Israel’s War Aims Move South With Hamas Leadership in Crosshairs
- Officials say they’re a third of the way to destroying Hamas
- A big military push into Khan Younis is coming this week
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More than 100 hostages are free. At least 5,000 Hamas fighters are dead. Some 500 tunnel shafts have been destroyed. The Israeli military controls two thirds of northern Gaza. It’s a third of the way to its goal — destroying Hamas — and is launched on the next phase of bombing the south.
Eight weeks into its war on Hamas and days since a week-long cease-fire ended, that’s the Israeli government’s assessment of where things stand in its longest war since the 1948 War of Independence. It’s bearing down on the city of Khan Younis where it says the Hamas leadership is entrenched deep inside tunnels, telling Palestinian civilians to move to a set of nearby “no-target” zones.