The war between Israel and Hamas is set to last at least a year, with the Jewish state concentrating on its central and southern regions. The Palestinian terror group's 12 battalions operating out of north Gaza have been defeated by Israel. Hagari said that Hamas has been dismantled in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. He said that they are focusing on dismantling Hamas in the central and southern Gaza Strip. The official said the southern part of Gaza is saturated with terrorists and that it will take a year to dismantle them. About 8,000 Hamas terrorists have been killed in fighting in the north alone, and 4 Israeli troops patrol Gaza.
In 2002 it took two months to get into Palestinian cities and two years to make the terror stop, he said. Israel is looking at nine months to a year.
Get the most important developments in the region, globally and locally. The announcement came on the three-month anniversary of the deadly attack on Israel by Hamas, which resulted in about 1,200 Israeli deaths. Israel had already begun scaling back operations in north Gaza and diverted resources to offensives in central and south Gaza before the weekend announcement. Israel has been urged by the Biden administration to stop its ground campaign and focus on more targeted attacks on Hamas leadership, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to ease up on the war until the terror group no longer poses a threat to Israel. The ability of the IDF to eliminate anti-Israeli sentiment in the Gazan population will be much harder to come by. The documents recovered by the IDF showed that Hamas has been using summer camps in Gaza to promote the culture of resistance and the values of Jihad among the children.
Israeli officials say the ability of Hamas to provide a unified fighting force in north Gaza has been destroyed.
In an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," the Israeli president said that the documents were written by Hamas in July. Promoting the resistance and Jihadi culture, nurturing spiritual, mental and physical preparation of children to serve the resistance in the future, and efforts to contribute to the militarization of society through training are some of the goals mentioned. More than 20,000 Palestinians were killed by rocket strikes and ground operations in Israel as of the new year, leaving the Palestinian population reeling. Wael Al-Dahdouh is the Gaza bureau chief of Al Jazeera. A photographer with the outlet was killed along with his colleague in a rocket strike on the southern city of Khan Younis. More than 300 people have been killed in the West Bank since the beginning of October. The news that four of the victims were brothers caused outrage among Palestinians and a public funeral procession in the West Bank. There are fears of a second front opening against Hezbollah in Lebanon as Israel and that terror group continue to exchange rocket fire. Israel has warned that it is running out of patience with the government of Lebanon in dealing with Hezbollah.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Netanyahu warned in a cabinet meeting that Hezbollah needs to learn from Hamas. Netanyahu said that they are determined to protect their citizens and return the residents of the north to their homes.
According to a report from the Washington Post, US officials have been desperately trying to mitigate the growing tensions on the Lebanon border over fears that Netanyahu will open up a new front to try to secure his political position. A recent assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded that an Israeli victory against Hezbollah would be difficult, with resources already spread across the Gaza war.