Hamas as ‘military formation’ is gone in Gaza: Israeli Defence Minister

Hamas is no longer an organised military force in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s focus should move to the northern border, Israel Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said this week.

On Monday, Gallant told foreign journalists that conditions were ripe for a ceasefire, with Hamas reduced to guerilla warfare.

On Tuesday, he told troops that the IDF was shifting its focus from Gaza to the northern front, and that they should prepare for a ground offensive there.

His statements came as fighting continued to result in mass casualties. On Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes hit a UN school in Gaza that was sheltering displaced Palestinian families, as well as two nearby homes. The strike killed 34 people, including six UN workers, according to UNRWA.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven seriously wounded in a separate helicopter crash on the Gaza Egypt border.

Gallant warned that the window was closing on an opportunity to reach a temporary hostage-ceasefire deal with the Palestinian terror group, which he said could also bring calm to the volatile northern border with Lebanon.

“Hamas as a military formation no longer exists. Hamas is engaged in guerrilla warfare and we are still fighting Hamas terrorists and pursuing Hamas leadership.”

Gallant said that conditions are ripe for at least the first phase of the proposal currently being discussed – a six-week pause in which some 30 women, children, elderly and ailing hostages would be released. However, he would not commit to a permanent end to the fighting, as Hamas has demanded, raising questions about the feasibility of a deal.

“Israel should achieve an agreement that will bring about a pause for six weeks and bring back hostages,” he said. After that period, he said, “we maintain the right to operate and achieve our goals – including the destruction of Hamas”.

There is an increasing rift between Gallant’s position and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is insisting that Israel must remain stationed in the strategic Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt indefinitely. Gallant has been quoted by Hebrew media as saying that Israel could withdraw from the corridor for six weeks – for the sake of having hostages released from Gaza – without risking Israel’s security. 

Commentator Aluf Benn writes Netanyahu’s plan is to take over northern Gaza and eventually annex it. “If that happens, Palestinian residents who remain in northern Gaza will be expelled, as suggested by Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, under threat of starvation and under cover of "protecting their lives" while the Israeli military hunts down Hamas militants in that sector”.

The north remains volatile. The IDF's Northern Command officials say they have detected Hezbollah's preparations for prolonged fighting with Israel in the event of a collapse of negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas.

According to the officials, the Lebanese group has not yet moved its forces toward the border with Israel, but Hezbollah is expected to continue attacking Israel from the north as long as Israel continues its military operation in the Gaza Strip.

The government is not approving military actions in the north, in part over concern that such a move would be interpreted as a declaration of war on Israel's part. The fact that, up until now, the government has not declared Israel's northern border as a primary combat zone also affects the military's preparations for a possible escalation and hinders the IDF's ability to shift its main resources to there.

As a result, and nearly a year after northern Israeli residents were evacuated, their return home does not look close. The security cabinet has not officially set the return of the northern residents as one of the war's goals, and the prospect of fighting with Hezbollah appears only implicitly in the official goals the security cabinet set.

READ MORE

Gallant: Hamas as ‘military formation’ in Gaza is gone, IDF focus shifting to north (Times of Israel)

IDF warns Hezbollah bracing for prolonged fighting with Israel if Gaza talks collapse (Haaretz)  

Six UNRWA workers killed in Gaza airstrike (ABC)

Two Israeli soldiers killed, seven wounded in IDF helicopter crash in Rafah (Haaretz)  

Annexation, expulsion and Israeli settlements: Netanyahu gears up for next phase of Gaza war (Aluf Benn, Haaretz)  

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