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Israeli Security Officials Say Gaza Street Seething and Hamas in Disarray
(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - Senior Israeli security officials say there is growing skepticism among Hamas operatives about whether the fighting continues to be worthwhile, considering the number of Hamas fighters who have been killed, the destruction of key military installations, the hit on rocket manufacturing capabilities, and the destruction caused to the terror tunnels, which Hamas viewed as its ultimate weapon. According to these assessments, the IDF attacks in Gaza have led in many instances to a breakdown in Hamas' chain of command. In some cases, mid-level commanders preferred to flee with their families from the areas of fighting. As a result, those fighters who remained often felt abandoned and lost the will to continue to fight One instance was reported where 14 Hamas fighters were trapped for 20 days in a tunnel, surviving only on water and dates - with no effort by their commanders to rescue them. Some of the men starved to death. The targeted killings and the intelligence information regarding the tunnels created a great deal of suspicion of people collaborating with Israel, and this often led to abandoning the use of advanced communication equipment, which made management of the fighting for Hamas' top brass even more difficult. According to the assessments, the prevailing mood in the street is one of bitterness and anger toward Hamas, whose leaders were among the first to hide and left the civilians to fend for themselves. Numerous interrogated Hamas activists described the degree to which mosques and hospitals were used as staging grounds and hiding places, and where areas near pre-schools were commonly used as starting points for tunnels and as hiding places for arms.