‘Hamas Cannot Be Defeated’ – Israel’s Military Intelligence

February 16, 2024

Palestinian Resistance groups. (Image: Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

The Israeli Military Intelligence Division, Aman, said that the army will not be able to completely dismantle the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas, and that this goal is not realistic in the foreseeable future.

Israeli media reported that a document prepared by the Research Department of the Military Intelligence Division revealed that, even if the Israeli army succeeds in dismantling Hamas as an organized military force in Gaza, it will survive as “a terror group and a guerrilla group”. 

“There is real popular support for Hamas in Gaza, despite the Israeli ground attack and the elimination of many Al-Qassam Brigades fighters,” the document, published by Israeli Channel 12, revealed.

The Israeli occupation government announced at the beginning of the aggression on the Gaza Strip that eliminating Hamas was one of the main goals of the war, but American and Israeli officials doubted its ability to do so.

Growing Skepticism

On February 9, the New York Times reported that US intelligence officials informed the US Congress that Israel had weakened Hamas’ combat capabilities, but was “not close to eliminating” the movement.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, speaking after a meeting with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, emphasized again on Wednesday that his goal was to destroy Hamas,” the report added.

Last Monday, Israeli Army Radio said that the Israeli forces are still far from achieving their goal of eliminating Hamas’ missile capabilities, noting that this requires, according to estimates, between one to two years.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 28,775 Palestinians have been killed, and 68,552 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. 

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

(PC, AJA)