US think tank: Hamas has rebuilt about half of its combat forces in the central and northern Gaza Strip
2024-08-07
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After about 10 months of fierce Israeli offensive, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was considered to have "mostly collapsed". However, the latest analysis report released on August 5 said that Hamas has reorganized a large number of combat forces in the Gaza Strip.
▲In central Gaza, a man holds the bodies of children killed in a refugee camp for a collective funeral.
The Critical Threats Project (CTP), a war research institute under the American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), analyzed various data collected from the outbreak of this round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict to last month and found that Hamas has successfully rebuilt about half of its combat forces in the northern and central areas of the Gaza Strip.
The report cites Hamas military operations mentioned in official Israeli and Hamas statements, ground-based images, eyewitness testimonies and expert interviews.
IDF denies:
No longer able to function as a military structure
According to analysis, after the Hamas raid in October last year, Israel deployed large-scale troops and equipment to conduct a "comprehensive cleanup" throughout the Gaza Strip. In the process, the Israeli army claimed to have killed more than 14,000 Hamas members and "eliminated" several commanders. Since then, the Israeli army has significantly reduced its permanent troops in the Gaza Strip and has instead deployed troops and equipment to strike when it detects Hamas's reconstruction movements.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that the Israeli army is approaching its stated goal of eliminating Hamas and destroying its military capabilities. On the 24th of last month, he optimistically stated in a speech to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that "victory is at hand."
However, the analysis shows that in some key areas where the Israeli army dropped heavy bombs and fierce fighting took place, Hamas regrouped the survivors, replenished its forces and rebuilt its forces in two different ways: some Qassam Brigades units were reorganized by merging severely degraded units into combat-capable battalions; other units were reorganized by recruiting new fighters and making new weapons using explosives left behind by the Israeli army.
“The Israelis claim to have cleared certain areas, but they haven’t done so completely,” said Brian Carter, CTP’s director of research on Israeli-Hazi military activity patterns. He added, “We noticed that within a week of Israel’s withdrawal from northern Gaza in January, Hamas began to resurge, and that effect has continued to spread throughout the Gaza Strip…”
The IDF denied the findings in a statement, saying: "Most of Hamas' brigades have been disbanded and most battalions have low levels of combat readiness, meaning they are unable to function as a military structure."
▲Israeli soldiers passing through the collapsed streets of Gaza City
US experts:
Hamas's actual strategic strength is growing
US military experts say the Israeli army's random bombing style and lack of post-war planning have helped Hamas rebuild. "If most of Hamas's forces were destroyed, the Israeli army would not continue to fight," said retired US Army Colonel Peter Mansour, who oversaw the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Iraq in 2007.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is wrong.” He went on to say that the fact that the Israeli army is still working to eliminate Hamas members in the Gaza Strip shows that Netanyahu’s optimistic remarks are wrong. Mansour explained: “Hamas’ ability to rebuild its fighting forces has not weakened at all.”
Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, analyzed: "Israel is arousing more political anger, more grief and more emotions, which will lead more people to join the fight. The actual strategic power of Hamas is increasing, and its power lies in its ability to recruit people."
On January 7, the Israeli military announced that it had destroyed Hamas's command structure in northern Gaza. However, a few days later, there were reports that Israeli patrols in eastern Gaza City were attacked. Video footage a few weeks later showed people crawling out of the rubble, most likely Hamas operatives who had survived after hiding in the vast tunnel system that runs throughout the area.
A senior Israeli military officer who requested anonymity also questioned: "Wherever Hamas raises its head, we will move in. But can this kind of operation last forever? No." He also compared the Gaza operation to a marathon in which one does not know where the stadium is, and criticized: "Although you are running, you do not know whether you are moving in the right direction."
According to CCTV News, on August 5, local time, the health department of the Gaza Strip issued a statement saying that in the past 24 hours, the Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have resulted in 40 deaths and 71 injuries. Since the outbreak of a new round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict on October 7 last year, the Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have resulted in 39,623 Palestinian deaths and 91,469 injuries.
Red Star News reporter Deng Shuyi compiled CCTV news (CCTV reporter Wang Xuejing) and others
Editor: Pan Li, Editor: Deng Feiguang
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