Israeli military analyst Yoav Zaytoun said on Sunday that their army realizes that the destruction of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip will not happen within a few months, given its preparations over the past years, stressing that the army is amazed by the movement’s strength and armament, as he put it.
Zeitoun updated – in an analysis published by the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth – about an implicit American deadline for Israel to end the war at the end of this December or until the end of next January, if things go well, without a shocking event occurring that stops the momentum.
Israeli officials insist on continuing the war, hoping to end Hamas’ continued rule of Gaza since the summer of 2007, and eliminate the military capabilities of the movement, which confirms that it has been resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestine for decades.
On the ground, the army is amazed every day by how strong Hamas is. It is a real army that was established 50 minutes from Tel Aviv over the past years, Zeitoun added.
Shedding light on Hamas’ capabilities in confronting the Israeli army, Zaytoun said, “They have hundreds of thousands of weapons, including RPG shells of various types, which are considered their main weapon.”
They also have advanced rocket launchers, explosive drones, and attack drones that were produced as a copy of the Israeli army’s Sky Rider drone, which fell in the Gaza Strip in the past decade.
According to Zaitoun, Hamas fighters also have machine guns, Kalashnikov rifles, Dragunov sniper rifles, advanced communications devices, explosive devices of different standards and sizes, and endless amounts of weapons and military capabilities.
Regarding the incursion into the northern Gaza Strip, Zaitoun said that the fierce battles in Beit Hanoun could indicate that “clearing Gaza of the enemy will take many months, and this is not a place where the strongest Hamas forces are located.”
Regarding Shuja’iya, east of Gaza City, Zaytoun quoted a senior officer in the elite Golani Brigade, saying that Hamas has placed its strongest battalion there, and the militants who were born and raised in the neighborhood are linked to it and will not escape, and that in practical terms, the army will need about 6 months to “cleanse” Shuja’iya. Completely, he said.
Since last October 27, Israel began a ground incursion into the northern Gaza Strip, which later extended to its south, amid fierce resistance from Hamas and other Palestinian factions, which caused the Israeli army dozens of deaths and injuries.
Since last October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which, as of Saturday evening, has left 17,700 martyrs and 48,780 wounded, most of them children and women, massive destruction of infrastructure, and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to official Palestinian sources. And internationalism.
In response to daily Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people and their sanctities, on October 7, the Hamas movement launched the Al-Aqsa flood attack against Israeli settlements and military bases around Gaza.
In its attack, Hamas killed about 1,200 Israelis, wounded about 5,431, and captured about 239, exchanging dozens of them, during a humanitarian truce that lasted 7 days until December 1, with Israel, which is holding 7,800 Palestinians in its prisons, including children and women.