CNN: Hamas regains control of northern and central Gaza
Hamas military battalions in northern and central Gaza have regained some of their fighting capacity despite ten months of Israeli attacks. Related information comes from a joint report by the Institute for the Study of War, the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project, and CNN.
Speaking to a joint session of Congress on July 24, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured that "Victory is near" over Hamas, but military experts have a different opinion.
Studies of Hamas military operations through ground footage, interviews with experts and witnesses cast doubt on the Israeli leader's claims. The study, which covers the activities of Hamas until July, shows that the Palestinian movement is making good use of the dwindling resources on the ground.
"The Israelis talk about cleared areas, but they have not completely cleared these areas, they have not defeated them [the lions of HAMAS - ed .] at all. Hamas is ready to fight, Hamas wants to fight,” said Brian Carter, a Middle East expert at the Critical Threats Project and co-director of research on patterns of military activity between Hamas and Israel with the Institute for the Study of War.
According to experts, H AMAS has 8 fully operational and 13 degraded battalions in the north and center of the besieged exclave.
U.S. military experts interviewed for the report said Israel's brutal bombing campaign and lack of a post-war plan contributed to Hamas' military resurgence.
"We started to see the resurgence of Hamas less than a week after Israel pulled out of northern Gaza in January," Carter said.
In mid-July, the Israeli newspaper The Times of Israel published the contents of an Israeli army report, which said that despite the nine-month war, Hamas had retained much of its military infrastructure and that the Palestinian movement's network of tunnels was still in good condition.
Recall that in January, the Israeli military estimated that Hamas' network of tunnels in Gaza was between 350 and 450 miles long, which was "much larger than estimated." A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense told an Israeli newspaper that dismantling the tunnels could take years.
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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Ismail Haniya, Chairman of the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Hamas movement. The parties discussed the possibilities of establishing peace in the Gaza Strip, increasing the volume of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave, and releasing prisoners.
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After the start of the "Aqsa deluge", the Israelis' cries for the destruction of Hamas increased, and the major Western countries joined them. Their goal was to end the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and to remove its influence in the decision-making of the Palestinian Authority. These actions began with campaigns to portray Hamas as a terrorist organization in front of the people of the world, as well as to present it as the only legitimate obstacle to peace and tranquility in the Middle East, as a threat to the foreign relations and security of Arab countries. So, in their opinion, HAMAS is the cause of all the problems, the destruction of HAMAS is the only way to peace in the region.
