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Hamas remains defiant; settlers misled by lies and propaganda: Israeli media

Iran Press TV

Friday, 18 July 2025 10:58 AM

An Israeli newspaper says the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas is still "standing" after 21 months of Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, adding that the regime's claims of imminent victory are mere lies and propaganda.

In an article published by Yedioth Ahronoth, Yoav Zitun said, "the public is being fed lies and propaganda — just like what was done in the decade leading up to October 7 [operation] and after every round of fighting with Hamas."

Referring to the recent Israeli deployment of about 4 to 5 divisions to Gaza, which was portrayed as "surging and maneuvering" inside the strip, he said "the movement was very limited and much smaller than what was declared: the army did not actually activate five divisions, but rather sent a relatively small number of brigade-level combat teams under divisional command."

The article also described the repeated announcement of Israeli army control over "60% or 75% of Gaza territory", which pop up as notifications on the phones of hundreds of thousands of settlers, as "empty" declarations "reminiscent of those made at the start of the past decade about attacking 'dozens of terror targets' in Gaza, which later turned out to be nothing more than sand dunes."

The author stressed that "if the war actually ends in the coming months, Hamas will still exist — with more than ten thousand fighters."

Zitun also cited remarks made by a battalion commander from the Nahal Brigade last year aboud Hamas in which he said "Discovering and destroying its capabilities will take years — at least a decade of fighting."

"Hamas built large-scale infrastructure over many years across all parts of the Strip without interference. Any other claim — about an impending victory or destruction of the enemy — is simply nonsense," the commander who had fought for a long time in Gaza added.

According to the article, "Hamas is still standing — with limited and damaged command-and-control capabilities, but still standing nonetheless."

Zitun also quoted a field commander as telling him, "It's unfortunate that illusions are being sold to the public — that it will all be over soon and we'll achieve a decisive outcome in Gaza in the near future."

Israel has launched a genocidal war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian resistance fighters waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the Zionist entity in response to the regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

The regime's bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 58,667 Palestinians, mostly women and children.