Hamas has added up to 15,000 fighters since start of war, US figures show

Hamas has recruited between 10,000 and 15,000 members since the start of its war with Israel, according to two congressional sources briefed on US intelligence, suggesting the Iran-backed terror group could remain a persistent threat to Israel.

The intelligence indicates a similar number of Hamas fighters have been killed during that period, the sources say. The latest official US estimates have not been previously reported.

The sources briefed on the intelligence, which was included in a series of updates from US intelligence agencies in the final weeks of the Biden administration, say that while Hamas has successfully recruited new members, many are young and untrained and are being used for simple security purposes.

The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence declines to comment.

On January 14, then-US president Joe Biden’s secretary of state Antony Blinken said the United States believed Hamas had recruited almost as many fighters as it had lost in the Palestinian enclave, cautioning that this was a “recipe for an enduring insurgency and perpetual war.”

He did not provide further details about the assessment, but Israeli figures have put the total death toll of terror operatives in Gaza at around 20,000.

“Each time Israel completes its military operations and pulls back, Hamas militants regroup and re-emerge because there’s nothing else to fill the void,” Blinken said.