• Hamas fighting force reduced by half - US officials
    • Group relying on ambushes, improvised bombs, they say
    • Such tactics could sustain a lengthy insurgency
    • ‘There is no quick fix,’ says Israeli military

WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) - Hamas has seen about half its forces wiped out in eight months of war and is relying on hit-and-run insurgent tactics to frustrate Israel’s attempts to take control of Gaza, U.S. and Israeli officials told Reuters. The enclave’s ruling group has been reduced to between 9,000 and 12,000 fighters, according to three senior U.S. officials familiar with battlefield developments, down from American estimates , opens new tab of 20,000-25,000 before the conflict. By contrast, Israel says it has lost almost 300 troops in the Gaza campaign. Hamas fighters are now largely avoiding sustained skirmishes with Israeli forces closing in on the southernmost city of Rafah, instead relying on ambushes and improvised bombs to hit targets often behind enemy lines, one of the officials said.

      • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Depends if your definition of “hamas” includes Palestinian civilians, which I suspect it might.

          • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Right. And Israel has the right to actually defend itself. Where the issue happens is that indiscriminate bombing in densely populated areas does not constitute “self defense.” Nor does sniping journalists, dropping precision munitions on aid convoys, dropping thousand pound bombs on refugee camps, using white phosphorus anywhere near a city, collective punishment such as cutting access to aid and water for millions of people (actual war crime by the way), or literally anything that’s occurred in the west bank.

            So when people say they support Palestine, that’s what they mean. Not hamas. Don’t be disingenuous.

            • _sideffect@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Not all people, don’t be naive. Many want the Jews to disappear and don’t give two F’s what happens to them.

              Remember when people chant “from the river to the sea” , what it actually means.