The IDF announced on Tuesday that the 7th Armored Brigade and Golani Infantry Brigade had taken over a number of Hamas sites in Gaza City despite fierce resistance from the Palestinian Islamist militants. Social media accounts have been circulating photos of Israeli troops holding the Jewish state's banner in what appears to be premises captured from Hamas.
"From the Israeli perspective, these pictures are meant to show that they are winning the battle, that the victory could be imminent as the domestic public opinion is exerting pressure on the [Benjamin] Netanyahu government to bring the hostages back and to take revenge for the 7th of October Hamas offensive," Dr. Lorenzo Trombetta, Beirut-based scholar and analyst specializing on the Middle East, told Sputnik. "Instead, from a military Israeli perspective, the seizure of the Hamas parliament or other institutional Hamas assets do not mean the end of the war as the battle could last at least for a couple of weeks."
On October 7, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and other Islamist groups carried out a surprise attack on Israeli cities and military positions. In addition to launching around 6,000 rockets, the Islamist groups infiltrated Israeli settlements, slaughtered 1,400 civilians – including elderly and children – and military servicemen, and took around 240 hostages. In the wake of the attack, which caught the Israeli government off guard, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas, kicked off massive air strikes against the militants' positions in the strip, and later authorized a ground operation in Gaza.
Has Hamas Lost Control of Gaza?
Even though the fighting on the ground has been raging on, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant suggested on November 13 that Hamas had lost control of the Gaza Strip. "There is no force of Hamas capable of stopping the IDF. The IDF is advancing to every point. The Hamas organization has lost control of Gaza," Gallant said, adding that Gaza civilians are "looting" bases left by the militant group. As of Tuesday, the death toll in the IDF ground operation had reached 46 Israeli servicemen.
"I would say that Israel has taken partially half of the Gaza Strip, not entirely," Trombetta pointed out. "And that Hamas is also strong and well equipped in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. I think Hamas was very well prepared for these intense and open war scenarios. They knew that Israel would start their ground offensive from the north, trying to reduce the threat of launching rockets towards Ashkelon and other Israeli territories. By the way, Hamas in the last hours was capable of sending new waves of rockets, proving its capability of attacking Israel even under heavy bombardment and ground offensive in the strip."
Over the past two days, most fighting occurred around Shifa Hospital, which, according to Tel Aviv, was used by Hamas as cover for an underground command center. However, the IDF denied that it has besieged or directly attacked the medical center, adding that it has maintained contact with the Shifa staff to allow safe passage of civilians and patients.
Per the IDF, the Israeli military supplied 300 liters of fuel to Shifa Hospital on Sunday, but Hamas prevented the healthcare facility from receiving it. Earlier, the director of the hospital, Mohammed Abu Selmia, complained that the facility lost power on Saturday.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military also shared a tape of conversation between an IDF liaison officer and Abu Selmia regarding the handover of 37 incubators, four breathing machines, and other critical medical equipment from Israel to the hospital amid mounting criticism of Tel Aviv's ground operation by the international community, including Israel's allies, the US and EU. The hostilities have claimed the lives of over 11,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry of Gaza’s Hamas government.
Last week, Israel agreed to four-hour daily "tactical, localized pauses" in its offensive in the Gaza Strip. Per the Israeli media, these pauses were observed on Tuesday, too, to enable Palestinians to evacuate toward the south. Over 800,000 out of the 1.1 million Palestinians from the northern part of Gaza have already fled to the south through safe corridors set up by the IDF.
Hamas Can Still Play Hostage Card
Meanwhile, the Israeli media reported on Tuesday that the Israeli Air Force had struck 200 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours. Nonetheless, Hamas has continued to fire rockets at Israeli military positions and residential areas from Gaza. The missile attacks from the Islamist group have been ongoing almost uninterruptedly since the October surprise assault.
Per Trombetta, Hamas still has some cards up its sleeve:
"First of all, they have the hostages," the scholar said. "Few hours ago, there was the news that a female Israeli soldier was killed in the Gaza Strip. As far as we know, there are more than 200 hostages, mainly Israeli, double citizens, but also other nationalities. Even if Hamas had 'only' 100 hostages in its hands, this would have been a very important guarantee card, a very important tool in order to negotiate and to exert pressure on Israel to stop the offensive."
"Secondly, from a military and tactical point of view, as I mentioned before, they still hold the ground in other areas of Gaza. And I guess they're still very powerful under the surface. Hamas' strength does not lie in its arsenal - as most of its weapons are not sophisticated - but lies in its knowledge of the ground and its capacity to hit the Israeli infantry hard," Trombetta continued.
Meanwhile, the Netanyahu Cabinet appears to have no doubts that Israel must prevail in the conflict with Hamas and ensure the Jewish state's security. Earlier, Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Washington's apparent proposal that the Palestinian Authority should take the reins of Gaza after the hostilities are over. Per him, discussions of who should govern the strip would "only come after the eradication of Hamas." Speaking to Fox News last Thursday, the Israeli prime minister emphasized that the enclave must be "demilitarized, deradicalized and rebuilt" in the first place.
In a joint press conference on November 12, which Netanyahu held alongside Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz, the Israeli prime minister brushed away international criticism over how the IDF is conducting its military operation against Islamists in the Gaza Strip: "No international pressure, no false allegations about IDF soldiers and our state," will impact Israel’s resolve, per Netanyahu. Israel will "stand firm against the world if necessary," he stressed. "Israel has to win for its own sake and for the world."