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By Erin Banco
New York (Reuters) – The Palestinian militant group Hamas has recruited between 10,000 and 15,000 members from the beginning of its war with Israel, according to two sources of the congress informed about US intelligence, suggesting that the combatants backed by Iran could continue to be A persistent threat to Israel. .
Intelligence indicates that a similar number of Hamas combatants has been killed during that period, the sources said. The latest official EE estimates. UU. They have not been previously informed.
Hamas and Israel began a fire on Sunday after 15 months of a conflict that has devastated the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East.
The informed sources of intelligence, which was included in a series of updates of the US intelligence agencies. In the last weeks of the Biden administration, they said that, although Hamas has successfully recruited new members, many are young and not trained and are being used for simple security. purposes.
The US office of the National Intelligence director declined to comment.
On January 14, the then Secretary of State for the state of then President Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, said that the United States believed that Hamas had recruited almost as many combatants as he had lost in the Palestinian enclave, warning that this was a “recipe for A lasting insurgency and perpetual war ”
He did not provide more details about the evaluation, but the Israeli figures have put the number of total militant deaths in Gaza in around 20,000.
“Every time Israel completes its military operations and backward, Hamas militants regroup and resurface because there is nothing more to fill the void,” said Blinken. Both Israel and the brand of the United States Hamas a terrorist group.
He asked for comments, a Hamas official said he was reviewing with the relevant parts of the group. Hamas Armed Wing spokesman, Abu Ubida, said in July that the group had been able to recruit thousands of new combatants.
In the days elapsed since Alto El Fuego, Hamas has proven deeply rooted in Gaza despite Israel’s vote of destroying the militant group. The administration led by Hamas del Territoria has moved rapidly to reimpose security measures and begin to restore basic services to parts of the enclave, much of which has been reduced to Páramo by the Israeli offensive.
Since the beginning of the war, US officials have not said publicly how many Washington combatants believe that Hamas has lost, just pointing out that the group has significantly degraded and has probably lost thousands.
Warnings of a continuous threat
American officials have issued similar warnings since Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, against Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken as hostages, according to Israeli stories. According to Palestinian health authorities, more than 46,000 people have been killed in the Israeli assault that continued with the Palestinian health authorities whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
At an audience of the Congress in March 2024, the then director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, said that the war in Gaza would have a “generational impact on terrorism” and that the crisis had already “galvanized violence by a variety of actors around the world. “
Collecting exact data on Hamas is notoriously difficult due to the lack of verifiable intelligence of the interior of Gaza and because the recruitment and training efforts of the group are fluid. But the official figures of the United States show that before October 7, 2023, Hamas had between 20,000 and 25,000 combatants.
When asked on Wednesday about Blinken’s comments, the UN ambassador to Israel, Danny Danon, recognized Hamas recruitment efforts, but minimized the threat.
“We know that Hamas recruits young people,” Danon said. “But even if they recruit young people, they do not have weapons or training facilities. So basically, yes, you can incite those young people against Israel, but they cannot become a terrorist, because you cannot equip them with weapons or rockets.”
After high fire, Israeli troops have begun to go back from some of their positions within Gaza. The second phase of the high fire agreement could generate a permanent ending for fighting.
The terms of that phase must still be negotiated.
In his resignation speech on Tuesday, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, military chief of Israel, said that Hamas had been severely damaged and that most of the group’s military commanders had been killed. But he said that the group had not been eliminated and that Israel’s defense forces would continue to fight to dismantle Hamas further.
One of the most difficult problems involved in the negotiation of the next phases is the postwar government Gaza. Some Israeli officials say they will not accept that Hamas stays in power. Hamas has not given ground.
The national security advisor of the recently opened, Donald Trump, said Sunday that Hamas will never govern Gaza and if he becomes the agreement, Washington will support Israel “by doing what he has to do.”
