US intelligence agencies estimate that the IDF has eliminated only about 20-30% of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
According to the report, it is “a toll that falls short so far of Israel’s goal of destroying the group and shows its resilience after months of war that have laid swaths of the Gaza Strip to ruin.”
US intelligence also estimates that Hamas still has enough munitions to continue carrying out attacks against Israel and IDF soldiers in Gaza for months and that Hamas is trying to reestablish its police force in parts of Gaza City.
Israeli officials admit that the goal of eradicating Hamas has not been reached, with terrorists adapting their tactics to continue attacking IDF soldiers by operating in smaller groups and hiding between ambushes.
The Biden administration has changed their expectations of the war from Hamas’s total eradication to its reduction as a security threat and is pushing Israel to adjust the war toward more targeted operations against Hamas’s leaders.
According to U.S military doctrine, a conventional army that loses 25%-30% of its soldiers becomes combat-ineffective but Hamas is an unconventional force operating in a dense urban environment with easy access to hundreds of miles of tunnels.
An IDF officer said that Hamas officials have returned to Gaza City, including in areas previously captured by the IDF.
“It’s only a matter of time if Israel will not be boots on the ground in these places and that they will also bring back the military wing,” said Michael Milshtein, a former head of Palestinian affairs for Israeli military intelligence.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Israel will not be able to eradicate Hamas because the “innocent civilians” in Gaza ARE Hamas. How stupid can the IDF and the Israeli gov be? The ONLY solution to this is to pay other countries to let these “civilians” voluntarily emigrate there. 20,000 of these future terrorists were born since Oct 7! Can you imagine how this will turn out eventually c”v if let to continue? Let them leave voluntarily, at last half of them will leave and the other should be resettled for their own “safety”.
Kahana was right and the Israelis need to listen to what he said.
1. How would anyone know what the percentage is?
2. If true, then IDF has a long way to go, or must increase the firepower being used.
How hypocritical, give warnings, give enormous humanitarian aid (much of which Hamas takes), don’t bomb civilian infested areas, or UN facilities, allow red crescent and UN vehicles unrestricted use (to bring ammo and terrorists to where they can do damage), and stop fighting for weeks during hostage releases, etc. Plus, Hamas has had loads of time to bobby trap wide areas of Gaza including tunnels. Yet, still complain about how little (20-30%) of Hamas has been eliminated so far, oh come on now. What doesn’t seem to count is the high rate of terrorist eliminations over civilian collateral damage, totally uncharacteristic of wars, urban conflicts, etc.