CNN: Hamas central Gaza battalions still effective, may hold hostages; IDF denies claims
Eight battalions across Gaza still combat-ready as of July 1, CNN analysis claims; IDF adamant most of terror group’s units dismantled
The Israeli military has not adequately “dealt” with Hamas battalions in the central Gaza strip, due to concerns that the terror group is holding many Israeli hostages there, according to Israeli sources quoted in a CNN report Monday, which the Israeli military rejected. The IDF denied its conclusions and said it misrepresented the true situation.
The CNN report, based in part on analyses by the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project and the Institute for the Study of War using data running up to July 1, found that eight of the 24 Hamas battalions in the enclave were still “combat effective,” or able to carry out missions against Israeli troops.
A further 13 battalions were “degraded,” but still partly operational, the report found, and only three were totally “combat ineffective.”
Responding to a query about the report, the Israel Defense Forces rejected its conclusions, saying “the claims made in the article contradict the achievements of the forces on the ground, and create a false representation of the situation of Hamas in Gaza.”
“From the intelligence and findings on the ground, most of the Hamas brigades have been dismantled. It is estimated that most of the battalions are at a low level of competency and can no longer function as a military framework,” the IDF said.
“The commanders of the IDF and its troops work day and night to achieve the goals of the war and reach unprecedented achievements in the fight against the Hamas terror organization,” the military added.
According to the CNN report, some seven Hamas battalions have managed to reconstitute at least once since being severely degraded earlier in the war, either by merging severely degraded cells into new, combat-effective forces, or by recruiting new fighters.
The military has acknowledged returning in some instances to areas in Gaza that its forces had previously evacuated after identifying Hamas forces regrouping there.
Israeli defense officials have said this was part of the military’s strategy from the beginning of the ground operation in the Strip, saying it would shift from a large-scale intensive offensive to intelligence-based pinpoint raids after several months in each part of Gaza.
“[Hamas] recruitment started three or four months ago, and they got a few thousand. I don’t know exactly how many,” one retired high-ranking Israeli officer told CNN.
The officer noted, however, that “Hamas’s biggest difficulty is not at the level of soldiers, but at the level of commanders, some [of] whom are not easy to replace.”
The battalions that have suffered the least damage, according to the CNN report, are those in central Gaza.
Israel believes these forces are holding many of those taken captive on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war.
It is believed that 111 captives abducted on October 7, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF, remain in the enclave.
In June, four hostages were rescued in a daring daytime raid in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. The hostages were held in the homes of Hamas-affiliated families, believed to have been paid by the terror group.
Negotiations for the return of the remaining hostages, in exchange for a ceasefire and prisoner release, are ongoing.
Monday’s CNN report challenged the Israeli military strategy of repeated raids in areas where Hamas capability has been degraded, and suggested that the absence of a new government to replace the terror group has made victory over Hamas impossible to accomplish.
“Hamas’s presence in northern Gaza is stronger than you can imagine,” a Palestinian source told CNN. “They’re among civilians. It helps them rebuild their forces.” Another Palestinian source reported seeing a Hamas-run makeshift jail in Gaza City.
A high-ranking Israeli officer, quoted anonymously because he was not authorized to speak, told CNN that Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza is like “a marathon runner who doesn’t know where the stadium is. You run and you don’t know if you’re headed in the right direction.
“Everywhere Hamas rears its head, we will enter. Can this ping pong stay forever? No. Our society is not built for this. And neither is the international community,” the officer said.
“If the Hamas battalions were largely destroyed, Israeli forces wouldn’t still be fighting,” retired United States Army Col. Peter Mansoor told CNN, adding, “The ability of Hamas to reconstitute its fighting forces is undiminished.
“The fact that they’re still in Gaza, still trying to rout out elements of the Hamas battalions shows me that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu is wrong” when he says that victory is in sight, Mansoor said.
The retired colonel helped to oversee the US’s surge of 30,000 troops into Iraq in 2007, to fight an insurgency there in the wake of the American invasion in 2003.
Hamas has been described by the IDF as in “survival mode” in recent months, and not the same military organization as it was before October 7. Israeli assessments claim that Hamas is suffering from severe morale issues as the fighting goes on, and thousands are fleeing army operations and choosing not to fight.
The IDF has said that just over half of Hamas’s military wing leadership in Gaza has been confirmed killed so far during the fighting. Those who remain include the commanders of the Rafah and Gaza City brigades, and the heads of the terror group’s intelligence, operations, manufacturing, and combat enforcement divisions.
Hamas has also been running into weapon shortages, according to Israeli assessments. The IDF recently recovered a document listing the current inventory of the Shejaiya Battalion in Gaza City, according to which it had lost more than two-thirds of its members, and was running low on RPGs, assault rifles, and explosives.
Last month, a major Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza killed Mohammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, according to the IDF, though Hamas has not confirmed his death. His deputy, Marwan Issa, was killed by Israel in March.
