About 40,000 Hamas fighters are still actively fighting against Israel in Gaza, according to a top Israeli military official. Retired Israeli Major General Yitzhak Brick stated that despite the prolonged war, Hamas has returned to nearly the same level of military strength it had before the conflict began.
On Sunday (6 July), Al Jazeera reported that in an analytical article published in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, Brick wrote that the number of Hamas fighters is now close to 40,000, almost the same as before the war. According to him, “Many Hamas fighters are still stationed in tunnels, launching guerrilla attacks from there.”
He further said that Hamas was never a conventional army, so it could not be destroyed in the traditional sense. They were guerrilla fighters then, and they remain so now. It is wrong to think that their military capability has been completely shattered.
General Brick’s remarks come at a time when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claim they have almost completely destroyed Hamas. However, Brick’s observations suggest otherwise—indicating that organized resistance by Hamas is still ongoing in Gaza.
This new statement directly contradicts the official Israeli position, which has been promoting the message that Hamas has been weakened. Analysts say Brick’s comments provide an important insight into the true situation of the Gaza war and the reconstituted military presence of Hamas.
