1/4/2025–|Last updated: 1/4/202507:00 PM (Mecca time)
On Saturday, the Jerusalem Post newspaper quoted Israeli occupation army commanders as saying that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has begun preparing traps in almost every existing building in Gaza, as the army continues to escalate its operations, especially in the northern Gaza Strip.
These sources in the occupation army explained that the new combat tactics of fighters from the Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas – in northern Gaza threaten their forces. Working there, despite the announcement The army today destroyed a compound in the northern Gaza Strip that “served as a hideout and center for Hamas leaders” during the first week of January, according to the Israeli newspaper.
This comes after previous reports reported by the newspaper that Hamas members were finding it difficult to move inside Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun due to operations in these areas, where the army deployed large ground forces in addition to the ongoing raids.
In turn, Israeli analyst Avi Issacharoff said that the Hamas movement does not show any sign of surrender, explaining that it has learned to turn to guerrilla warfare in the Gaza Strip.
Issakharov explained, in an analytical article in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, that the army seeks, in its operation in northern Gaza, to destroy Hamas’ infrastructure, but “you have to strike every house in which there is a suspicion of a tunnel or hostile activity, and in almost every house you can find both things together,” according to Saying it.
The analyst quoted statements by the commander of the Kfir Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Yaniv Barot, who has been active in the northern Gaza Strip during the past two months, that their work there is “exhausting and dangerous and has led to heavy losses.” He said, “We have lost 12 soldiers here, which is a high price, and the most important challenge is to maintain flexibility after Such an event.”
A report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz last week also downplayed the “defeat of Hamas,” suggesting that the Israeli army would expand its attacks further to other areas in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Haaretz report quoted the military analyst as saying that the Israeli army is intensifying its operation in the Jabalia camp with the aim of pressuring the Hamas leadership to make concessions in the negotiations, indicating that this did not achieve a tangible shift in the political or military situation in favor of Israel.
The military analyst said, “This operation, the fourth in the camp since the beginning of the war, is still continuing. The results this time were more devastating and deadly.”
He explained that the Israeli army destroyed most of the homes of the Jabalia camp, and killed more than two thousand Palestinians, while the heads of the security services continue to claim that the military pressure – which has escalated somewhat in the last week with the expansion of the operation to the town of Beit Hanoun – is practically pushing the negotiations towards reaching an agreement. .
For their part, the resistance factions in Gaza continue to publish scenes of their targeting of the occupation forces in the areas of the incursion, confirming that they killed and wounded the occupation soldiers, in addition to destroying military vehicles.
Among these is what the Al-Qassam Brigades published late last month of pictures of an operation it called “snake hunting,” during which it killed an officer and two Israeli soldiers with two explosive devices that were previously planted in the area of the Education Roundabout.
This comes as the occupation army continues its war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving tens of thousands of martyrs, wounded and missing amid a humanitarian situation described as catastrophic and a worsening famine looming over the besieged Strip.