A senior Hamas commander quoted in a report published Sunday said that the terror group has lost control of around 80 percent of the Gaza Strip and that there is “barely anything left” of its military structure, after 21 months of intense fighting with the Israeli military.
The report, which was published by BBC News, was based on a number of voice messages sent to the British outlet from a “senior officer” in Hamas, identified only as a lieutenant colonel who was wounded in October 2023.
“Let’s be realistic here — there’s barely anything left of the security structure. Most of the leadership, about 95%, are now dead… The active figures have all been killed,” the senior officer reportedly said. “So really, what’s stopping Israel from continuing this war?”
The commander claimed that the war “has to continue until the end. All the conditions are aligned: Israel has the upper hand, the world is silent, the Arab regimes are silent, criminal gangs are everywhere, society is collapsing.”
He said since the end of the latest ceasefire in March, Hamas’s security control in Gaza “has completely collapsed. Totally gone. There’s no control anywhere,” pointing to extensive looting of a Hamas’s complex with no intervention.
“So, the security situation is zero. Hamas’s control is zero,” he said.
“There’s no leadership, no command, no communication. Salaries are delayed, and when they do arrive, they’re barely usable. Some die just trying to collect them. It’s total collapse,” the commander said.
While the officer quoted in the report claimed that Hamas has lost control over some 80% of Gaza, the IDF said last week that it controls around 65% of the Strip, and is nearing its stated goal of control over three-quarters of the enclave’s ground area.
There are areas of Gaza where the IDF has almost not operated at all, largely out of fear that the hostages are being held in the area and could be killed.
While the Hamas commander’s estimate is much more generous than the IDF’s own assessments of its control, the official could be taking into account the recent rise of non-Hamas militia groups in Gaza, most notably the Abu Shabab clan, which Israel has armed and empowered in southern Gaza.
In an interview Sunday with Arabic-language Israeli public broadcaster Makan, militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab confirmed for the first time that his forces were cooperating at some level with the IDF, and did not rule out civil war with Hamas.
The armed group has been seen operating in southern Gaza’s Rafah and Khan Younis, and represents the first significant internal armed opposition movement to Hamas’s rule over the Strip’s residents.
The BBC report came as Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect talks in Qatar in an attempt to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal, and as the IDF continues to apply pressure in Gaza through airstrikes and ground maneuvers.
On Monday, the IDF said that the Israeli Air Force had struck dozens of targets in Gaza over the past day, including dozens of operatives, weapon depots, observation posts, and other buildings used by terror groups.
The strikes came as five IDF divisions, made up of tens of thousands of troops, continue to operate across Gaza.
During ground operations, the IDF said troops killed numerous operatives and destroyed Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels, buildings used for terror, anti-tank launch posts, and observation posts.
In Gaza, the territory’s civil defense agency, which is run by Hamas, reported 12 people killed in gunfire or strikes on Monday.
“We are losing young people, families and children every day, and this must stop now,” Gaza resident Osama al-Hanawi told AFP. “Enough blood has been shed.”
Israeli forces have operated inside the Gaza strip for over 20 months, since the Hamas-led terror onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 441.
During this time, more than 57,000 people have been killed in the Strip, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
The Hamas-provided death toll cannot be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught that sparked the war.