Here’s What’s Happening on the Ground in Gaza as IDF Works to Dismantle Hamas

Israeli forces continue to gradually work their way through the Rafah district, where they are discovering and destroying Hamas infrastructure....

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Israeli forces continue to gradually work their way through the Rafah district, where they are discovering and destroying Hamas infrastructure. IDF units are operating simultaneously both above ground and in the tunnels underneath. Maintaining coordination in such an operation is difficult because of communications difficulties (the deep tunnels prevent the use of wireless communications with units above ground).

According to the latest reports, approximately 1,000 Hamas personnel have been killed in the Rafah area since the beginning of the Israeli offensive there, about half that figure since the last update. Though there is quite a bit of fighting, the Hamas units are not so much defending territory as conducting “hit and run” actions. They are hunted by some IDF units while other units focus on destroying Hamas infrastructure.

The IDF has also continued to conduct raids into northern Gaza and Khan Yunis whenever concentrations of returning Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists are discovered, as well as into the Nusayrat area between Gaza City and Khan Yunis.

Over the past two weeks, the IDF conducted raids mostly into northern Gaza, while this past week it increased its efforts to cause the remaining population in that area to evacuate south. In response to the IDF’s original calls to evacuate in October-November 2023, about 80% of the population of northern Gaza evacuated the area. More have left since then, and videos on Palestinian social media show the movement of more people on the routes shown in IDF leaflets.

The Israeli raids are aimed at concentrations of Hamas and other militant personnel who are attempting to reassert control and rebuild capabilities in northern Gaza and Khan Yunis. Each raid ends within a few days to a couple of weeks, after the Hamas personnel have been killed or captured or have fled the area. Reports indicate that since the last update, a couple of hundred terrorists have been killed in these raids.

Sixteen Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting in Gaza since my last update, and a few hundred wounded (some severely, but mostly with light wounds).

The IDF has also conducted several focused air strikes on high-ranking Hamas personnel and concentrations of Hamas personnel in areas where its ground forces are not present. In each case, Hamas has claimed the deaths of dozens of civilians, whereas the IDF has claimed that most if not all the casualties were combatants.

In some instances, Hamas personnel were detected in or adjacent to UNRWA sites or similar sites (schools, hospitals, mosques). Two possible casualties in the Israeli strikes include the Hamas supreme military commander, Muhammad Deif, and the brigade commander for Khan Yunis. They were attacked based on intelligence information on their whereabouts. The death of the brigade commander has been confirmed, but that of Deif has not. Hamas insists that he survived but has provided no proof. The bodies of the people killed in that strike have been collected.

In a rare statement, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas for using civilians as human shields in Gaza.

Occasionally, Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad manages to fire a few rockets at Israeli villages near the border and (more rarely) at towns further away. No casualties have been reported so far, as most of the villages are still empty following the October 7 Hamas massacre. Other rockets have either missed or were intercepted..

Below are a sampling of the weapons found in an UNRWA compound: Rocket sections, remote-controlled bombs, a drone being assembled, equipment for planting and controlling bombs, and an infantryman’s equipment vest:

After spending an estimated $320 million on building a floating pier to provide humanitarian supplies for Gaza (that was as of mid-June; the figure is probably higher by now given the need to repair sections and operate tugs and other equipment since then), it is reported that the US will permanently dismantle the pier, as it proved incapable of withstanding the buffeting of the waves. It broke apart once, and the pieces were towed to an Israeli port for repair and to await the calming of the sea. Once repaired, the pier was returned to the Gaza coast, but when the sea conditions worsened once again, the Americans pulled it out a second time. The pier was apparently returned to the Gaza shore but will be permanently dismantled and removed in the coming days or weeks.

As noted in the last update, the total amount of supplies that actually landed in Gaza via the American pier was minimal — about 9,000 tons in three months. Supplies brought in via the Israeli ground entrances, on the other hand, have grown to 5,000 to 6,000 tons each day. 

The main problem with getting supplies to Gazans is not the Israelis. The problem is the distribution of the supplies once they are inside Gaza in areas that Israel does not control. Supplies are piling up and not being distributed. A report on the Palestinian Sawa Foundation website quotes UN sources as saying there are more than 1,300 trucks standing on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing that are loaded and waiting to be distributed.

Furthermore, trucks carrying supplies and occasionally storage areas are attacked and looted by Hamas personnel (for their own use or for sale in the marketplace), by criminal gangs (for sale), and in some cases by the general population itself. UNRWA and the other humanitarian organizations are simply not up to the task of policing this problem.

Over the past month, there have been reports of increased fighting among Palestinian factions inside Gaza, though this is still occurring on a small scale. It includes political rivalries as well as clan and personal rivalries as well as criminal enterprises fighting either each other or Hamas over sources of revenue. In one case, a social activist was kidnapped and had both legs and arms broken by Hamas personnel for publishing criticism on Facebook about Hamas’ management of the war and blaming Hamas for the suffering of the Palestinian population.

Dr. Eado Hecht, a senior research fellow at the BESA Center, is a military analyst focusing mainly on the relationship between military theory, military doctrine, and military practice. He teaches courses on military theory and military history at Bar-Ilan University, Haifa University, and Reichman University and in a variety of courses in the Israel Defense Forces. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.

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