In April, the IDF eliminated the same Hamas official three times.

That month, Israeli troops announced that they had killed the terror group’s battalion commander in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. A new Hamas operative replaced that fallen officer, only for the military to then assassinate him. When a third fighter took the position, Israel killed that man as well before the end of the month.

In total, since October 7, 2023, seven Hamas operatives have held the title of Shejaiya battalion commander. Six have been eliminated. The latest gunman leading the unit is presumably living on borrowed time, with Israel ramping up its offensive in the city.

The repeated operations in Shejaiya, historically a fierce urban battlefield for Israeli troops, exemplify how, over the past almost two years of fighting in Gaza, the IDF has repeatedly taken out Hamas functionaries — key leaders and numerous brigade and battalion commanders within the group’s military wing — only to see new ones take their place.

The steady drumbeat of high-profile killings, a core element of Israel’s declared war goal of destroying Hamas and ensuring it cannot revive, has put unprecedented strain on the terror group. In addition to lower-level officers, Israel has eliminated Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh; Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s political head in Gaza and the architect of the October 7 massacre; Sinwar’s brother and replacement, Mohammed Sinwar; Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing; and, this week, spokesman Abu Obeida.

But the aftermath of those strikes also demonstrates how Hamas’s basic structure has enabled it to continue replenishing its ranks and making strategic decisions despite the heavy losses. Ideologically committed to the declared strategic aim of destroying Israel, dispersed across several countries, and with many of its top officials located far from the fighting, the terror group has managed to continue functioning even as it buries its leaders.

“There is never a vacuum,” said Michael Milstein, head of the Forum for Palestinian Studies at Tel Aviv University’s Dayan Center. “Even at the level of battalion and company commanders in Hamas’s military wing… there’s always someone motivated to step in, despite knowing that their death is almost certain. It’s quite remarkable.”

One explanation for Hamas’s organizational stamina is that since 1990, a few years after its founding in 1987, the group’s leadership has been divided officially between a military wing focused on operations and a political wing responsible for long-term strategy.

Within the military wing, based in Gaza, promotions and structure resemble those of a conventional army led by commanding officers, or at least they did until the IDF set about dismantling Hamas’s 24 battalions after October 7.

By contrast, the political wing is based in Qatar and operates a bit more democratically: It holds organized internal elections every four years, with each leadership tier electing the one directly above it, from junior members up to the political bureau at the top. The last elections took place in 2021; none have been held during the war. Elections are also geographically segmented: Hamas members abroad, in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in Israeli prisons all vote for their own local leadership.

In practice, the lines between these two halves of the organization can blur: Yahya Sinwar, for example, was a political officer in Gaza before October 7, but orchestrated the terror group’s deadly attack that day. And Deif, the military chief, was one of the key figures influencing negotiations before he was killed last year.

Still, the bifurcation means that two years into Israel’s war in Gaza, Hamas’s most significant centers of decision-making lie thousands of kilometers away, in Qatar and Turkey. It is these groups of leaders who direct Hamas’s strategic decisions — above all, negotiations for a ceasefire. The process today is more complex than in the past, as no single figure is at the top, and about eight leaders must reach decisions together from two different countries.

Even so, Hamas has proven able to operate — for example, issuing a formal statement in August accepting the latest ceasefire........

© The Times of Israel