Hamas’s military structure has been decimated to the point where it is no longer possible for the terror group in Gaza to carry out another October 7-style attack, US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters during a virtual briefing on Friday.
“They are absolutely incapable, as you and I are speaking here today, of conducting another attack on the scale of October 7,” Kirby said.
He spoke one day after the IDF announced that it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a step which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that his death marks the beginning of the end of the war and a renewed opportunity for a hostage deal, but that the military campaign against Hamas in Gaza must still continue.
US President Joe Biden in contrast, has said, that now is the time to end the war and to bring the hostages home.“We believe that finding an end to the war is critical and we believe that Sinwar’s death yesterday has provided an inflection point to getting there,” Kirby said.
Hamas shattered by IDF
The IDF has shattered Hamas’s leadership, knocking out its top leader Sinwar, Kirby explained. “They [the IDF] have eliminated any immediate threat Hamas would pose from a military perspective,” he said.
The IDF has knocked out Hamas’s command structure, gone after its weapons stashes, and made it much more difficult for Hamas “to plan and execute” in the way it did prior to October 7, Kirby stated.
“So Hamas is in a much weaker position than it ever was before,” he said.
He cautioned, however, that they still exist as a “terror organization” and they are still holding hostages, but it is a “shadow” of its former self.
“The President believes,” therefore Kirby said, “ that with Sinwar’s killing, there is a unique opportunity to end the war” in Gaza and to “get the hostages home.”