Because the battle in Gaza rages on, the state of affairs within the battered enclave is one among devastation and despair. Greater than 29,000 individuals have been killed, in accordance with Gaza well being officers, the bulk in a relentless Israeli bombing marketing campaign. Neighborhoods have been flattened, households worn out, youngsters orphaned, and an estimated 1.7 million people displaced.
Whereas international scrutiny grows over Israel’s conduct within the battle, the Israeli navy, by its evaluation, has delivered a significant blow to the capabilities of Hamas, killing commanders, destroying tunnels and confiscating weapons. However Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aim of destroying Hamas stays elusive, in accordance with present and former Israeli safety officers.
They anticipate a protracted marketing campaign to defeat Hamas.
An Israeli navy intelligence official, who spoke on situation of anonymity below navy protocol, mentioned that Israel was engaged in a complete mission to unravel Hamas’s navy capabilities.
“Is it doable this mission shall be left for my youngsters?” he mentioned. “The reply is sure.”
U.S. officers say they imagine Hamas has been constrained by the Israeli operations, however that Israel will be unable to realize, within the foreseeable future, its aim of eliminating the group’s navy functionality. The officers requested anonymity to debate intelligence assessments.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after a Hamas-led assault towards Israel on Oct. 7 during which an estimate 1,400 individuals had been killed or taken hostage,
Since then, Israel asserts it has killed greater than 10,000 militants, but it surely hasn’t defined the way it calculates the quantity and analysts say it’s tough to get a exact determine within the chaos of battle. Israeli officers say the navy has dismantled the command construction of 18 of Hamas’s 24 Gaza battalions, killing commanders, deputy commanders and different officers, successfully rendering the models ineffective.
However hundreds of Hamas fighters, hooked up to remaining battalions or working independently, stay above and under floor, in accordance with the previous and present safety officers.
Hamas has revealed little about its personal losses, though it has publicly mourned the deaths of no less than two senior commanders, Ayman Nofal and Ahmad al-Ghandour. The group frequently points statements saying it has hit Israeli troopers throughout the enclave.
“The resistance remains to be in a position to inflict ache on the enemy,” Youssef Hamdan, Hamas’s consultant in Algeria, said this month.
Throughout the latest preventing in Gaza, Israeli analysts say, Hamas has prevented direct confrontations with Israeli models, which Israel has cited as an indication of weak point.
However different specialists say that Hamas has a motive for the technique. The Hamas management, in accordance with the Western officers who requested anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk publicly on the matter, believes that if any significant quantity of its navy energy survives the battle, it should signify victory.
Mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the US have been assembly to attempt to hammer out a cease-fire deal. However Israel has proven no signs of relenting, urgent forward in three distinct fight zones.
Northern Gaza
When the Israeli navy’s 401st Brigade invaded Gaza in late October, it took a whole week of ferocious gun battles to achieve the northwestern tip of Gaza Metropolis, in accordance with navy officers. Round three weeks in the past, the brigade did it in two hours.
That distinction was a mirrored image of the blow the military had delivered to Hamas’s navy capabilities within the north, dismantling its command construction, the previous and present safety officers mentioned. Teams of Hamas fighters within the area had been now working in isolation, with out assist from the broader navy wing, the navy intelligence official mentioned.
However the truth that Israeli troopers had been returning after withdrawing weeks earlier additionally indicated that Hamas was nonetheless lively there. The Israeli navy believes that no less than 5,000 militants stay within the north, the intelligence officer mentioned.
That might signify a small however formidable power able to launching rockets into Israel and attacking floor troops, Israeli navy officers mentioned.
“Hamas hasn’t been utterly defeated in northern Gaza,” mentioned Col. Nochi Mandel, the chief of employees of the Nahal Brigade, which operates within the north. “We’ve achieved quite a lot of work, however there’s nonetheless extra to do.”
The military returned this month to the neighborhood of Al-Shifa Hospital, the scene of intense fight in November, to combat militants regrouping within the space, he mentioned, and would return to different components of the north within the coming weeks. Colonel Mandel, nevertheless, emphasised that the military was not encountering sturdy resistance.
For the estimated 300,000 Palestinian civilians believed to nonetheless be within the north, the raids have been sudden and unpredictable, intensifying the humanitarian disaster. It has made it tough to navigate the world, the place meals has turn into scarce and lawlessness is rife, residents say.
Yahya al-Masri, a physician at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, mentioned he needed to stroll an additional two miles to work final week when clashes erupted between his dwelling and the hospital. “You attempt to keep away from the preventing however there’s no feeling of security,” mentioned Mr. Masri, 28.
Present and former Israeli officers mentioned Israeli forces would most definitely proceed to comb northern Gaza to tamp down the Hamas insurgency for the foreseeable future, no less than till there was some type of political settlement for postwar Gaza.
Khan Younis
Because the collapse of a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in early December, Israeli troops have superior by way of the southern metropolis of Khan Younis — sweeping westward towards the Mediterranean Sea. Israeli navy officers have mentioned that town has been one of the crucial vital facilities of Hamas navy exercise.
Israeli forces are concentrating on Hamas’s in depth underground tunnel community in and across the metropolis, the intelligence official mentioned. The official added that many key subterranean command facilities had been destroyed, however a lot of the tunnel community remained intact.
Hamas fighters have conspicuously prevented confrontations with the military in Khan Younis, hoping to outlast their opponents within the security of their underground warrens, navy analysts mentioned.
“The military is being very aggressive there with out dealing with a lot competitors from the opposite facet,” mentioned Amos Harel, a navy affairs analyst for the Haaretz newspaper.
Over the previous month, Israeli troops have centered on the western fringe of Khan Younis, which incorporates two main medical complexes — Al-Amal and Nasser Medical Heart — in an effort to goal what officers referred to as the final bastions of organized Hamas resistance within the space.
Israeli forces stormed the Nasser hospital on Thursday, and the navy arrested a whole lot of individuals inside who it mentioned had been affiliated with Hamas and different militant teams. Many Palestinians sheltering contained in the advanced fled for Rafah.
Ahmed Moghrabi, a surgeon at Nasser, described becoming a member of these fleeing as Israeli drones overhead referred to as for the remaining displaced Palestinians to evacuate the hospital. As he left Khan Younis, he mentioned he noticed the devastated metropolis exterior the hospital partitions for the primary time in practically a month.
“No extra buildings. No extra streets. Our bodies rotting,” he mentioned. “I can’t cease crying.”
Rafah
Israel’s leaders have mentioned that Israeli forces would in the end enter Rafah, the southernmost metropolis on the border with Egypt, to combat 4 Hamas battalions they are saying are based mostly there. The Israeli navy says that roughly 10,000 Hamas fighters stay within the space.
However it’s an operation that will probably trigger widespread civilian casualties. About a million individuals are believed to be sheltering within the metropolis, in accordance with the United Nations.
As they await an anticipated Israeli invasion, Palestinians huddling in tents, residences, and faculties in Rafah have been overcome with uncertainty and exhaustion amid widespread starvation. Israel has mentioned that there have been no firefights contained in the hospital, however that there was in depth preventing round it.
“You’re terrified all day and night time,” mentioned Sobhi al-Khazendar, 30, a lawyer sheltering in Rafah. “Every thing is so complicated. You don’t know what to do, whether or not to remain put or search for one other place to go.”
Mr. Netanyahu has promised to evacuate civilians from fight zones there, however his phrases seem to have achieved little to mollify rising criticism from the United Nations and the Biden administration about an operation to focus on Rafah.
Israeli officers say {that a} Rafah operation is important for rooting out Hamas’s remaining forces and destroying tunnels between Egypt and Gaza used to import arms.
Israel’s navy has already drawn up a number of plans for a floor operation in Rafah, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the navy’s chief of employees, advised reporters final week. The timing of the operation would require a choice from the nation’s civilian leaders, he mentioned.
In current days, a rift has emerged inside Israel’s battle cupboard about when to start a Rafah operation, mentioned an Israeli official who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate delicate particulars.
Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, who joined the Israeli cupboard from the opposition after the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, each favored making a deal to free the entire hostages held by militants in Gaza earlier than conducting an operation, the official mentioned.
The official mentioned Mr. Netanyahu and Ron Dermer, his closest ally within the five-person cupboard, wished to invade Rafah earlier than concluding such a deal to launch hostages. The prime minister’s workplace declined to touch upon whether or not there was a rift concerning Rafah within the cupboard.
Julian E. Barnes contributed reporting from Washington and Iyad Abuheweila from Istanbul.
