Israel’s Defense Minister assured on Monday that Hamas has “lost control of Gaza” and that its fighters are “fleeing south” after more than five weeks of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Citizens’ loot Hamas’ bases. They no longer believe in the government [do Hamas]”in power in the small Palestinian territory,” Yoav Gallant emphasized in a video message broadcast on several televisions.
Israel has been bombing Gaza relentlessly for more than five weeks, by air, land and sea, in response to the unprecedented attack on its territory on October 7 by Hamas, a group considered terrorist by the European Union and the United States .
Troops from the IDF’s Golani Brigade pose with an Israeli flag at the Gaza Parliament Building on Gaza City’s main Omar Al-Mukhtar Street after capturing the site. A clear example of Hamas’ loss of control over Gaza. pic.twitter.com/U80Z6tXTM7
– Ariel Oseran (@ariel_oseran) November 13, 2023
Since late October, Israeli forces have been advancing in the north of the narrow area and fighting with Hamas militants is now taking place in the heart of Gaza City, where tens of thousands of civilians still live.
The Israeli military has released daily images of Hamas’s new military infrastructure dismantled in Gaza, of weapons depots, tunnels and of Palestinian movement commanders killed during operations.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Israeli Secret Services (ISA) today claimed to have shot the head of the Khan Yunis Brigade Anti-Tank Missile Group and the former leader of Hamas’s military intelligence services.
In addition, according to a joint statement accessed by the Lusa agency, Israel continues, Mohammed Khamis Dababash, a senior Hamas operative who was in the past head of the Islamic movement’s military secret services, was assassinated.
According to Israeli military sources quoted in various media today, Hamas had approximately 30,000 fighters in the Gaza Strip before October 7, divided into five regional brigades, 24 battalions and approximately 140 companies.
According to the same sources, Hamas battalions in the northern Gaza Strip have suffered “significant blows” in recent weeks and many of them are now having difficulty organizing their attacks, due to the deaths of their commanders.
Many experts have warned of the dangerous direct confrontation between the army and Hamas in the devastated Gaza, exposing both camps to a phase of high-risk urban fighting.
International humanitarian organizations are intensifying calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where there is a lack of clean water, energy and medicine, and insufficient humanitarian aid.
Israeli bombings have killed 11,240 people, mostly civilians, including 4,630 children, in the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.
According to the latest official Israeli data, Hamas’ attack caused around 1,200 deaths on the Israeli side, most of which killed civilians on October 7.
Source: DN
