Hamas's Changed Tactics

With the defeat of most of its battalions, Hamas, has changed its tactics and is using the UN facilities, schools, hospitals and the civilian population to hide its remaining armed groups, often dressed in civilian clothes,  from the eyes of the IDF.

There is no other terrorist or “armed group” in the world that has systematically used UN facilities the way Hamas has done in Gaza. The systematic use of schools, for instance, is a serious crime by Hamas against the people of Gaza. Yet, throughout nine months of fighting, the terrorist group has increasingly used UN facilities and has not decreased their use.

From the start, Hamas saw Shifa hospital not just as a place to send a few men to hide but to bring hundreds of terrorists. Perhaps 1,000 Hamas terrorists were gathered in the large hospital compound and buildings nearby. This means that Hamas saw the hospital as key to its command and control of Gaza.

It’s important to see Hamas's use of the UNRWA facility and Shifa as part of a larger context. It is not just by chance that Hamas moves into these places like it is a second Hamas. Its presence is considered normal in these places because Hamas is seen as the norm, as the “governing authority” by the UN and NGOs that never mention it by name in statements.

They usually call it an “armed group.” But the armed group sends men in civilian clothes through the doors of these facilities, and no one bars their way. This is because they are perceived either as welcome guests, partners, or as a mafia-like presence that the organizations cannot say no to.

Hamas did not suspect that the IDF would return to operate there a second time in July.

Nevertheless, in spite of these tactics, the IDF, through its ground forces, its Airforce and intelligence division, is slowly but surely eliminating location after location. Further so many of the Hamas leaders have now been eliminated that there is little command and control of the remaining terrorists.

Such Moralizing - Are both hands tied behind our backs?

 From one of my correspondents, how true this is

"We now hear the moralizing about the need to help everyone in Gaza. (Of course, not a word about helping the Israelis whose homes were destroyed by Hamas rockets.) Once again, we hear the pompous assurances that assistance in rebuilding Gaza will be conditioned on Hamas not diverting it to build more rockets for the next war it starts.

In Israel, we've learned that assurances from the international community are worthless.

Israel  remembers the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism set up in 2014 to ensure the materials sent to rebuild the civilian infrastructure weren't diverted by Hamas, yet by some estimates, upward of 90% of the building materials transferred to Gaza went into the construction by Hamas of the 100 miles of tunnels Israel just destroyed, as well as those which remain - along with the more than 4,000 rockets Hamas fired at Israeli cities and towns, as well those destroyed by Israel, and the estimated 11,000 which remain.

 They also  remember how, under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 ending the 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) supposedly was strengthened and tasked with guaranteeing the only other military force in southern Lebanon would be the Lebanese army. Instead, under the nose of UNIFIL, Hezbollah, with the aid of Iran, increased its rocket arsenal from a few tens of thousands to an estimated 150,000, more than the combined arsenal of NATO save the United States. It's mainly installed in civilian areas, particularly homes, turning virtually all of southern Lebanon into an armed terrorist base.

Here's one simple proposal:  For every truck of humanitarian aid  Gaza receives Israel must in return receive  a truck full of Hamas weapons for destruction supervised by international observors. 

Unless this or another effective method is used to eliminate the terror infrastructure in Gaza, any effort to help Gaza will be worse than a waste, and only guarantee a far bloodier conflict a few years down the road."