A report in The Washington Post on Tuesday said that although Israel says it has killed at least 5,000 Hamas terrorists, the terror group, which has an estimated 30,000 terrorists, remains largely intact.
The report, entitled Israel Has Vowed To Destroy Hamas. Yet The Group Remains Largely Intact, says that the IDF has not even entered some of Hamas’s key strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip.
“The deadliest battle may be ahead of us,” the report quoted Michael A. Horowitz, head of intelligence at risk consultancy Le Beck International. Horowitz said that he thinks that although Hamas has seemed to avoid direct confrontations until now, soon Hamas “are going to be cornered and they are going to have to fight.”
“Most likely there’s going to be some form of a lower-level counterinsurgency campaign for the coming months,” he said regarding the war’s continuation in the southern Gaza Strip.
An Israeli security official confirmed Horowitz’s assessment: “Our operations will be very different to how we’ve operated in Gaza City because it is much more overcrowded,” he said.
The report noted that despite the thousands of Hamas terrorists still alive and kicking, Israel’s main goal is to eliminate Hamas leaders, particularly Yehiya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza, whom Israel called “a dead man walking.”
“They are the ones who are their symbols; they’re the ones who have the authority to rule the Strip,” said Eyal Hulata, the head of Israel’s National Security Council until earlier this year. “So that’s the main operational goal at the moment, and they’ve all fled to the south, that’s very clear.”
Reports in Israel on Wednesday that IDF troops have surrounded Sinwar’s home in Khan Younis. However, Sinwar, who owns multiple homes, is in hiding and there is little chance he is in the building.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
They have known for weeks, that the Hamas leadership in Gaza has fled and many of the fighters have blended in with the refugees. The threat of assassinating leaders living in Instanbul or Qatar carries a totally separate set of risks of expanding the war
WaPo uses Hamas reports as the basis for its reporting. I can’t say whether the numbers here are accurate or not. But there is no source with any degree of credibility. So this just takes up space on their paper, and just might entertain some of the advertisers.
It is part of the leftist narrative that the IDF is killing civilians while Hamas survives. May those writing these stories thrive as well as Hamas.
They are the ones who are their symbols; they’re the ones who have the authority to rule the Strip,”
Exactly. Bomb a few empty buildings. Agree to recess with milk and cookies/cease fire. Go back and bomb the empty Hamas courthouse. Wow. What a devastating blow to the remaining 30,000 terrorists. That symbolic building meant everything to them. Have another cease fire, and then take down a few more empty buildings. America will eventually say, aad kan, and the all-mighty IDF will retreat back to Israel with its tail between their legs. Hey look, at least the editorial board of the NY Times will be happy. The transgenders who are marching across the world will be happy. That’s all that counts.
We’ve seen this movie over and over and over.
The supposed “civilians” living in Gaza are all Hamas.
They are not all hamas..
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5000 out of 30000 is 16 % .
Eighty four percent left .