Reports indicate that the Palestinian resistance has "rebuilt its capabilities" in northern Gaza and "recruited 3,000 new militants" since the October 7 attack. This suggests that Hamas is now stronger than it was when this latest chapter of the Middle Eastern soap opera started.
Israel's response to this news, which came from a security source who spoke with Channel 13, has been to beat its chest with claims of its own resurgence in numbers and strength.
"There will be no escape from a renewed and massive entry of IDF forces into northern Gaza," senior Israeli security officials are quoted as saying.
(Related: U.S. officials have concluded that Israel stands no chance at fully wiping out Hamas despite its overwhelming advantage in military equipment.)
Israel struggling to defeat Hamas
Channel 12, meanwhile, is warning that despite the immense amount of damage caused by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza since the start of the war, "the latest information" about Hamas and its growing numbers "paints a worrying picture."
"It is estimated that about 3,000 new fighters have been recruited into the movement, equipped with weapons and ammunition," the Hebrew news outlet reported.
"This development raises great concern among security officials in Israel, as it indicates Hamas' ability to recover, despite the severe damage it suffered at the beginning of the war."
The Critical Threats Project (CTP) and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) conducted a study back in July in which it was discovered that the Israeli army has only managed to defeat three of Hamas' 24 Qassam Brigades battalions.
"As of July 1, only three of these 24 battalions were combat ineffective, meaning they were destroyed by the Israeli military," reported CNN citing the study.
Ret. U.S. Army Colonel Peter Mansoor further told CNN that if the Hamas battalions were really destroyed in the way Israel has been claiming, then "Israel forces wouldn't still be fighting."
Yitzhak Brik, a former Israeli army ombudsman, admitted even earlier in the summer that IDF is lying about the number of Palestinian fighters it has killed. The truth, Brik says, is that Israeli military forces are sustaining severe losses even as they barely even come face to face with Hamas soldiers during combat – watch Brik speak below:
"We don't come face to face with Hamas."
Israeli army reserve general Yitzhak Brik says the military is not winning, and that claims of killing hundreds of Hamas fighters and of sealing off the tunnels on the border with Egypt are not true. pic.twitter.com/WAnphYGSie
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) June 30, 2024
The latest timeline the Israeli military has given for when it expects to fully defeat Hamas is 2026 or 2027 several years from now.
"We will not be in Gaza permanently," military sources claimed back in May. "We'll return for extensive raids deep into the territory to defeat a terror army built over 15 years."
"Meanwhile, the achievements of the forces that fought in Gaza are eroding, and there's no conclusive political solution."
On X, someone compared what is happening to Israel in Gaza right now to what happened when German invaders were captured by the Russians.
"The Russians used to play recordings, in German, once German invaders of Stalingrad, that 'Stalingrad is a mass grave,'" this person wrote. "Gaza is a mass grave for Israeli soldiers. It will prove to be the funeral pyre for the state of Israel."
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