalis were killed and more than 800 wounded."
www.nytimes.com
Black Hawk Down: Touching down