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[Text/Observer Network Lynx] Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed since the beginning of last month that the Israeli army is close to the goal of "eliminating the military wing of Hamas", and at a joint meeting of Congress on the 24th of last month, Netanyahu also stated that he would continue to fight until "victory", the outside world is not optimistic about this. On August 5, CNN published an article full of "cold water", saying that data shows that what is happening in reality is "a completely different story".

The report claimed that after evaluating and analyzing a series of military operations since October 7 last year, and referring to the war reports, ground combat videos and interviews with some experts and witnesses released by both sides, Netanyahu's statement was doubted. CNN also analyzed with the war research institute "Critical Threat Project" (CTP) under the think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), that although the Israeli army has been carrying out "more than nine months of brutal offensive", "nearly half of the Hamas combat battalions" in central Gaza have still rebuilt some combat capabilities.

During this period, Israel did launch a fairly high-intensity attack on hostile armed groups. Senior Hamas leaders were frequently assassinated, and the continuous rounds of offensives also forced the (organized) "professional combat forces" to transform into guerrillas. For example, last week, Ismail Haniyeh, the top leader of Hamas, was killed in an attack in Tehran, the capital of Iran, and Israel remained silent on this. On the other hand, Israel claimed that it had killed Hamas military commander Mohammed Dayif in an airstrike on Gaza on July 13, and Hamas did not respond to this.

But the report said that the study, which covers up to last month, showed that Hamas seemed to have "effectively utilized the dwindling local resources." Despite fierce fighting and intensive air strikes, several units have returned to "key areas" cleared by the Israeli army to reorganize and replenish their forces. Brian Carter, head of CTP's Middle East affairs, who works with ISW to conduct joint research on the activity patterns of the Israeli army and Hamas and other armed forces, said that the Israelis often claim to have "cleared" an area, but in fact they have not completely cleared it or completely defeated the militants there. Carter said that Hamas is ready to fight and is actively seeking war.

The IDF strongly denied the findings in a statement to CNN. The statement said, "The main combat brigades of Hamas have been disbanded (due to the strike), and most battalion-level units have only low combat readiness and can no longer function as military backbones." In addition, the report's analysis describes the status of Hamas forces based on the definition of the US military, which does not conform to the relevant definition of the Israeli military. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office has not yet responded to a request for comment on the report.

Previously, according to the Israeli military, Hamas' main combat unit in Gaza, the "Qassam Brigades", was composed of 24 battalion-level combat units. The CTP and ISW assessment in this report concluded that as of July 1, only three battalions had completely "lost their combat effectiveness" under Israel's attack, and the combat effectiveness of 13 battalions had been weakened to "only able to carry out sporadic guerrilla-style attacks", but eight battalions still retained their combat effectiveness and were able to carry out military missions against Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip.

American military experts interviewed for the report said that Israel often resorts to large-scale bombing operations in combat and does not formulate effective post-war plans, which will prompt Hamas to "revive from the ashes." For example, Israel said that although it almost "destroyed the Jabaliya refugee camp" in nearly three months of air strikes last fall, when the Israeli army tried to re-enter the area in May this year, it still encountered "fierce resistance from nearly three battalions of Hamas."

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Peter Mansour, who served as executive officer to multinational force leader David Petraeus and helped oversee the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Iraq in 2007 for counterinsurgency strategy, also complained that if most of the Hamas battalion had been destroyed (as Israel claims), the Israeli army would not be fighting now. Mansour added that the fact that they (the Israeli army) are still in Gaza trying to "crush members of the Hamas battalion" clearly shows that Netanyahu's claim that "victory is in sight" is wrong, but instead shows that Hamas' ability to reorganize its fighting power "has not weakened."

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