Hamas will not be destroyed – Time

Dozens of civilians were killed and others injured today at dawn in a bombardment by planes and artillery on Gaza. Israeli jets targeted several areas of the central Gaza Strip, killing at least 24 people, Palestinian news agency Wafa reports. Artillery fired dozens of shells on the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, the scene of intense artillery shelling for the third consecutive day. The neighborhood of Al-Sabra, in the center of Gaza City, was also targeted. Seven people were killed, others injured in Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip. In Rafah, the al-Salam neighborhood and the vicinity of the crossing were bombed.

Meanwhile, yesterday Israeli forces were attacked at least 17 times by armed Palestinian groups in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, suggesting that “Hamas has been able to preserve or reconstitute military capabilities” despite continued Israeli operations in the area. This was reported in a joint assessment by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) – two think tanks based in the United States – specifying that Hamas fighters used sniper rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in the 17 attacks as Israeli forces attempted to liberate Zeitoun for the third time. “This high rate of attacks is inconsistent with a destroyed military force,” the ISW/CTP report states, adding that “Palestinian militias retain the will and means to continue to disrupt and defend against Israeli raids, as evidenced by the rate of attacks of the Palestinian militias during this raid.”

War observers said that “the resilience of Hamas and other Palestinian militia groups” strongly indicates that the Israeli military operation “in Rafah will not destroy Hamas, a group that has survived as a military entity in the rest of the Strip, including throughout the north”.

Furthermore, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is not hiding in Rafah, anonymous sources familiar with the matter told the Times of Israel. The Israeli newspaper’s sources did not say Sinwar’s current whereabouts, but cited recent intelligence assessments placing the Hamas leader in underground tunnels in the Khan Younis area, about five miles north of Rafah. A third source said Sinwar is in Gaza. Israel has made Sinwar’s elimination a key element of its goal to destroy Hamas. In February, the IDF released footage purportedly depicting Sinwar walking in a tunnel, in what are believed to be the first images of him since the October 7 attack, which the Hamas leader is accused of organizing and which he triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.