---

Hamas to Ramp Up Brutal Crackdown on Gazans as New Israeli Data Shows Terror Group Still Heavily Armed

Ailin Vilches Arguello

---

Hamas fighters on Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: Majdi Fathi via Reuters Connect

As new Israeli intelligence reveals that Hamas remains heavily armed despite severe losses during the two-year conflict in Gaza, the Palestinian terrorist group is intensifying its brutal crackdown on all opposition in the enclave.

Hamas still maintains a substantial stockpile of rockets and other weaponry, even after being severely weakened by Israel’s military campaign, according to information and estimates gathered by the Israeli defense establishment and shared with Hebrew media on Wednesday.

The newly released intelligence assessment, reported by Israel’s Channel 12 news, indicates that the Palestinian terrorist group is facing a major weapons shortfall, with over 60 percent of its military equipment lost, nearly half of its forces — including senior members — eliminated, and more than half of its above-ground infrastructure destroyed.

However, Israel believes that Hamas, despite suffering severe losses during the war, continues to operate more than half of its tunnels, with its underground infrastructure serving as the Islamist group’s main hub. Hamas also still has hundreds of rockets, some of them medium range, which can reach the center of Israel, and has more than 10,000 other weapons.

Meanwhile, Hamas is still bringing in recruits and has about 20,000 terrorists still active in the ranks of the organization. However, these are primarily fighters with little experience and competence, according to Israeli assessments, who have undergone only limited training, while the terrorist group’s elite Nukhba forces, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, have struggled to replenish their decimated ranks.

Shortly after the US-backed ceasefire to halt fighting in Gaza took effect, Hamas moved to reassert control over the war-torn enclave and consolidate its weakened position by targeting Palestinians who it labeled as “lawbreakers and collaborators with Israel.”

According to Iranian media, Hamas is preparing to launch its largest operation yet to eliminate the remaining armed opposition groups “that continue to collaborate with the Israeli occupation forces.”

“In the coming days, we will launch our largest security campaign yet, targeting multiple areas where these groups remain,” a Hamas official told the Iranian state outlet Press TV.

“Our goal is to eliminate all collaborators and ensure peace and security for the people of Gaza,” he continued.

Since the ceasefire, which left the Israeli military in control of 53 percent of the enclave, took effect earlier this month, Hamas’s brutal crackdown has escalated dramatically, sparking widespread clashes and violence as the group moves to seize weapons and eliminate any opposition.

The terrorist group has publicly executed alleged collaborators and rival militia members in the 47 percent of Gaza that remains outside Israeli military control, an area where the majority of Gaza’s population still lives under Hamas’s authority.

Social media videos widely circulated online show Hamas members brutally beating Palestinians, dragging them across the ground, and even breaking their legs or kneecapping them in an effort to terrorize the population.

Hamas officials have accused Israel and the United States of attempting to use these alleged “collaborators” and militias as proxies to undermine the group’s authority and destabilize Gaza following the ceasefire.

Last week, US President Donald Trump warned that he would support attacks on Hamas if the group continued its violent campaigns and public executions.

“If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry also drew attention to Hamas’s escalating violence in Gaza, slamming the international community for its silence.

“Killings in public by Palestinian Hamas – and deafening silence from the ‘moral preachers.’ Do you hear the sound of the crickets?” the ministry wrote in a post on X.

Meanwhile, Hamas leaders met with Qatari and Turkish officials in Doha on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing ceasefire and plans for rebuilding Gaza after the war.

As regional powers back reconstruction efforts in support of Trump’s peace plan, experts have warned about the expanding roles of Qatar and Turkey in such initiatives, amid concerns that their involvement could potentially strengthen Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure. Both countries have been key backers Hamas for years.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at opposition to any involvement of Turkish security forces in monitoring the US-backed ceasefire in Gaza.

---

---