Remaining Hamas fighters 'broken' mentally or physically -- and the Israeli soldiers?
IDF strikes Hamas command center in Nuseirat school-turned-shelter, announces earlier killings of Hamas operatives who participated October 7, 2023 and guarded hostage Noa Marciano
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday revealed a document -- How helpful! leaving a copy!
Gallant said the document was written by the former commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade in southern Gaza, Rafa’a Salameh and addressed to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his brother Muhammad, in which the commander described the “difficult situation” in which the terror group had found itself
Salameh, a mastermind of the terror group’s October 7 massacre, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza in July 2024 that also killed senior Hamas commander Muhammad Deif
In the letter, Salameh wrote:
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“Please consider the following: We maintain the remaining weapons and equipment, as we have lost 90-95 percent of our rocket capabilities; and we have lost some 60% of our personal weapons; we have lost at least 65-70% of our anti-tank launchers and rockets”
according to excerpts provided and translated by the Defense Ministry
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“Most importantly” Salameh continued “we have lost at least 50% of our fighters between those who are martyred and wounded and now we are left with 25%
The last 25% of our people have reached a situation where the people do not tolerate them anymore, broken on a mental or physical level”
Gallant said the document showed “a real hardship that affects Hamas and affects the most senior commanders” Salameh “cries out for the help of the Sinwar brothers but of course they cannot save him” Gallant said.
“Why? Because we are continuing the effort that started in October and continues step by step… and reaches all senior Hamas officials. Salameh wrote this to the Sinwar brothers, we will get to them as well” the defense minister continued
Yahya Sinwar is the leader of Hamas in Gaza and is considered a mastermind of the group’s October 7, 2023 attack, when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war
Sinwar was last month appointed as the head of the terror group following the July 31 assassination of previous leader Ismail Haniyeh. Sinwar's brother Muhammad is a senior commander in Hamas’s military wing
Gallant’s presentation of the document came on the same day as two Israeli soldiers were killed and several others wounded in a helicopter crash attempting to extract a third, seriously wounded soldier from the battlefield. The crash was not a result of enemy fire
Gallant also published a video on social media Wednesday from the same facility, showing a photo of Muhammad Sinwar’s children posing in front of a depiction of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in the United States
The photo was discovered recently in a tunnel underneath Khan Younis, Gallant said in the video, which was posted on the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. A picture is worth a thousand words.
This picture was found in a tunnel where the Sinwar brothers were hiding like rats
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On 9/11 we remember the horrific attack on our closest ally, the U.S. And we remember that our fight against terrorism, against Hamas, is the fight of the free world
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike Wednesday in central Gaza struck a group of Hamas operatives at a command room embedded within a former school
According to the military, Hamas was using the Al-Jaouni School in Nuseirat to plan and carry out attacks against troops and Israel. The school has been serving as a shelter for displaced Gazans
Hospital officials reported 14 people killed, including two children, in the strike
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The IDF said it carried out “many steps,” including using precision munitions, aerial surveillance and other intelligence, to limit civilian casualties in the strike"
“The Hamas terror organization systematically violates international law, brutally exploiting civilian institutions and the population as a human shield for terror activity” the military said
In recent months, dozens of airstrikes have been carried out against Hamas sites embedded within schools and other sites used as shelters for civilians, according to the IDF
The IDF also announced on Wednesday that recent airstrikes in Gaza had killed two Hamas terrorists who participated in the October 7 onslaught, one of whom was involved in guarding Corporal Noa Marciano, an abducted soldier who was killed by Hamas at Shifa Hospital and whose body was recovered in November
A separate drone strike recently killed Ayman Khaled Ahmed Abu al-Yahni, who the IDF said was a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force and was involved in attacking the Erez Crossing during the October 7 onslaught, the military announced
