The IDF on Sunday said that its current broad invasion of five divisions in Gaza is not about killing off Hamas’s remaining terrorist forces, but about taking control of Gazan territory and of food distribution.
To date, the IDF has killed around 800 Hamas terrorists, including around 50 more senior officials, and around a dozen top officials, since renewing hostilities in March.
While this number is not insignificant, it pales in comparison to the several thousand Hamas fighters the IDF killed in a mere matter of weeks in November 2023.
Essentially, the IDF explained that Hamas is not defending any of its territory or resisting the IDF invasion in any organized manner.
Rather, the IDF said that Hamas has switched over to only guerrilla warfare, and even that on a limited basis.
Division 98 forces’ activities in the Gaza Strip. (CREDIT: IDF SPOKESPERSON)
If earlier in the war, there were a large number of roving Hamas attackers observing IDF soldiers from concealed positions and waiting for the moment to spring an ambush on them, now such incidents still occur, but are few and far between.
After so many Hamas terrorists who did this were killed after the fact by drones and other forces who tracked their attempt to flee after attacking, Hamas’s preference now is to set remote-controlled improvised explosives and to blow them up from a safe distance when IDF soldiers get close enough.
Accordingly, the IDF is focused more on taking control of the Gaza Strip, already passing the 40% point, and seeking to reach control of around 75% of the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu claimed Israel sought to control 100% of Gaza
This number is less than the 100% noted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his speech last week, but it would still mean overall broad control of most of Gaza by the military.
A key goal of these moves is to move all of Gaza’s remaining estimated 2.1 million Palestinians into three main areas – one in northern Gaza, one in central Gaza, and a special humanitarian zone in southern Gaza.
Once this is accomplished, the IDF will open up at least three large food distribution centers in southern Gaza and one in central Gaza, which will be run by the American companies UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions as part of a new Gaza humanitarian authority.
Each of these centers is designed to provide food to 300,000 Palestinians over the course of a full week to cover their food needs on a rotating basis.
This will cover the around 1.1 million Gazans in central and southern Gaza, including 550,000 in the al-Muwasi humanitarian zone, 200,000 in Khan Yunis, and 350,000 in central Gaza.
However, currently, there is no plan for adopting this model in northern Gaza, which likely means that the UN and existing ways of handing out food will continue in that area.
This also means that the IDF and the government are likely ceding control over food in northern Gaza to Hamas for an indefinite period until they are confident enough of the success of the new model in southern and central Gaza to potentially try to apply it to northern Gaza as well.
Part of this policy with northern Gaza may also be to satisfy objections from the UN and food aid groups that say it is illegal for Israel to decide some groups can receive food, while others (Hamas forces) cannot.
The IDF said that the current phase of the invasion of taking over up to 75% of Gazan territory and rolling out and normalizing the new food distribution model, could be drawn out over around two months, with hopes that this would lead to breaking Hamas’s control over the population.
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