Amid reposts of decline in morale, Hamas terrorists begin to flee south

Leading up to Israel’s offensive coming to a temporary halt because of the hostage exchange, many Hamas terrorists had begun to flee from the Israeli forces to the south of the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s successes on the battlefield reportedly led to a decline in morale among the terrorist operatives, many of whom have seen their senior leaders eliminated by Israeli troops, as well as difficulty holding the fight and carrying out attacks against IDF troops due to a lack of supplies.

The IDF now controls northern Gaza and Gaza City, according to reports that have also shown IDF soldiers installing mezuzahs (small parchment scrolls containing handwritten Hebrew prayers) on the doorposts of Gazan houses they are using as a temporary dwelling for operational purposes during the war.

Expectations of Israel’s complete annihilation of Hamas have caused some unnamed senior Palestinian officials and officials from Arab nations to urge Hamas to consider disarming itself in the Gaza Strip, according to a report by Channel 12 news on Wednesday.

Ehud Yaari, the Arab affairs analyst at Channel 12, said that Hamas leaders in Gaza and abroad were warned that Israel would destroy the organization and that operatives should, therefore, surrender to prevent further destruction in Gaza. Hamas, however, has reportedly not responded to the calls to disarm itself.

Senior leading Palestinians have allegedly offered Hamas leaders to become part of the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Two senior Fatah party members, Nasser al-Qudwa, nephew of the late Yasser Arafat, and Samir al-Mashrawi, a former top Fatah security official in Gaza, met with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday in Qatar.

Another clear sign that Hamas is increasingly desperate is the hostage deal itself that was been delayed until Friday afternoon.

“It’s hard to imagine a clearer signal of Hamas’s desperation than the deal agreed to by the Israeli government late Tuesday,” wrote Haviv Rettig Gur, a journalist from the Times of Israel.

“In the Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011, the exchange rate was 1,100 Palestinian prisoners, including mass murderers sentenced to life terms, for a single Israeli soldier.

At the time, most Israelis supported the deal and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Ehud Barak made sure to stand at Cpl. Gilad Shalit’s side as he set foot back on Israeli soil.”

Several of the terrorists released in the 2011 Shalit deal, however, were behind the Oct. 7 massacre, in particular Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The cruelty of the surprise attack on Israel's southern border communities has changed the former logic of prisoner exchanges, according to Rettig Gur.

“Twelve years later, after many of the terrorists released in that exchange were the ones who planned and executed the October 7 massacre, the calculus has changed," he wrote.

"Hamas abducted too many, including babies and ailing grandmothers, and did so in such cruel ways that the old logic of prisoner exchanges has been forever upended in the Israeli psyche,” according to Rettig Gur, adding that Hamas got much less in the hostage deal compared to what it had originally wanted.

“Hamas first demanded a month-long ceasefire in exchange for a few dozen hostages. Israel didn’t respond. As Hamas losses mounted, its demands shrank. It has now reached 50 hostages for four days’ respite,” Rettig Gur concluded.