How much trouble could Israel put Hamas in 6 months?

After an unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 last year, Israel swooped on Gaza, vowing to “crush and wipe out” the Palestinian armed group.

So that Hamas can never become a threat to the country. Six months have passed since Israel’s operation in Gaza. More than 33,000 Palestinian civilians lost their lives in these six months. A large proportion of the victims were women and children. Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble. All of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are displaced, starving, and famine is imminent in the tiny territory.

Israel claims that thousands of Hamas fighters have been killed in their operation. They also managed to destroy most of Hamas’ underground tunnel network in Gaza. Hamas used this tunnel network to carry out attacks behind the scenes.

Just how far have the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) progressed in achieving their goals in a war that started the Gaza war vowing to ‘wipe out Hamas and free all hostages’?

The IDF statement said it had verified and evaluated its posts on social media and evidence that Israel was persistent in its targets.
According to various reports citing IDF commanders, there were believed to be 30,000 Hamas fighters in Gaza before October 7.

However, many of Hamas’ top political leaders, such as Israel Haniyeh, are based abroad. The leaders of Hamas’ armed forces, however, are believed to remain inside Gaza.

In a recent statement, the IDF claimed to have killed around 13,000 Hamas fighters since the Gaza war began. However, they did not say anything about how they calculated this. Not only numbers, but Israel also mentioned the names of several Hamas leaders it claimed to have killed in the operation.

According to the BBC, the IDF has named a total of 113 Hamas leaders since last October. They claimed that they had been killed. Most of them were killed in the first three months of the war. But in comparison, in the last three months until March this year, the IDF did not report the killing of any senior Hamas leader in Gaza.

On March 26, the IDF announced the killing of Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing. who was on Israel’s ‘most wanted’ list and is the most senior Hamas leader claimed to have been killed by Israeli forces since the Gaza war began. However, Hamas has not confirmed the death of Marwan Isa.
The US, however, said it believed Marwan Isa was killed.

The IDF has also released the names of some such. They said – these are the senior leaders of Hamas who were killed in their operations.

The BBC reported that it was not possible to verify whether the names the IDF released were actually members of Hamas.

According to the BBC, the list of Hamas leaders killed in the Gaza war by the IDF is one of the names Mustafa Thuraya. Who was actually a freelance journalist.

Israel attacked his car while on duty in southern Gaza last January. The BBC also reported getting fake names on the list.

Outside Gaza, Hamas political leader Saleh al-Arouri was killed after the Gaza war broke out. Last January, an explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut killed four people, including the deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri. The attack is believed to have been carried out by a drone from Israel.

The BBC spoke to a number of experts who said they believe many known Hamas leaders are still alive in Gaza, including Yahya Sinwar.