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Has Hamas Partially Restored Capabilities in Northern Gaza?
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia refugee camp northern Gaza Strip, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
JNS.org – According to a report published by Israel’s Channel 12 News on Tuesday, Israeli security officials have identified disturbing signs of renewed Hamas activity in the northern Gaza Strip. This resurgence, characterized by the recruitment of approximately 3,000 new terrorist operatives, is fueling concerns that the terrorist organization is rapidly rebuilding its operational capabilities in the northern Strip, according to the report.
These new recruits are said to be being supplied with weapons and ammunition, and to be receiving payment for their involvement in Hamas activities. In response to these developments, Israeli defense officials are reportedly contemplating a large-scale re-entry into northern Gaza.
According to Col. (ret.) Jacques Neriah, an analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs and a former Israeli Military Intelligence deputy head for assessment, the report is credible, but at the same time somewhat misleading.
“Hamas is succeeding in recruiting new fighters, but they are of much lower quality,” he told JNS. In the absence of a political plan for the future of the enclave, he argued, such activity was inevitable.
“As long as the [Israeli] political echelon has not decided what to do with Gaza, the IDF will be left with two options: permanent occupation and the imposition of military governance, or intermittent, on-and-off operations” to prevent the terrorist group from rebuilding itself, he said.
During the initial weeks of the conflict, the Israel Defense Forces deployed a large number of ground forces in northern Gaza, with Gaza City being identified as Hamas’s operational center of gravity. The ground maneuver, launched on Oct. 27, involved the deployment of armored, infantry and engineering units, all with substantial air support. These operations severely degraded Hamas’s operational capacity and disbanded its organized territorial units in the area.
However, the IDF has since moved to a less intensive phase of combat, with the primary focus being on southern Gaza.
Professor Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy and the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, said that while Hamas was rebuilding its forces to some extent, it was “certainly” not replacing what it had lost.
“It still cannot function in an organized military formation. It is making efforts to recruit youths to fill the ranks, but it does not have the ability to train them, so this is a limited achievement. They are mainly turning into cannon fodder,” he said.
Michael went on to say that Hamas’s more substantial gains have actually been in the civilian domain, through the takeover of humanitarian aid distribution.
However, he added, “There is no doubt that it will continue to make an effort to recover [in northern Gaza], including militarily, and its achievements will be more significant if Israel is not there in the form of a fixed military presence, a military administration.” A general siege on the area until the remainder of Hamas’s remaining organized forces is destroyed is also needed, he said.
“The alternative is to go in under the framework of targeted raids, once in a while, according to intelligence, and to exit. Hamas will then try to once again reorganize,” he added.
A military administration, Michael argued, would be aimed at ensuring full Israeli control over aid distribution in order to help break Hamas’s control over Gaza’s civilian population.
As it would require a constant military presence on the ground, an Israeli military administration would also make it “very difficult” for Hamas to reorganize militarily, he said.
“The military presence will create a continuous friction, which will generate more intelligence and more operational opportunities to severely harm Hamas,” he argued. A military administration will also enable the development of conditions for a civilian government alternative to Hamas, he added. “Such an alternative cannot exist and no element will be willing or able to enter Gaza so long as Hamas remains there with significant military capabilities,” he said. “The IDF is the only element in the world that can disband Hamas.”
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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday
US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.
Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.
A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg
FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
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