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Hamas has ‘endless army’, Israel’s dream of destroying it an ‘illusion’, analyst says

December 19, 2023 at 3:38 pm

Fighters of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, display their combat weapons in Maghazi camp July 19, 2023 [Ahmed Hasaballah/Getty Images]

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said yesterday that more than two months since Tel Aviv launched its brutal bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip, it has become clear that Hamas has an “endless army” and Israel’s dream of destroying it is nothing but an “illusion”.

The paper’s military correspondent, Yoav Zitun, said battles in Shuja’iyya, Jabalia and Khan Yunis have become “slow and dangerous”.

He pointed out that the Israeli army is using members of the commando unit to carry out “special operations and procedures, but to no avail”, adding that unlike the northern Gaza Strip, the situation in Khan Yunis is “different and more complex”.

Zitun explained that the Israeli army’s mission in Khan Yunis is divided “into two dimensions”; the first in the upper city which is visible to the eye, and the “lower dimension, which was designed as a separate underground world within the tunnel network, where, according to Israeli army estimates, senior Hamas leaders are located.”

“The Israeli army has come to the conclusion that the end of the war is still many months away, and every imminent announcement of the defeat and destruction of Hamas is certainly far from reality and is an illusion and a mirage,” he added.

Since 7 October, Israel has been waging a genocidal bombing campaign on Gaza, killing approximately 19,000 Palestinians and injuring 51,000 others; the majority children and women. The aggression also caused massive destruction of infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

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