Hamas is making a comeback to regain control of Khan Yunis as well as recruiting new fighters from young adolescents in the 18-year-old range both in southern and northern Gaza.
The trend has continued since the IDF withdrew from Khan Yunis on April 7. Still, Army Radio reported on Sunday, and the Jerusalem Post confirmed with multiple sources that the Hamas comeback trend in Khan Yunis could be crossing crucial thresholds.
Hamas to recruit close to 20,000 new Palestinian terrorists?
The Gaza terror group is now holding new training camps for its new recruits to replace the 14,000-16,000 of its fighters who the IDF has killed, the approximate similar number who have been wounded, and the around 4,000 who have been arrested, though an unidentified number of these may have been released.
Even without reinforcements, it is believed that Hamas retains around 5,000-10,000 of its pre-war fighters, though in recent months, they have often been more spread out and operating in much smaller cells close to single digits as opposed to operating in organized battalions with 1,000 or thousands of ground forces operating in unison.
With reinforcements and organizing actual training camps, there are concerns that Hamas could start the process of reconstituting its battalions in Khan Yunis.
No sources knew the volume of new recruits that Hamas has managed to engage so far in the last 10 weeks since Israel's withdrawal.
18-year-olds choosing whether to join Hamas or not, on the one hand, face the reality that so many who have joined Hamas have been beaten and killed by the IDF. On the other hand, they currently have no horizon for finding work or doing much of anything other than sitting around in refugee camps, since no one has even started planning the rebuilding Gaza process, which is likely to take many years.
The IDF rejected the idea that Hamas might be anywhere near reconstituting its battalions in Khan Yunis.
Neither the IDF nor other defense sources knew when the IDF might initiate a second invasion of Khan Yunis as it has done in many parts of northern Gaza, such as Shifa Hospital and Jabalia - in cases where Israeli officials believed Hamas's reorganization efforts were progressing too far.
Could the IDF launch a second invasion of Khan Yunis?
It is possible that the IDF is planning a second invasion of Khan Yunis soon and is just being tight about information security.
But the impression the Post received was that there really is no plan or timeframe for dealing with the growing Khan Yunis issue at the moment.
If this is true, it could be due to the rising push within Israel and globally, especially by the US, to end the war. Opening a new front in Khan Yunis in such an atmosphere could be difficult, though Israel might manage it if it was with smaller forces and a very short second invasion followed by a quick pullout.
Meanwhile, IDF sources said that even if Hamas is rallying somewhat in Khan Yunis with reinforcements, it will not represent anywhere near the threat it constituted before the IDF's first invasion of Khan Yunis in December.
Sources said that any new Hamas force would no longer have their strategic tunnels, manufacturing sites for weapons like rockets, improvised explosives, and drones, be short of talented and experienced commanders (since so many have been killed), and bases for communications, intelligence, and coordinating operations.