In recent weeks, Israeli forces have been operating in northern Gaza – which has been the area hit the hardest – to clear out reemerging Hamas cells, as civilians are moved from one zone to the next.
In particular, the Nahal Brigade and 401st Armored Brigade have been focusing on Beit Hanun, located close to Sderot and a key area in northern Gaza from which Hamas and other terror groups have launched rockets over the last two decades.
It has also served as a staging ground for other types of attacks.
The IDF set its sights on clearing it of terrorist activity over the last month, and it is not the first time it has been cleared; the Beit Hanun problem is symbolic of the wider challenge in Gaza.
This is an area where the IDF has suffered losses over the last month. This shows how even when Hamas appears defeated, it still manages to carry out attacks. The IDF has said that Nahal, for instance, has engaged in close-quarters fighting and has conducted searches to dismantle terrorist infrastructure.
Troops have also found RPG launchers and weapons.
Another threat in the area is booby-trapped buildings, a phenomenon that has become increasingly deadly in northern Gaza. The enemy may not be able to organize large-scale attacks, but Hamas has shifted over the last six months to using improvised explosive devices – IEDs – a method used across the region.
In Iraq, the insurgency against the US was often centered around the use of IEDs; the terrorists knew all they had to do was wait, and time was on their side. They rig buildings with traps and wait, without the need to fight a conventional war, assuming the other side will clear the area and leave. The goal is attrition.
The battles to rid Beit Hanun of terrorists have pulled in troops. On December 22, the military noted that the Kfir Brigade began operating west of Beit Hanun. This means at least three IDF brigades, under the 162nd Division, were involved in these operations in an area that is not very large.
The fact that so many units had to be tied down from mid-December to mid-January fighting terrorists in this one town illustrates the wider problem of defeating Hamas in Gaza.
The IDF began a division-level operation in Jabalya in early October, also in northern Gaza – a battle that has now stretched on for three months. When the Jabalya operation began, it was at least the third time the IDF had fought there since ground battles began in Gaza in October 2023, following Hamas’s massacre attack.
This time, the IDF decided to clear Jabalya out fully; around 70,000 civilians were still in the area and had to evacuate south to another area under Hamas control.
This is how the Israel-Hamas War has been waged, moving civilians from one area of Hamas control to another. This enables Hamas to control Gaza and its civilians and recruit them for further missions.
Thousands of Hamas members and other suspected terrorists were apprehended in Jabalya – thousands.
Jabalya is centered around a historic refugee camp and has been a center of Palestinian activism for decades. This is one reason so many suspected terrorists were found in this area. Historically, the refugee camps of Gaza were centers of Hamas and other terrorist activity.
Now, Jabalya is mostly in ruins, and most of the terrorists are gone. Yet more terrorist threats have popped up in Beit Hanun, which one would have assumed, due to its proximity to the Israeli border and access by roads from Jabalya, would have been cut off and that its terrorist cells would already have been defeated.
However, the first two weeks of January have shown that this is not the case. Soldiers have been killed in IED attacks and other types of explosions – a heavy toll.
Hamas yet to be defeated
Hamas is not defeated yet. It continues to control Gaza City and central Gaza, along with parts of Khan Yunis.
It exercises full control over civilians and is actively recruiting among them, though it doesn’t need to recruit many to stay in power; it just needs to recruit a small percentage of young men who are coming of age.
Gaza’s population is young, so there are many potential recruits – all Hamas has to do is find two or three young men out of every hundred, and it can replace its losses.
Hamas controls key refugee camps in central Gaza, including Nuseirat, El-Bureij, Deir el-Balah, and Maghazi. Each of these may be as tough a fight as Jabalya, while Beit Hanun has proven to be more costly than it should have been.Hamas and other terror groups have found a way to survive, and Beit Hanun is an example of the challenge.