A few weeks ago the media office of the Gaza government issued a statement declaring that the Israeli Defense Forces now control over 77 percent of the territory in the Gaza Strip, much of it in ruins from the continuing Israeli Air Force attacks on suspected Hamas sites. Many of the known Hamas leadership at the time of its October 7, 2023, surprise attack on Israel have been killed or have fled Gaza. But the organization has survived and now there are as many as 20,000 Hamas members. Young recruits today try to control the delivery of relief food and other goods to Gaza along with the black market that dominates what is left of its economy.
Israel has not won its war against Hamas—a war that at one time was promised to be ended within a span of four or five months. The Israeli leadership responded to that failure by taking the war to the people of Gaza, though Israelis were assured that the terrifying and around-the-clock Israeli air force bombing attacks in Gaza would stop when Hamas was driven from its fortified tunnels.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Seymour Hersh to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.