GAZA: Senior figures in the Zionist entity’s government have said it is closing in on its war aims of defeating Hamas militarily and the return of captives seized on Oct 7. But Hamas’ survival as a guerrilla force and its sway in Gaza may overshadow any deal. Guerrilla tactics adopted by Hamas cells in recent weeks are aimed at ensuring the group survives, ties down Zionist forces and inflicts losses, according to a Palestinian source with knowledge of Hamas military tactics.

Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the US Congress on Wednesday during a trip to Washington, pledged the captives would be released soon and laid out a post-war vision of a “demilitarized and deradicalized Gaza” led by Palestinians who do not seek to destroy the Zionist entity. In his speech, Netanyahu also downplayed Palestinian civilian casualties during the more than nine months of war between Zionist forces and Hamas.

Hamas dismissed Netanyahu’s comments as “pure lies” and accused the Zionist leader of thwarting negotiations to end the war and reach a ceasefire deal to release the hostages - outlined by US President Joe Biden in May and mediated by Egypt and Qatar. Netanyahu, who was to meet Biden on Thursday, has said that victory will only be achieved when the military and governing capabilities of Hamas are eliminated and Gaza poses no further threat to the Zionist entity.

“It was depressing, he didn’t even mention ceasefire at all, not even once,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a resident of Gaza City, now displaced in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. “People awaited some surprise, a ceasefire announcement by Netanyahu as a gift to Biden, but they slept with much disappointment, as Netanyahu said he was determined to pursue war,” he told Reuters “Netanyahu spoke in a play, he spoke to clowns,” added Burai.

Hamas’ founding charter in 1987 called for the destruction of the Zionist entity and it subsequently directed suicide bombings in Zionist cities and, with Iran’s help, built an arsenal of rockets that it has launched into the Zionist entity in frequent conflicts. Hamas has insisted that, despite losses, its command structure remains in place, even if weakened. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the Zionist entity’s accounts exaggerate the extent of its losses: “Facts on the ground are completely different,” he said.

A Zionist airstrike on July 13 in a humanitarian area in southern Gaza targeted Hamas’ military chief Mohammed Deif, who the Zionist entity says masterminded the Oct. 7 attack. The Gaza health ministry said at least 90 Palestinians were killed in the strike. Palestinian sources have confirmed the deaths of several leading Hamas military commanders. Yet Hamas fighters have drawn Zionist forces back into battle in the same areas of Gaza again and again, such as this week’s fighting in Khan Younis, preventing the declaration of victory Netanyahu says he is determined to secure.

Michael Milshtein, a former Zionist military intelligence officer who leads Palestinian studies at Tel Aviv-based Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, said the Zionist entity would need more boots on the ground across more areas of Gaza to achieve its aim of eliminating Hamas. “We are very far from the goal of destroying Hamas’ government and military capacities. We are really not close to that,” Milshtein said. He noted, however, that a purely military victory would in any case ignore the group’s social, political and economic influence. “We’re continuing to treat an enemy who is multi-dimensional in its behavior as a military threat only.”

The Zionist entity has turned Gaza into a chaotic wasteland. More than 39,000 people have been killed. While Hamas’ armed wing began the war with 24 battalions, one source close to Hamas said the group has been preparing for years for a scenario where it would need to shift to guerrilla-style tactics to survive a conflict with the Zionist entity.

Key operations – including a foundry to make bombs and other weapons – were still operational, the source said. New recruits were also constantly joining Hamas’ military wing, while the switch to guerrilla tactics had allowed the group to contain its losses, according to another source familiar with Hamas’ tactics.

The network of tunnels, even after sections have been destroyed or compromised by Zionist forces, continue to hamper the Zionist entity’s goal of eliminating Hamas, experts and two sources close to Hamas says. “They show up from one shaft, destroy a tank, or prepare an ambush for another before they disappear until they reappear at another shaft,” said a former Hamas fighter familiar with the group’s operations. Some new tunnels, sources close to the group say, are being dug by hand.

More Zionist strikes hit Gaza on Thursday, killing and injuring people according to Palestinian medical sources, as the military said it had recovered the bodies of five Zionists taken to Gaza by Hamas fighters after they were killed on Oct 7. A group supporting Zionist hostages still held in the Palestinian territory welcomed the rescue but alleged “sabotage” of efforts to free others.

At least 39,175 Palestinians have been killed in the Zionist military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to the health ministry. The latest toll includes 30 deaths over the previous 24 hours. Palestinian medical services on Thursday said their teams had transported four dead and 12 wounded after a strike on a house in the Gaza City area in the north of the territory.

An AFP correspondent reported air strikes and machine gun fire from tanks in Gaza City. To the south, witnesses said there was shelling in the Khan Yunis city and Rafah areas, as well as air strikes in Al-Qarara, near Khan Yunis. The Zionist military said the five bodies recovered from Gaza, including those of two soldiers and two reservists, had been returned to the Zionist entity following a rescue operation on Wednesday in Khan Yunis.

AFP correspondents in Gaza have daily witnessed children and women brought into hospitals injured or dead. In May, the United Nations said women and children made up at least 56 percent of those killed during the war. Washington on Wednesday criticized a Zionist bill that would declare the UN agency for Palestinian refugees — the main aid agency in Gaza — a terrorist organization. “UNRWA is not a terrorist organization,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, urging a halt to the legislation. – Agencies