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Hamas sees daily small attacks by Israeli forces as a success in Gaza

Gillberg
Hamas sees daily small attacks by Israeli forces as a success in Gaza

The Israeli military continues to crack down on Hamas in Rafah, killing hundreds of terrorists in operations since the beginning of May.

Two of the Hamas battalions in Gaza have been defeated, and two more are currently suffering losses. Hamas fighters flee to Mawasi, the humanitarian zone in Gaza. Hamas has lost a large portion of the terrorists it had on October 7, possibly as many as 17,000 fighters. However, the terror group continues to put on the mask that it says “everything is fine.”

For months, the terror group has claimed it has moved to a new type of warfare in which it splits battalions into smaller units, small cells of three to five men. Some emerge from tunnels and grab AK-47s hidden in buildings, while others have access to mortars or 107mm rockets and anti-tank guns.

They also plant booby traps in buildings and target armored vehicles. Proof of this is the killing of 12 soldiers in a matter of days, including in a disaster involving a Namer APC in which eight soldiers died.

Hamas views the positions of the Israeli forces in the Netzarim Corridor and on the Philadelphia Route as targets of opportunity. For example, Hamas soldiers are said to have been attacked in ambushes, as the pro-Iranian media outlet Al Mayadeen reports.

Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, January 21, 2024 (Source: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

What is noteworthy in this context is that Hamas and Al-Mayadeen rely on the Israeli media to confirm whether the attacks were actually successful, as was the case on Sunday.

This dependence may indicate that Hamas is finding it harder to spread its messages from Gaza, or perhaps even that pro-Hamas media do not always trust Hamas’s boasts.

Cooperation between terrorist organisations

Terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip continue to work hand in hand to attack the Israeli army. For example, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it attacked an Israeli patrol in a neighborhood of Rafah and carried out attacks during Eid al-Adha.

The terrorist groups said they targeted the Netzarim Corridor, as well as the Sufa outpost near Kibbutz Sufa, and shelled several areas of Rafah with mortar shells, while another terrorist unit called the “National Resistance Brigades”, also known as the “Martyr Omar al-Qasim Forces” of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, carried out a mortar shell attack in Tel al-Sultan.

Meanwhile, according to Al Mayadeen, Hamas claimed, referring to Saturday’s attack, that it had attacked a Namer armored personnel carrier with its Al-Yassin-105 rockets.

Hamas portrays these attacks as complex and sophisticated. So the question is whether Hamas is actually capable of carrying out complex and sophisticated insurgency-style attacks. If it has indeed lost so many men and battalions, it is unclear how it can coordinate and carry out these attacks on a regular basis.

It is clear that Hamas now relies on other terrorist groups, such as the PIJ’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the DFLP.

However, it also appears that Hamas has been able to recruit new soldiers and that its strategy of deploying its battalions and then dispersing them has provided it with the manpower it needs to continue fighting.

In addition, Hamas and the other groups appear to be increasingly trying to coordinate attacks on the Netzarim corridor. Now Hamas has the depth in Gaza to do this, as Israeli forces have barely operated in the central camp area. In addition, the terror groups in northern Gaza have regrouped and are doing the same in Khan Yunis and Mawasi.

Although most of Hamas’ 24 battalions have been destroyed and half or two-thirds of their October 7 strength have been lost, the group has clearly not been defeated by shock. It has not broken apart, nor has it seen parts of the Gaza Strip slip out of its control. If Hamas can do this despite such heavy losses, it is either very resilient or has far more reserves than is known.

Its continued existence is probably due to a combination of factors: Hamas has more members than estimated, it does not need all of its battalions, it has recruited new members, it relies on the help of other terrorist groups to make up for its losses, and those groups have thousands of members.

Overall, Hamas may have replaced a third or a half of its losses through a combination of factors. If this is indeed the case, it may explain why it has been able to maintain control and continue to carry out attacks on a daily basis, increasingly using booby traps and other adaptive measures.



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