Israel: retired general praises Hamas ‘resilience’ in Gaza

A retired major general and former head of Israel’s National Security Council, Giora Eiland, has praised the Islamic Resistance Movement, which has “demonstrated [its] ability” to replace commanders who are killed with others equally capable and equally devoted.

In an article published by the New York Times on Wednesday, the general said: “From a professional point of view, I must give credit to their resilience. I cannot see any signs of collapse of the military abilities of Hamas nor in their political strength to continue to lead Gaza.”

The newspaper also quoted Michael Milshtein, a former senior Israeli intelligence officer who criticised statements by some leaders of the occupation state depicting Hamas as being at its breaking point. He warned that they might be creating false expectations about the length of the war.

“They’ve been saying this for a while, that Hamas is collapsing,” Milshtein added. “But it’s just not true. Every day, we’re facing tough battles.”

An Israeli military official, who requested anonymity in accordance with military regulations, said that the first objective for Israel is to dismantle the Hamas government, then to disperse its fighters and eliminate the commanders and their primary subordinates. He claimed that about half of Hamas’s fighters have been killed, wounded, arrested or have fled to the southern Gaza Strip.

The NYT also quoted US military analysts as saying that the best result for Israel may be to weaken Hamas’s military capabilities to prevent the group from repeating its attack on Israel, but even this limited goal is considered a tremendous effort. “Hamas is rooted in the ideology that Israeli control over what it regards as Palestinians lands must be opposed by force, a tenet likely to endure” the experts pointed out.

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