Watan-The Economist published an article about the operational reality in the Gaza Strip, stating that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has relocated part of its forces to other areas of Gaza, but will leave a battalion in Rafah to harass the Israeli occupation army.
The magazine titled the article “The Israeli Army is Stuck in a Death Loop in Gaza,” explaining that there has been secret discontent among the army generals for several months due to the absence of a plan from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the day after the war.
The article considered that there would not be a major confrontation between Hamas and the occupation army in Rafah because Hamas, like most guerrilla movements, will work to avoid direct conflict with a superior enemy in terms of equipment and numbers.
It pointed out that supporters of the attack on Rafah, which began earlier this month, consider it necessary to eliminate the last strongholds of Hamas, while skeptics fear it could turn into a humanitarian tragedy, leading to the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and the displacement of a million others.
The magazine also discussed what it described as the less intense drama regarding the battles in the Zaytoun neighborhood north of Gaza City, which began after days of fighting in Rafah. The occupation army fought there last year at the beginning of the war, then returned for a two-week attack last February, and has now returned for a third time, possibly not the last.
Exaggerated Talk About Rafah
The Economist said that the talk about Rafah being Hamas’ last refuge is exaggerated, noting that after eight months of war, Israel has no plan to prevent Hamas from attempting to regain control of other parts of Gaza.
It explained that Netanyahu‘s refusal to discuss post-war arrangements has led to a rift with US President Joe Biden, and increasingly, with his own army generals as well.
Rafah Attack
The magazine stated that Israel has no plan to prevent Hamas from regaining control of other parts of Gaza. It mentioned that strategic experts often talk about the “clear-build approach to counter-insurgency by clearing an area of militants, holding onto the gains, and building an alternative.”
It pointed out that Israel only does the first thing, and apart from the Netzarim corridor, there has been almost no Israeli military presence in Gaza for the past two months, leaving a vacuum that Hamas inevitably tried to fill.
Israeli Government Disagreements
This week, disagreements within the Israeli government about the war came to light, after Defense Minister Yoav Galant demanded that Netanyahu present a clear strategy with the army returning to fight in areas where it had declared its objectives achieved months ago.
Except for his claim to have dismantled 19 of Hamas’ 24 battalions and his pledge to retrieve the captives held by the resistance, Netanyahu has not outlined any clear strategic objective to end the war that has resulted in the martyrdom of more than 35,000 Palestinians, and tens of thousands of wounded, missing, and displaced persons.
Messages from Abu Ubaida
Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, stated on Friday that al-Qassam fighters targeted 100 Israeli military vehicles over ten days, affirming the resistance’s readiness for a long attritional battle with the enemy and its ability to endure and fight.
Abu Ubaida added that the Israeli enemy, after 32 weeks from October 7th last year, is entering hell again in Gaza and facing tougher resistance amidst an unequal war and legendary defense by the people of Gaza and their resistance against the occupation’s barbarity.
He pointed out that the occupation continues to practice the ugliest forms of genocide against the Palestinian people in front of the world, committing every form of war crime and crime against humanity described by divine laws and human regulations with utter baseness and savagery.
He explained that the occupation army boasts of its crimes as military achievements and adopts intimidation, criminality, and destruction as a fixed strategy in Gaza, aiming to break the will of its people and deter their resistance from defending and confronting.
He noted that ten days ago, the occupation decided to start a new ground assault on Rafah, the Zaytoun neighborhood in the south, and Jabalia, thinking they were easy targets and that it would face little resistance, only to be met with resistance as fierce or fiercer than what it encountered on the first day of the ground assault