Protection Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday printed a file he stated was once written by way of the previous commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade in southern Gaza, Rafa’a Salameh, and addressed to Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and his brother Muhammad, during which the commander described the “tricky state of affairs” during which the phobia staff had discovered itself.
Salameh, a mastermind of the phobia staff’s October 7 bloodbath, was once killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza in July that still killed senior Hamas commander Muhammad Deif.
Within the letter, he wrote: “Please imagine the next: We handle the remainder guns and gear, as we’ve misplaced 90-95 % of our rocket features; and we’ve misplaced some 60% of our non-public guns; we’ve misplaced no less than 65-70% of our anti-tank launchers and rockets,” in step with excerpts supplied and translated by way of the Protection Ministry.
“Most significantly,” he endured, “we’ve misplaced no less than 50% of our opponents between those that are martyred and wounded, and now we’re left with 25%. The closing 25% of our other folks have reached a state of affairs the place the folk don’t tolerate them anymore, damaged on a psychological or bodily degree.”
Gallant stated the file confirmed “an actual hardship that is affecting Hamas and impacts probably the most senior commanders.”
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Salameh “cries out for the assistance of the Sinwar brothers, however after all they can not save him,” Gallant stated.
The pinnacle of Hamas’s army wing Muhammad Deif (left) and Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, in an undated picture. (Courtesy)
“Why? As a result of we’re proceeding the trouble that began in October and continues step-by-step… and reaches all senior Hamas officers. He wrote this to the Sinwar brothers, we can get to them as smartly,” the protection minister endured.
Yahya Sinwar is the chief of Hamas in Gaza, and is thought of as a mastermind of the crowd’s October 7, 2023 assault, when hundreds of terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 other folks and taking 251 hostages, beginning the continuing warfare.
Sinwar was once closing month appointed as the top of the phobia staff following the July 31 assassination of earlier chief Ismail Haniyeh. His brother Muhammad is a senior commander in Hamas’s army wing.
A girl walks previous posters depicting Yahya Sinwar (L), the top of Hamas within the Gaza Strip, and Abu Obeida (R), the masked spokesman of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, plastered on a wall within the Burj al-Barajneh camp for Palestinian refugees in Beirut’s southern suburb on February 5, 2024. (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
Gallant’s presentation of the file got here at the similar day as two Israeli infantrymen had been killed and a number of other others wounded in a helicopter crash making an attempt to extract a 3rd, critically wounded soldier from the battlefield. The crash was once now not a results of enemy hearth.
Gallant additionally printed a video on social media Wednesday from the similar facility, appearing a photograph of Muhammad Sinwar’s kids posing in entrance of an outline of the Sep 11, 2001 assault at the Global Industry Heart in the USA.
The picture was once found out not too long ago in a tunnel beneath Khan Younis, Gallant stated within the video, which was once posted at the twenty third anniversary of the 9/11 assaults.
An image is price 1000 phrases. This image was once present in a tunnel the place the Sinwar brothers had been hiding like rats.
On 9/11 we take note the horrific assault on our closest best friend, the U.S.
And we remember the fact that our combat in opposition to terrorism, in opposition to Hamas, is the combat of the… percent.twitter.com/KoyE0eMOCm
— יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) Sep 11, 2024
In the meantime, an Israeli airstrike Wednesday in central Gaza struck a gaggle of Hamas operatives at a command room embedded inside a former college.
In keeping with the army, Hamas was once the usage of the Al-Jaouni College in Nuseirat to plot and perform assaults in opposition to troops and Israel. The varsity has been serving as a refuge for displaced Gazans.
Health facility officers reported 14 other folks killed, together with two kids, within the strike.
The IDF stated it performed “many steps,” together with the usage of precision munitions, aerial surveillance and different intelligence, to restrict civilian casualties within the strike.
“The Hamas terror group systematically violates world legislation, brutally exploiting civilian establishments and the inhabitants as a human defend for terror job,” the army stated.
In fresh months, dozens of airstrikes had been performed in opposition to Hamas websites embedded inside faculties and different websites used as shelters for civilians, in step with the IDF.
A member of the United International locations Reduction and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) exams the courtyard of a college after an Israeli air strike hit the web site the place Hamas had arrange a command middle, in Nuseirat within the central Gaza Strip on Sep 11, 2024 (Photograph by way of Eyad BABA / AFP)
The IDF additionally introduced on Wednesday that fresh airstrikes in Gaza had killed two Hamas terrorists who participated within the October 7 onslaught, certainly one of whom was once desirous about guarding Cpl. Noa Marciano, an kidnapped soldier who was once killed by way of Hamas at Shifa Health facility and whose frame was once recovered in November.
A separate drone strike not too long ago killed Ayman Khaled Ahmed Abu al-Yahni, who the IDF stated was once a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba power and was once desirous about attacking the Erez Crossing all the way through the October 7 onslaught, the army introduced.
Rocket sirens sounded in Israeli communities alongside the Gaza border on Wednesday, however the IDF later introduced they had been false alarms.
It’s believed that 97 of the 251 hostages kidnapped by way of Hamas on October 7 stay in Gaza, together with the our bodies of no less than 33 showed useless by way of the IDF.
Cpl. Noa Marciano who was once killed in Hamas captivity in November after being taken hostage on October 7, 2023. (Courtesy)
Hamas launched 105 civilians all the way through a weeklong truce in overdue November, and 4 hostages had been launched earlier than that. 8 hostages had been rescued by way of troops alive, and the our bodies of 37 hostages have additionally been recovered, together with 3 mistakenly killed by way of the army as they attempted to flee their captors.
Hamas could also be conserving two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, in addition to the our bodies of 2 IDF infantrymen who had been killed in 2014.
The Hamas-run Gaza well being ministry says greater than 40,000 other folks within the Strip had been killed or are presumed useless within the combating thus far, despite the fact that the toll can’t be verified and does now not differentiate between civilians and opponents. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 opponents in fight and any other 1,000 terrorists within Israel on October 7.
Israel has stated it seeks to reduce civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas makes use of Gaza’s civilians as human shields, combating from civilian spaces together with properties, hospitals, faculties, and mosques.
Israel’s toll within the flooring offensive in opposition to Hamas in Gaza and in army operations alongside the border with the Strip stands at 344.
Companies and Instances of Israel group of workers contributed to this file.
