By Nedal Al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose
Israel has caused a huge loss to Hamas this week that killed the Gaza president and other senior officials, but Palestinian and Israeli sources say the group has shown that it can absorb heavy damage, still fight and rule.
Hamas sources said that after Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in October, he turned to the leadership council, relying less on one person. As his missile arsenal decreased, he focused on the war on the gangs, while both military and political wings were replaced to use human envoys to remove electronic espionage.
Israel’s latest strike has been aimed at weakening Hamas’s ability to govern Gaza, indicating a new round of military attacks that the group has responded so far, with only a few missiles fired in Tel Aviv.
The violence, after 15 months of relentless conflict, Israel tried to destroy Hamas by bombing and ground attacks in retaliation for the deadly attacks of October 7, 2023, broke the ceasefire for several weeks.
Hamas’s heads of government, Isam Eddas and Interior Security Chief Mahmoud Abu Watfa, were killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday, increasing thousands of Hamas fighters missing in the war, including many military and political chiefs.
With a complete conflict that is now ready to resume in an unstable Middle East, Hamas’s ability to withstand a renewed Israeli attack in determining the temporary standards of a new conflict will be very important and how Gaza will be like after that.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said the main goal of the war is to destroy enthusiasm as a military and governance unit. He said the new campaign aims to force the group to give up the remaining hostages.
Reuters interviews with four sources inside and close to Hamas, as well as Israeli and Palestinian analysts who have good knowledge of the group’s abilities and functions, show that although it is weak, Hamas remains a strong opponent.
The return of Addalas’s resources throughout the war so far – Conducting meetings, appointing officials, paying salaries and negotiating security to provide aid – showed Hamas the ability to maintain some controls even between the chaos.
“Hamas is still on its own feet. Hamas is still running the territory and the residents and Hamas are doing their best to rebuild themselves as military,” said Koby Michael of the Israeli Institute for National Security Research and the Megav Institute.
Casualties
Hamas’s first response to Israeli air strikes began Tuesday by an attack on Earth, which began on Wednesday in Tel Aviv in Tel Aviv.
Earlier, the group said it wouldn’t respond to give more time for mediators to work a possible way to continue the ceasefire – something that seems to be too likely.
In the weeks before the fire took place in January, Hamas killed dozens of Israeli soldiers by fighting its gangs, which was part of the deadliest conflict.
“If Israel inserts its forces deeply into Gaza, fighting will be inevitable and Israeli soldiers will start killing,” a source close to Hamas said.
Israel says its operation has significantly reduced Hamas’s arsenal and its ability to work as a unified military organization, and has killed about 20,000 fighters.
Hamas is controversial, although he did not say how many fighters he had lost.
Former Israeli military intelligence officer Michael Milstin at the Moshe Diane Center in Tel Aviv said Hamas had taken thousands of other fighters recruited from many unemployed youth in Gaza.
On the other hand, despite being cut off from foreign weapons, and although Israel’s operations are home to domestic production, Hamas has proven that it is still able to build new bombs from unexploded explosives.
the ability to govern
In Gaza, the killing of Eddalis and other key figures this week was a significant blow to the group.
“They lost several high-ranking figures. Asam Eddalis was the head of the shadow government in Gaza.
“There is always someone to replace him,” he said.
Addales’ ability to work, even in the dense stages of war, emphasizes Israel’s difficulties.
“He stayed at work throughout the war, secretly moving between the institutions to supervise the work,” said Ismail al-Tubta, who works as head of his office under Eddalis.
A source related to Eddalis said he was able to move around Gaza carefully, sometimes by car, sometimes on feet, to meet people. The source said he had contacted his colleagues who had messages on paper.
The source and a source close to Hamas said that even Addalas and his office have been able to continue to pay government workers.
“Prease the difficulty of coordinating salaries and delivering them to staff in the Gaza Strip where tanks and warplanes are working,” the source close to Hamas said.
(This story has been re-recorded to increase as Koby Michael is a researcher at the Mesgav Institute, in Article 10)
(Report by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Emily Rose in Jerusalem.