Israeli public ‘fed lies' about defeating Hamas, commander says

Middle East Eye

3 days ago

The Israeli public is being 'fed lies' about the progress made against Hamas, a senior military commander has said, warning the Palestinian movement will not be defeated for years.
In an interview with Ynet published on Friday, the unnamed officer stressed that dismantling Hamas is a 'tedious' task that could take up to five years, with the military needing to return to Gaza to 'mow the grass" constantly.
'In today's populist era, the public is being fed lies and spins, just like they were before 7 October and after every round of fighting with Hamas,' the commander said.
Hamas, he explained, still maintains 'massive infrastructure' in Gaza. The fight against the group is far from over, he said.
'This is work that will need to continue for a year, for five years, to maintain the achievements. It doesn't matter if the enemy is called Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or any other name,' he added.
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'It's a shame the public is being misled into thinking this will end soon and that we will defeat the enemy in the foreseeable future.'
'This is ongoing fighting, just like in Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank], where the battles continue.'
According to the report, while the army claims significant progress in killing Palestinian fighters, destroying tunnels and targeting Hamas infrastructure, these results show that the group is far from defeated.
'These achievements mean that Hamas is still standing, its command and control capabilities may be limited and damaged, but it remains operational,' the report stated.
Slow progress
The Ynet report paints a picture of slow military progress since Israel broke the ceasefire and resumed the war on Gaza on 18 March.
Although the army stated that it had deployed four to five divisions, Ynet reported that only a limited number of soldiers are directly involved in combat.
The announcements were made to 'create the impression that tens of thousands of soldiers' were fighting in Gaza.
In reality, the operation on the ground is 'limited and restricted', with only a few battalion-sized units in action.
'We are advancing too slowly, too transparently, and in a crooked manner'
- Israeli officers
The vast majority of the fighting is concentrated on the outskirts of major cities in the Gaza Strip.
"We are advancing too slowly, too transparently, and in a crooked manner,' two senior officers told Ynet.
'We are still tackling peripheral areas like Zaytoun and Shujaiya, waiting for the green light from political leadership to move into the city centre and west.'
The report also highlighted that much of the army's current missions do not directly involve fighting with Hamas. Attacks on the group are intelligence-led.
Rather, troops are focused on the 'industrial-level' destruction of buildings, with hundreds of homes being flattened each week.
Additionally, soldiers are tasked with securing US-backed aid sites in Gaza, where at least 875 unarmed and starving Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops while queuing for food since late May.