A senior Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that the Palestinian Islamist movement has enough resources to continue fighting Israel despite losses in more than 11 months of war in Gaza.
“There is a strong possibility that the resistance will continue,” Osama Hamdan told AFP in an interview in Istanbul.
“Some people were martyred and some made sacrifices… but in return there was an accumulation of experiences and the recruitment of new generations into the resistance.”
His remarks came less than a week after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant told reporters that Hamas, whose October 7 attack sparked the war, no longer exists as a military entity in Gaza.
“The number of casualties is much lower than expected in a battle of this size, scale and magnitude,” Hamdan said on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a retaliatory military operation to destroy Hamas after its surprise attack on southern Israel left 1,205 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
At least 41,206 people have been killed in Gaza in the Israeli military campaign, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, though the ministry did not give a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
The militants took 251 hostages on October 7, of whom 97 are still held in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
There is growing domestic pressure on Netanyahu to finalise a deal that would see the hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel this month announced that the bodies of six hostages “murdered” by Hamas had been recovered from a tunnel in Gaza, sparking an outpouring of grief and anger that resulted in a brief general strike and mass demonstrations that continued in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Saturday night.
But months of talks aimed at securing a ceasefire – brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar – have apparently stalled.
In the interview on Sunday, Hamdan said Israel’s most important military backer, the United States, was not doing enough to pressure Netanyahu to end the bloodshed.
“The US administration does not exert enough or appropriate pressure on the Israeli side,” Hamdan said.
“Rather it is an attempt by the Israeli side to justify avoiding any commitment.”
During two press conferences after authorities announced the deaths of six hostages earlier this month, Netanyahu said it was Hamas that refused to compromise and vowed “not to succumb to pressure” on remaining issues.
He also said that “at least 17,000” Hamas militants were killed in Israel’s military operation.
Israel is not untouched
The war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hamas has also involved other Iran-backed groups in the Middle East, notably Lebanon-based Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
On Sunday, the Houthis launched a missile attack on central Israel, causing no casualties but sending people fleeing for safety and raising regional tensions.
Hamdan said the attack demonstrated the limitations of Israel’s ability to defend itself, including its much-vaunted air defense system.
“This is a message to the whole region that Israel is not an immune entity,” Hamdan said.
“There are limits to Israeli capabilities.”
Hamdan also reiterated Hamas’ view that the shooting and killing of three Israeli guards by a Jordanian truck driver crossing the border earlier this month highlighted widespread resentment against Israel in the region.
As for Arab leaders who have normalized diplomatic ties with Israel or are considering doing so, Hamdan said they should ask themselves how they would feel if their countries were occupied and the world watched as a mute spectator.
“If you see Israel as a blessing and a benefit … give them a piece of your country,” he said, joking that it could be called “New Israel.”
Plan for the next day
Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007, but it is unclear how it will exist after the war because of Israel’s demands to dismantle the group.
Hamdan said on Sunday that it was impossible to imagine a situation in which Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar would leave the besieged area.
Sinwar and other leaders “are ready to be martyred thousands of times rather than leave Palestine because everything they are doing is to liberate Palestine,” Hamdan said.
Hamas demands a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, including the Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow strip of land along the Egyptian border that has emerged as a major sticking point in ceasefire talks.
Hamas wants “joint Palestinian governance” in Gaza, Hamdan said, adding that Hamas officials and representatives of other Palestinian factions would meet soon in Cairo to discuss their post-war vision.
“The day after the war is Palestinian day,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)