Israeli military officials say the Gaza Strip is closer to escalation than reconstruction, citing Hamas’s military wing as it tries to rebuild its capabilities and strengthen its forces. The assessment, relayed to Walla, comes just over one year after the October 2025 ceasefire.
The officials describe a pattern. Hamas’s armed wing is running training exercises. It’s trying to provoke confrontations with IDF troops along the Yellow Line. Intelligence warnings point to planned terrorist attacks, including concerns that Hamas will try to strike ahead of Israel’s elections to influence the results.
The Terror Threat
The IDF and Shin Bet carry out an average of two to three targeted operations each day against Hamas operatives and commanders in the Gaza Strip. Some of those targeted took part in the October 7 attacks. Others, according to the report, are organizing terrorist attacks or trying to cross the Yellow Line.
That tempo reflects the threat. These aren’t dormant fighters awaiting a political settlement. Israeli officials describe an organization using the ceasefire period to regroup, retrain and plan new attacks.
Reconstruction Hinges on Disarmament
Security officials say that, according to assessments in Jerusalem, Israel will oppose reconstruction measures unless Hamas is disarmed in practice and the Gaza Strip is demilitarized. That means removing terrorist infrastructure, weapons and terrorists.
The position is straightforward. Rebuilding in a territory where the ruling armed group is rearming would give Hamas the means to prepare the next assault. Israeli officials won’t underwrite that outcome.
The Casualty Narrative
The day’s strikes came with the usual claims from Gaza. A medical source at Al-Shifa Hospital told Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency that the body of Reem Asaad Awad, 33, and two injured people, including a girl, arrived after an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood early Wednesday. The source said the strike caused extensive destruction to the targeted apartment and neighboring buildings, and civil defense crews later extinguished a large fire.
The Israeli military did not offer details on the Rimal strike in the base reporting, and no one established the identity of the apartment’s occupants. What the Israeli side did say is that its operations target Hamas operatives and commanders, some of them planning attacks.
Witnesses also described Israeli military vehicles and quadcopter drones firing toward homes in the Tuffah neighborhood northeast of Gaza City, while explosive devices landed on al-Sikka Street. Sources said the army carried out a large-scale demolition operation east of Gaza City, blowing up homes in areas where its forces are deployed. In central Gaza, witnesses said military vehicles and bulldozers moved beyond army-held areas east of Deir al-Balah, while gunfire struck homes along Salah al-Din Street. No injuries were reported there. Artillery hit areas northeast of the Bureij refugee camp, and a drone dropped an explosive device on a tent; no injuries were reported.
Numbers From a Hamas-Run Ministry
The figures circulating come from Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says Israeli violations of the October 2025 ceasefire have killed at least 1,498 Palestinians and injured 5,306. The same reporting, drawn from Daily Sabah, says more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed and 175,000 injured since October 2023, with around 90 percent of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed. The war is now in its fourth year.
The base reporting uses the word genocide to describe Israel’s campaign. Turkish-linked outlets that supplied the casualty account repeat that charge. The ministry’s numbers don’t distinguish combatants from civilians, a gap Israeli officials cite when describing Hamas operatives as the targets of their daily operations.
The contrast between the two accounts is stark. One describes a rebuilding terror army and a daily campaign to stop it. The other describes strikes on homes and a mounting toll. Israeli officials say plainly which they believe is driving events: Hamas, they argue, is preparing for escalation, not a negotiated arrangement.