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Hamas believes that it can force the Israeli army to agree to a ceasefire agreement and is “fully prepared” for a long, drawn-out war in the Gaza Strip, a report by news agency Reuters said, citing two people within Hamas, familiar with the developments.
Hamas operatives told Reuters that they have stockpiled weapons, missiles, food and medical supplies and are confident that their terrorists can survive for months below Gaza City which is a labyrinth of tunnels carved deep beneath the ground and believes it can frustrate Israeli forces with urban guerrilla tactics.
2023 Israel-Hamas War: Full Coverage
The terrorist group also believes that international pressure on Israel to end its operation in Gaza as civilian casualties grow. They also believe that such a settlement will allow them to secure the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages.
Four Hamas officials indirectly told Israel and US during Qatar-mediated hostage negotiations that it is prioritising prisoner release in exchange for hostages. A regional official and a person familiar with the White House’s approach told Reuters.
Hamas also shared a long term demand with the news agency – it wants Israel to end the 17-year blockade of Gaza, halt Israeli settlement expansion and stop actions taken by Israeli security forces at the al-Aqsa mosque, which is among the most sacred Muslim shrines.
Hamas has 40,000 terrorists and are using the enclave which has a maze of tunnels which are hundreds of kilometres long and up to 80 metres deep, built over many years.
Ali Baraka, the Beirut-based head of Hamas’ External Relations, said the group has improved its military capabilities, particularly its missiles. It now has rockets with a maximum range of 230 km. “In every war, we surprise the Israelis with something new,” Baraka was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Israel has pummelling the Gaza Strip with airstrikes since the October 7 attack, which saw Hamas gunmen burst out of the blockaded coastal enclave, killing 1,400 Israelis and taking 239 hostages. The Gazan death toll has surpassed 9,000, with every day of violence fuelling protests around the world over, for the plight of more than 2 million Gazans trapped in the tiny enclave, many without water, food or power.
It is unclear how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will react to these demands. He has vowed to wipe out Hamas and has rejected calls for a ceasefire, despite being pressured by iron ally US as well as 120 other nations.
In a separate report, Israeli officials have told US counterparts that civilian casualties are an ‘acceptable price’ and made references to mass deaths during the two World Wars. They said they’re under no illusions about what may lie ahead and accuse Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
“Those who carried out the Oct. 7 attack with its level of proficiency, this level of expertise, precision and intensity, would have prepared for a long-term battle. It’s not possible for Hamas to engage in such an attack without being fully prepared and mobilised for the outcome,” Adeeb Ziadeh, a Palestinian expert in international affairs at Qatar University who has studied Hamas, told the news outlet.
A White House official said that Hamas will try to bog Israeli forces down in street-by-street combat in Gaza and inflict heavy losses to drown out the Israeli public support for a drawn-out conflict.
The person mentioned above said that Israel is well aware of the risks and consequences and remains steadfast in its mission despite international criticism of their methodology but there are questions being raised on whether it will be able to eliminate Hamas or merely severely degrade the organisation.
A Hezbollah official told Reuters that Hamas’ strength remained mostly intact after weeks of bombardment. The official also said that Hezbollah, Hamas and other outfits have a joint military operation room in Lebanon, backed by Iran.
“It is an opportunity for us to tell them that we can make our destiny with our own hands. We can arrange the equation of the region in a way that serves our interests,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who is based in Beirut, said and claimed the ongoing war will put the issue of Palestinian statehood back on the map.
A new document, the 2017 charter, shows Hamas accepting for the first time the idea of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders claimed by Israel after the Six Day War but it stops short of explicitly recognizing Israel’s right to exist.
Marwan Al-Muasher, Jordan’s former foreign minister and deputy prime minister who now works for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington said stability in West Asia without an answer to the Palestinian question is not possible.
“It’s clear today that without peace with the Palestinians you are not going to have peace in the region,” the Jordanian former deputy prime minister said.
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