Hamas surprised by IDF’s powerful counterattack – IDF spokesman
The public in the Gaza Strip is starting to lose its patience and the Hamas terror organization is surprised by the IDF’s powerful counterattack and is having a hard time implementing its attack plans, IDF spokesman Hadai Zilberman told reporters on Thursday morning.
Results of an IAF strike on a Hamas target. (Majdi Fathi/TPS)
The IDF is pounding significant Hamas terror targets and key government facilities and is continuing to attack homes of senior Hamas commanders who “will have nowhere to return,” he said.
These houses are used for terror purposes or as weapons caches, the IDF has pointed out.
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has hit some 700 terror targets and killed close to 100 terrorist operatives, including some 10 senior Hamas commanders.
The IDF says that most of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s weapons production capabilities have been destroyed, about 80% of the Islamic Jihad’s production abilities and a little less of that of Hamas. The IDF also says that it destroyed in two days what Hamas has built in a decade.
The Artillery’s 402nd Regiment has fired 350 shells and the ground forces are increasing their readiness for a maneuver inside the Strip, he said.
Hamas was surprised by the intensity of the IDF’s attacks after its barrage of rockets on Jerusalem but this does not mean that Hamas is collapsing, Zilberman noted.
Remarking on the Iron Dome defense systems’ interception capabilities, he said that percentages in the Tel Aviv area are higher than the interception percentages in the south with about 90%.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have launched over 1,500 rockets at Israel. About a third fell short and exploded inside Gaza. The vast majority were intercepted, while six people were killed by direct hits in Ashkelon, Rishon Lezion and Sderot.
