AFTER Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant claimed Israeli forces have dismantled 18 of 24 Hamas battalions, war monitors have questioned the minister’s definition of “dismantle” noting that on January 6 Israel claimed to have dismantled all of Hamas’s battalions in northern Gaza.
In their latest battlefield assessment, US-based think tanks Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) said ongoing operations by Palestinian fighters in the west of Gaza City had spurred Israel to mobilise a division-sized force to re-clear the city over the past week.
“Gallant and the [Israeli military] have not identified a precise definition for ‘dismantle’, the ISW/CTP said.
“The continued Palestinian militia attacks in the northern Strip demonstrate the risk posed by small, networked military cells,” the monitors said.
“These cells remain capable of reorganizing into an embryonic military structure.”
Meanwhile, a second IED also killed 12 people near the election office of a candidate for the Islamist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) party in the city of Killa Saifullah — about 120 kilometres (75 miles) east — according to Achakzai.
“The incident took place in the main bazaar of the city area, where the election office of the JUI-F was targeted,” a senior police official told AFP.
In July last year, 44 people were killed by a suicide bomber at a political gathering of the party in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s blasts, the resource-rich province — Pakistan’s least populous — is home to several militant groups fighting for a better share of its wealth, and has also been the target of attacks by the Islamic State group.
