The IDF renewed invasion that started with a bang on March 18 has been reduced to a crawl.
While the IDF killed 5,000 Hamas fighters in a few weeks when the war opened in October-November 2023, all messaging on Monday and in recent days has indicated progress that was comparatively tiny in relative terms, with some days the military only taking out single digit numbers of Hamas operatives.
On March 25, the IDF reported that it had killed 150 Hamas fighters since renewing hostilities, though most of them were killed in the first 10 minutes by a massive air barrage on March 18.
IDF operating more slowly than in recent Gaza operations
As of April 3, the IDF had only killed around 250 Hamas terrorists, meaning only an additional 100 over more than a week.
On April 9, the number of Gazan terrorists killed by the military was still only up to 300, meaning about only another 50 in another week.
Approaching the one-month point of renewed hostilities that will be marked on Friday, the number of Hamas fighters killed will likely remain below 400, less than 15 per day on average.
In comparison, during the initial invasion of northern Gaza in 2023, the IDF killed around 5,000 Hamas fighters in only 20 days, or an average of 250 per day.
From December 1-10, 2023, in Khan Yunis, the military killed around 2,000 in 10 days, or 20 per day.
Further, from December 11, 2023 – January 22, 2024, the military killed another 2,000 terrorists in around 42 days (about 50 per day).
Not only are the numbers of Hamas fighters killed by the IDF increasing at a snail’s pace, but Hamas’s total number of fighters has continued to jump or at least solidified at an estimated 20,000-25,000.
In contrast, on Monday, the IDF only mentioned single digit kills of Hamas fighters and as such focused its update on dismantling Hamas “terror targets” across the Gaza Strip, including terror tunnels and weapons storage facilities.
In southern Gaza, IDF troops dismantled yet another underground tunnel route, stretching 20 meters deep and several hundred meters long, in the Shabura area of Rafah.
While the army noted that this tunnel was used as a meeting point for Hamas operatives and connected several other tunnel routes in the region, there have been countless such tunnels found in the past and it is estimated that the military may only have uncovered 25% of Hamas’s tunnels so far.
Tactical victories for the IDF in Gaza?
Additionally, during a separate operation, the IDF announced that its soldiers discovered a Hamas weapons cache hidden within a structure that had once served as a school. The cache contained various weapons, including mortars, hand grenades, explosives, and other military supplies.
Once again, this is a tactical victory for the IDF, but the military has no indication that it is coming anywhere near confiscating enough weapons to reduce Hamas’s ability to fight.
In northern Gaza, soldiers identified a terrorist ambush several hundred meters away. With coordination from the IAF, the ambush was neutralized, and the terrorists were killed.
This operation helped with force protection, but was more of going slightly on offense to achieve better defense than it was breaking new ground.
IDF troops also located additional weapons caches and several tunnel shafts used by terrorist groups in the Rafah and Morag Corridor areas.
In the past 24 hours, the IAF carried out airstrikes targeting approximately 35 sites throughout the Gaza Strip.
These strikes included a weapons manufacturing facility in southern Gaza, which was responsible for supplying weapons to terrorist organizations, as well as a launch site containing multiple rocket launchers aimed at Israeli territory.
However, on April 9, the IDF updated that it has targeted 1,000 “terror targets” since March 18, meaning both that 35 is a drop in the bucket and that even those 1,000 targets have not had any strategic impact on Hamas to date.
In fact, on April 9, IDF sources told The Jerusalem Post that at the current slow pace of the invasion, eliminating Hamas could take years.
The IDF divisions operating in Gaza are the 252th, 143rd, and 36th, but they are all operating at heavily reduced levels compared to their troop complement at the start of the war.
The overwhelming assumption is that the government is holding the IDF back to give the hostage negotiations a chance to lead to a deal, worried about accidentally harming the hostages, and concerned about initiating a larger invasion that would require a controversial large reservist call-up and likely also lead to more IDF soldier and Palestinian civilian casualties.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.