Hamas would happily return to its former state, though, given access to deliveries via Egypt, so the IDF cannot pull out any time soon.
[IsraelTimes] Army says at least half of organization’s operatives have been killed in the warThe Israel Defense Forces assessed on Friday that Hamas
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...has been largely defeated militarily in the entire Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
Strip, and it is now effectively a guerrilla terror group that will take some more time to dismantle.
Hamas is not the same organization it was pre-October 7, in terms of its command and control, weapons, rockets, and operatives, at least half of whom have been killed, according to the military.
The IDF has labeled dismantling Hamas as the most important war goal in the south, but returning the hostages is a more urgent goal and it is receiving priority.
"If we wait, it is not certain that there will be anyone to return," the military is saying.
According to the IDF, before October 7, Hamas had some 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip, split into five regional brigades, 24 battalions and some 140 companies.
Each Hamas brigade had an anti-tank missile array, sniper and engineering teams, air defenses, and a rocket firing array, the IDF has said. Each brigade also had a number of outposts and strongholds in their respective regions.
The units have been systematically dismantled by the military over the long months of war.
The ongoing war began on October 7 when Hamas-led hard boyz rampaged through southern communities, slaughtering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
Israel launched its military operation, which has stretched for over 11 months, aiming to eliminate Hamas and bring back those kidnapped. In recent days, the military’s focus has shifted north to Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
, as Israel began a sustained offensive against Hezbollah’s missile capabilities.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 41,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 hard boyz inside Israel on October 7.
17,000 dead out of 30,000 Hamas plus perhaps another 5,000 others (pulling a number out of my hat), that is indeed about half the fighters dead, plus the same number or probably more wounded… that’s an awful lot of fighter casualties, right?
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gazooks as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 348.