The Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza is already planning for the next war with Israel — in fact, had already planned for it even before launching the current war with its October 7th invasion and massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel, abducting some 250 hostages in the process.
According to Gaza sources quoted in a report by Israel’s KAN News public broadcaster, Hamas held back two battalions from active combat with the Israel Defense Forces, conserving their energy for the purpose of seizing control over Gaza — again — once the war has ended.
(In June 2007, Hamas terrorists seized control over the enclave. At the time, officials from the Palestinian Authority’s leading Fatah faction were serving in numerous civil service and political positions. Hamas terrorists ousted them from the enclave, torturing and killing many in the process, including throwing some of them off the roofs of high buildings. The so-called “Battle of Gaza’ was vicious and brief, lasting from June 10 to June 15, 2007. Hamas had maintained an iron grip on the enclave since.)
The report, broadcast on the “Midday Program” with Esti Perez Ben Ami, detailed the plan to reserve a Hamas battalion in Deir al-Balah and another in Khan Younis as backup forces to exert security control over Gaza in the future, once the war has ended.
Since its operatives are not involved in the fighting and are living under civilian cover among willing “innocent” Gaza civilians, it is difficult for Israeli forces to identify them and root them out.
The reserve Khan Younis battalion quietly moved — in civilian clothing, of course — to Rafah while Israeli forces were fighting their fellow Hamas soldiers in the city. Once the IDF entered Rafah, the same battalion moved back to Khan Younis, where it is reportedly still patiently lying in wait for “the day after.”
Given this information, it appears likely that the “day after” may not be a “day after” at all, but simply a second chapter to the ongoing Iron Swords War.
