Israel Takes Out Top Hamas Commander -- Say PalestiniansED MORRISSEY 10:01 AM on October 19, 2023
Israel Takes Out Top Hamas Commander -- Say Palestinians
Who needs a ground invasion? Last weekend, the Israelis gave Gazans 24 hours to evacuate the northern end of Gaza, signaling that infantry and armor would soon roll through Gaza City. Joe Biden then dropped in for a visit, which some thought could have accounted for the delay in ground operations.
Biden has come and gone, though, but the Israeli ground invasion has yet to launch. Meanwhile, the IDF keeps finding success in their current posture. Just ask the Palestinians:
The Commander of the Hamas-led National Security Forces in Gaza Jehad Mheisen was killed by an Israeli airstrike, according to Palestinian reports on Thursday.
Mheisen was killed along with his family members in the attack on his home in the neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan in Gaza City.
They aren’t targeting only the terror-operative wing of Hamas. The IDF has also targeted its political leadership, and found success there as well:
Additionally, IDF forces killed Jamila Abdallah Taha al-Shanti, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the first woman in the political bureau of Hamas, according to Hamas radio, Israeli media reported Thursday.
Shanti, 68, was a founder of Hamas’s women’s movement and was married to Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, a Hamas founder and leader, whom the Israeli Air Force killed by Hellfire missile in April 2004.
And a third top terror figure also reached room temperature in Rafah, although this claim only comes from the IDF so far:
The Israel Defense Forces said an airstrike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah had killed Rafat Abu Hilal, the head of the military wing of Gaza’s Popular Resistance Committees terror group, the third-largest terror faction in the Strip after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
These follow a short series of other wins for the Israelis’ targeted attacks. On Sunday, they killed the commander of Hamas forces in the south in Khan Yunis. The next day they took out the head of Hamas’ Shura Council, and then on Tuesday killed the commander of the Central Gaza Brigade, along with members of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s family. They have had even more success finding and killing political operatives in Gaza’s terror networks:
Al-Shanti’s death brings to four the number of members of Hamas’s political bureau killed by Israel in strikes in the October 7 Hamas onslaught that started the war. Zakariya Abu Moammar, the head of the terror group’s internal relations, and Jawad Abu Shamala, who managed the terror group’s funds, were killed October 10. Osama Mazini, former head of Hamas’s Shura Council and a Hamas education minister, was killed on October 16.
Obviously, Hamas has thousands of other fighters that will replace these figures. However, the disruption in communications and organization will likely prove fatal to some of their efforts at defense against the Israelis in the short run. More critically, though, what’s left of Hamas’ top echelon in Gaza has to wonder just how the Israelis are having this much success in a very short period after the grotesque and barbaric invasion less than two weeks ago. Having one or two such figures die in bombing raids could be coincidental; this many losses at the top echelon is no coincidence or luck. The Israelis know where they are and are targeting attacks to take them out, even without any ground invasion in force.
Either their movements are too easy to track, or someone’s talking to the Israelis. And Hamas doesn’t have a lot of time or command focus to figure out which is which. If someone’s talking, it has to be someone (or someones) with very good access to top commanders and political leaders. Did the Israelis capture a significant figure in Hamas in one of their recon-in-force missions this weekend in Gaza? Or does the Mossad have a mole in Hamas high enough to give them real-time data on leadership movements and locations?
Those questions may be what drove Hamas to offer a trade of all hostages for an end to the IDF’s air strikes. However the Israelis have penetrated their leadership, it’s clear that they know enough to kill off the current leadership and then start working down the junior leagues fairly quickly. Hamas needs time to conduct a mole hunt, or at the very least organize new tactics for internal and external security while they still have leadership to protect. Previously, Hamas demanded the release of 6,000 terrorists in Israeli prisons for their release, but that changed quickly after it became clear how effective the Israeli campaign would be.
So far, however, Israel refuses to take the hostage bait — a lesson learned in the hardest way possible. Neither have its allies, despite political pressure to get their own citizens out of the hands of their Hamas kidnappers. Biden mentioned that the hostages were one of the highest priorities for the US, but never publicly suggested Israel should swap anything for them. Neither did UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who came to Israel to show support:
British Prime Minster Rishi Sunak responds to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that “we absolutely support Israel to defend itself in line with international law, to go after Hamas, to take back hostages, to deter further incursions, and to strengthen your security for the long term.”
He does not mention toppling Hamas, which Israeli leaders have said is a key war aim.
Perhaps Sunak didn’t have to mention it. At the moment, Israel appears to be accomplishing that one Hamas leader at a time.
Final thought: Hamas’ ace card in the hole against a Gaza invasion has always been the holes — the tunnels in which they hide their armed forces and munitions. Their war strategy aims to turn any ground invasion by Israel into a nightmare, where terrorists jump out of the ground behind Israeli forces and slaughter or capture them. That strategy worked pretty well in previous actions, but the IDF has had a long time to game that out, too. And if they’re getting this kind of solid intel on Hamas leadership in Gaza, just how secure are those tunnels going to be for Hamas once the invasion steps off? Want to bet that question is keeping what’s left of Hamas leadership awake at night?
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