Israeli forces were attacked at least 17 times by Palestinian armed groups fighting in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood on Friday, suggesting that “Hamas has been able to either preserve or reconstitute military capabilities” despite sustained Israeli operations in the area, war monitors report.

• In their joint battlefield assessment, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) – two US-based think tanks – report that Hamas fighters used sniper rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in the 17 attacks as Israeli forces attempted to clear Zeitoun for a third time.

• “This high rate of attacks is not consistent with a destroyed military force,” the ISW/CTP report states.

• “Palestinian militias retain the will and the means to continue disrupting and defending against [Israeli] raids, as evidenced by the rate of Palestinian militia attacks during this raid,” the report adds.

The war monitors said the “resilience of Hamas and other Palestinian militia groups” strongly indicates that the Israeli military operation “in Rafah will not destroy Hamas”.

• “Hamas has survived as a military entity in the remainder of the Strip, including throughout the north,“ they add.

Source: Al Jazeera