Erin Banco – Reuters Jan 24, 2025
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has recruited between 10,000 and 15,000 members since the start of its war with Israel, according to two congressional sources briefed on U.S. intelligence, suggesting the Iran-backed fighters could remain a persistent threat to Israel.
The intelligence indicates a similar number of Hamas fighters have been killed during that period, the sources said. The latest official U.S. estimates have not been previously reported.
Hamas and Israel began a ceasefire on Sunday after 15 months of a conflict that has devastated the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East.
The sources briefed on the intelligence, which was included in a series of updates from U.S. intelligence agencies in the final weeks of the Biden administration, said that while Hamas has successfully recruited new members, many are young and untrained and are being used for simple security purposes.
The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.
On Jan. 14, then-President Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States believed Hamas had recruited almost as many fighters as it had lost in the Palestinian enclave, cautioning that this was a “recipe for an enduring insurgency and perpetual war.”
He did not provide further details about the assessment, but Israeli figures have put the total militant death toll in Gaza at around 20,000.
“Each time Israel completes its military operations and pulls back, Hamas militants regroup and re-emerge because there’s nothing else to fill the void,” Blinken said. Both Israel and the United States brand Hamas a terrorist group.
Asked for comment, a Hamas official said he was checking with the relevant parties in the group. Hamas armed wing spokesman Abu Ubaida said in July that the group had been able to recruit thousands of new fighters.
In the days since the ceasefire, Hamas has shown itself to be deeply entrenched in Gaza despite Israel’s vow to destroy the militant group. The territory’s Hamas-run administration has moved quickly to reimpose security measures and to begin restoring basic services to parts of the enclave, much of which has been reduced to wasteland by the Israeli offensive.
Since the start of the war, American officials have not said publicly how many fighters Washington believes Hamas has lost, only noting that the group has been significantly degraded and has likely lost thousands.
WARNINGS OF A CONTINUED THREAT
U.S. officials have issued similar warnings since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. More than 46,000 people have been killed in the Israeli assault that followed, according to Palestinian health authorities whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
At a congressional hearing in March 2024, then-Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said that the war in Gaza would have “generational impact on terrorism” and that the crisis had already “galvanized violence by a range of actors around the world.”
Gathering exact data on Hamas is notoriously difficult because of a lack of verifiable intelligence from inside Gaza and because the group’s recruitment and training efforts are fluid. But official U.S. figures show that prior to Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas had anywhere between 20,000 and 25,000 fighters.
Asked on Wednesday about Blinken’s comments, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon acknowledged Hamas’ recruitment efforts but played down the threat.
“We know that Hamas recruits youngsters,” Danon said. “But even if they recruit youngsters, they don’t have the weapons or the training facilities. So basically, yes, you can incite those youngsters against Israel, but they cannot become a terrorist, because you cannot equip them with weapons or rockets.”
Following the ceasefire, Israeli troops have begun to move back from some of their positions inside Gaza. The second phase of the ceasefire deal could bring about a permanent end to the fighting.
The terms of that phase still need to be negotiated.
In his resignation speech on Tuesday, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, Israel’s military chief, said Hamas had been severely damaged and that most of the group’s military commanders had been killed. But he said the group had not been eliminated and the Israel Defense Forces would continue to fight to further dismantle Hamas.
One of the most difficult issues involved in negotiating the next phases is postwar Gaza’s governance. Some Israeli officials say they won’t accept Hamas staying in power. Hamas so far has not given ground.
Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday that Hamas will never govern Gaza and if it reneges on the deal, Washington will support Israel “in doing what it has to do.”
(Reporting by Erin Banco; Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Don Durfee and Howard Goller)
people of all religions and political persuasions have come to save the palestinian people
THE GREAT HOLOCAUST HOAX
When at the end of w w 2 the British army came to a German prison camp
everything would come to a halt, the first people in were bomb disposal
to make sure there were no nasty surprises.
Two bomb disposal men would go in with a long stick stand to one side and push open doors put up a chalk cross. blow a whistle and move on.
One of these men was a close friend of mine and i totally believe what he said.
He told me that there were documents strewn all across the floor, these were the files on the prisoners some had a crucifix stamp and some, but not many had the jewish star of David.
He thought he would leave these for the pickers, the men who would come in after,
There was a large room with lots of empty medicine bottles and bandages strewn around, with a word above the door “Krakenhaus” or infirmary
He then came upon these bread ovens, stood to one side, pushed the doors open with the stick checked inside, put chalk marks on the cast iron door, again blowing the whistle and Came outside waved the all clear to the British army commander, and they all then moved forward.
I worked closely with this man and He told me that some time later he was called to the MOD to sign gagging orders and if he spoke about what he had seen his pension would be stopped.
So 20 years later he was on holiday with his wife and said we must go to this camp as i was the first man inside, they queued up and when he saw that these bread ovens had been enlarged and signs said 6 milion jews went into these gas ovens, he was horrified
and called one of the guards over he said look i was the first man in here after the wars end and these were small bread ovens, several guards manhandled him and his wife outside and told them if they came back they would get a beating.
After the war he went into intelligence and soared up the ranks.
He said that after the fire bombing of German cities at the wars end
truck loads of german bodies were brought to Auschwitz, photographed and publicised as jews that went through the gas ovens, he said many had their clothes burnt off
and Sefton Delmar who was in charge said very few of these bodies were circumcised so obviously not jews.
Churchill had said at the wars end he did not want to feed and house thousands of refugees it was easier to just burn them in their homes.
I said what about the photos mountain of shoes, why would they do this ?
He said the alies were guilty of the most horrendous war crimes
and the holocaust story was made up as a cover.
The British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan wanted a full investigation of this and said publicly the holocaust story was a total fabrication.
In memory of Ursula Haverbeck a lady of honour
What struck me most,watching many gaza and west-bank videos,is the total absence of any expression of hamas war propaganda.no posters,no flags,no heroic artwork,no pamphlets.zero,just like armed men policing the streets in Gaza.the west bank could be mistaken for a euro-med country.
I have noticed mr.lewis jones has been absent for a while.i hope you are doing well.
Not insurgents not militants. Resistance fighters. Hamas is the elected government in its own territory. Trump knows of the big natural disaster to come, he knows Gazans are doomed. That is NO excuse for offering aid and comfort to “those who say they are Judeans, and are not.”
US was founded and is a death cult subservient to a fake country with no history when reading documents and writing from the nations around it. Every nation and institution are now under false garbage and the word of “God” is never written but is the seed planted in our minds to benefit all that is of this earth PERIOD,. JEWS ARE THE BIGGEST LIARS AND CANNOT TRANSLATE THE ALLEGORIES THAT THE TORAH HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY, idiots that cannot follow the train of thought of their pathetic interpretations of writings that have no foundation of these turkic mongrel liars.
After the first bombing of the people that have lived in the region far longer than these liars that call themselves Jews but are mortal enemies of all life according to their talmud in wiping out 3 spheres of creation and their nut job writing that has no consistency whatsoever, and is rarely if ever followed by those that follow or are confederate with them (AKA all Abramic frauds pretending to be a faith but nothing but garbage dogma of their own heathen desires such as gold, silver, first born male, largest of their flock and blood sacrifice which means these people should be wearing a bone or a ring through their nose along with the fact that they are pantheistic of many gods and goddesses most important is Sabbat meaning SATURN who is absolute darkness and Mt. Zion = Behold the Night – Mussagorsky – Night on Bald Mountain as Jews god in Akkadian, Chaldean, Sumerian, Ugaritic = god of DESOLATION.
What liars call themselves Jews or confederate with them need to be either wiped off the earth as people as these should not be allowed to walk the earth (Barry Trower talking about the singularity which these fools are trying to build, a beast of connections between all people as one unit aka Cyborgs operating in the Borg with no life other than the singularity.
May all institutions fail and not return but that we may learn the truth as all institutions are based on lies.
Prayers are not for me but for the innocent the man (who are the devil for the most part per Bias of Priene “All men are wicked and most are evil” one of the 7 sages of Greece.
Kikes are Greek.
@ LYER
I have many photos of Gaza ruins, worst than Dresden .
it is impossible to create this photos arteficialy + photos
of Survived children with cut legs + arms .
YOU LYER ARE A HASBARA; A HATEBARA !
I spit on you and the pallies.you are not even a real german.a hindoo or something.the dumbest poster on this site.you are a joke.
If only the jews would have killed that many.i would have been happy.to see these degenerate ayrabs sons of whores being terminated.alas they are not.low life ayrab scum,untermensch,pauper, always involved in a scam
I hate the jews for not really carrying out the genocide.filthy liars
Go on wasting your lives sympathising with the pallies.dumb asses.better worry about your own white hides.
a must watch vid
https://www.renegadetribune.com/the-jew-is-our-enemy-2/
CPS ‘refusing to hand over new evidence’ in Letby case, MPs told
Story by Sarah Knapton, Cleuci de Oliveira
•New medical evidence in the case of Lucy Letby is being withheld by the police and Crown Prosecution Service, it has been claimed.
Sir David Davis, the former Brexit Secretary, told MPs that Letby’s legal team had been denied access to new information ahead of taking her case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).Responding to his concerns, Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, promised to raise the matter with the Home Secretary or head of the CPS.
The Telegraph understands that Sir David was referring to a revised medical report from Dr Dewi Evans – the chief medical expert at Letby’s trial – which was submitted to police in October.
The report refers to the case of Baby C, a boy whom Dr Evans initially claimed had been murdered with an air injection into his stomach, but has since reassessed his opinion. Responding to his concerns, Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, promised to raise the matter with the Home Secretary or head of the CPS.
The Telegraph understands that Sir David was referring to a revised medical report from Dr Dewi Evans – the chief medical expert at Letby’s trial – which was submitted to police in October.
Baby C was one of seven babies whom Letby was convicted of killing at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016. When Kier Starmer was head of the CPS