Dozens of suspected terrorists and assessments of heavy Hamas casualties point to the IDF's progress in its war in Gaza, but defense sources warn Hamas is still standing and much work remains to be done.
Photos making the rounds on social media show dozens of suspected terrorists surrendering and being taken for interrogation are among the latest markers that the IDF is making progress and is perhaps close to breaking the terrorist organization.
But defense sources speaking to Mako News military correspondent Shai Levy caution that it's not over yet. While many have indeed surrendered to the IDF, most of them are not the "hard core" of Hamas. Some are civilians trying to simply get out of the war zone, while others are Hamas members who served in various support positions such as observation or members of less central terrorist factions. That said, many of the prisoners are still valuable sources of intelligence on the state of Hamas, its tunnel network, and other important information.
The many underground tunnel shafts and ruins add to the IDF's difficulty, as ambushes involving anti-tank missiles potentially lurk in every corner. According to Walla News military correspondent Amir Bohbot, the IDF's success in eliminating midlevel Hamas commanders means many of the smaller Hamas squads and individuals soldiers are staying put for lack of orders, which makes them unable to launch large or coordinated attacks but still plenty dangerous for an ambush.
This, in addition to the fear that many Hamas terrorists escaped disguised as civilians to the south, the likely presence of the hostages in the southern area, and the possible evacuation of Hamas to the border city of Rafah - where accidental entanglement with the Egyptian Army is a possibility - all make the fighting in the south that much harder and more complicated.
Nevertheless, the IDF expects to take control of all of Gaza City in the north within a few days and expects the high-intensity part of the fight to take about two months, with months spent clearing out the whole terror network piece by piece.