This while up to 100 people maybe held hostage, Israel has protests pushing for those held to be released and the situation in Gaza, graphically is hurting the Jewish state at home around the world and in the eyes of a growing amount of Americans….
But there ARE Israeli’s that are now ok with a diminished Hamas….
Those waiting for hostages to be freed might not agree…
They just want their loved ones back….
The plight of Palestinians in Gaza IS a sore that Israel and the World see everyday….
At some point it will have to be addressed….
Even with Hamas vestiges still around and angry survivors NOT happy with Israel’s levelling their homes…..
Israel’s military operations in Gaza have weakened Hamas. Most Hamas battalions have been degraded and are scattered. Thousands of its members have been killed, and at least one senior military leader has been eliminated.
Yet Israel has not achieved its primary goals of the war: freeing hostages and fully destroying Hamas.
The war and the tactics of the Israel Defense Forces have come at a great cost. Vast numbers of Palestinian civilians have been killed in the Israeli campaign; hunger is widespread in Gaza; and deaths around relief efforts have generated condemnation.
Six months into the conflict, the question of what Israel has achieved — and when and how the fighting could come to an end — is creating ever more intense global strains around a war that has cost Israel support from even close allies….
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The war has settled into a deadly pattern of skirmishes and airstrikes as Israeli forces continue to operate in Gaza, targeting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters. Last week, with tensions between Israel and Iran increased, the Israeli military said it struck more than 100 targets and killed dozens of fighters in the central part of the enclave, including a Hamas security officer who served in the group’s intelligence wing….
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Despite Hamas’s heavy losses, much of its top leadership in Gaza remains in place, ensconced in a vast underground network of tunnels and operations centers, calling the shots in the hostage negotiations. Those tunnels will allow Hamas to survive and reconstitute once the fighting stops, current and former U.S. officials say.
“Palestinian resistance to Israel, manifested by Hamas and other militant groups, is an idea as much as it is a physical, tangible group of people,” said Douglas London, a retired C.I.A. officer who spent 34 years at the agency. “So for as much damage Israel might have inflicted on Hamas, it still has capability, resilience, funding and a long line of people most likely waiting to sign up and join after all the fighting and all the destruction and all the loss of life.”…
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In an annual intelligence assessment released in March, American spy agencies expressed doubts about Israel’s ability to truly destroy Hamas, which the United States has designated a terrorist group.
“Israel probably will face lingering armed resistance from Hamas for years to come,” the report said, “and the military will struggle to neutralize Hamas’s underground infrastructure, which allows insurgents to hide, regain strength and surprise Israeli forces.”….
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U.S. officials say privately that the only way to get Israel to stop the Rafah operation is through a hostage release deal.
But Israeli officials say they believe it is only the looming operation in Rafah that has kept Hamas in negotiations.
As the talks continue, there is rising anger among families of hostages about Israel’s failure to bring their loved ones home.
Gilad Korngold, 62, whose son Tal Shoham is one of the hostages, said he was overcome with feelings of “despair, frustration, anger and fear” because of the government’s failure to strike a deal to free the hostages.
“They abandoned them,” he said in an interview. “Time is running out. We don’t know how they’re doing, if they’re eating or drinking, or if they’re getting medicine. We don’t know anything about them.”…
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Since the beginning of the war, Israel has tried to destroy the extensive tunnel network below Gaza.
The system runs for hundreds of miles, at points reaching 15 stories below ground, according to Israeli and U.S. officials. It contains larger complexes of underground rooms, used for command posts and refuges. Hamas has used the tunnels to hide its leaders, hold hostages and allow fighters to escape Israeli attack.
Israel has not been able to destroy the tunnels, which Hamas has spent years building. But Israeli officials say they have taken out most of the key nodes, the underground strategic complexes that Hamas has used to command its forces. About 70 percent of the complexes have been eliminated….
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To be sure, American intelligence agencies assess that Hamas has lost a significant amount of combat power, and that rebuilding will take time.
But that does not mean Hamas has been destroyed. Israeli officials said the group and other militant organizations still have many forces above and below ground. In northern Gaza, 4,000 to 5,000 fighters have held out, the Israeli military intelligence official said.
U.S. officials and analysts say Hamas is likely to remain a force in Gaza when the fighting is over. But how quickly it can rebuild will depend on Israel’s decisions in the next phases of the war and in its aftermath.
Both the Israeli military and the Palestinians are bracing for what comes next.
While Israel has continued to conduct strikes on Rafah, several Palestinians said they were struggling to survive…..
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In the absence of Israel allowing a functioning Palestinian government to take charge, chaos and lawlessness have taken over as Israeli troops have withdrawn from parts of Gaza.
Current and former U.S. officials said that while Israel has not, and cannot, destroy Hamas, it has made the likelihood of a repeat of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack remote…