Diminished Hamas switches to full insurgent mode in Gaza

WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) - Hamas has seen about half its forces wiped out in eight months of war and is relying on hit-and-run insurgent tactics to frustrate Israel's attempts to take control of Gaza, U.S. and Israeli officials told Reuters.

The enclave's ruling group has been reduced to between 9,000 and 12,000 fighters, according to three senior U.S. officials familiar with battlefield developments, down from American estimatesNew Tab, opens new tab of 20,000-25,000 before the conflict. By contrast, Israel says it has lost almost 300 troops in the Gaza campaign.

Hamas fighters are now largely avoiding sustained skirmishes with Israeli forces closing in on the southernmost city of Rafah, instead relying on ambushes and improvised bombs to hit targets often behind enemy lines, one of the officials said.

Several Gaza residents, including Wissam Ibrahim, said they too had observed a shift in tactics.

"In earlier months, Hamas fighters would intercept, engage and fire at Israeli troops as soon as they pushed into their territory," Ibrahim told Reuters by phone. "But now, there is a notable shift in their mode of operations, they wait for them to deploy and then they start their ambushes and attacks."

The U.S. officials, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said such tactics could sustain a Hamas insurgency for months to come, aided by weapons smuggled into Gaza via tunnels and others repurposed from unexploded ordnance or captured from Israeli forces.

This kind of protracted timeframe is echoed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser who said last week the war could last until the end of 2024 at least.

A Hamas spokesperson didn't respond to requests for comment on its battlefield strategy.

In a parallel propaganda drive, some of the group's fighters are videotaping their ambushes of Israeli troops, before editing and posting them on Telegram and other social media apps.

Peter Lerner, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), told Reuters they were still some way from destroying Hamas, which he also said had lost roughly half of its fighting force.

Lerner said the military was adapting to the group's shift in tactics and acknowledged Israel couldn't eliminate every Hamas fighter or destroy every Hamas tunnel.

"There is never a goal to kill each and every last terrorist on the ground. That's not a realistic goal," he added. "Destroying Hamas as...
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