Hamas says it has lost control over most of the Gaza strip and that it has suffered 'a near-total collapse of security'
The lieutenant colonel told the BBC that Hamas' command and control system had collapsed as a result of Israeli air raids that have also largely affected the group's leadership.
The officer has stepped away from his duties for health reasons after being wounded in the first week of the war, which began after Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that 'there's barely anything left of [Hamas'] security structure', adding that about 95 per cent of the group's leadership have been killed.
'The active figures have all been killed...So really, what's stopping Israel from continuing the war'.
He added that there is now a security vacuum and that there is 'no control anywhere', noting there are now criminal gangs 'everywhere.'
The officer's remarks come after Israel's then-defence minister Yoav Gallant declared that 'Hamas as a military formation no longer exists' and that it was engaged in guerrilla tactics.
According to the former Hamas official, the group tried to regroup during the 57-day ceasefire with Israel earlier this year, but after the truce disintegrated in March, Israel has targeted the group's remaining structures.
It comes after US-led ceasefire efforts in Gaza appeared to gain momentum on Saturday after nearly 21 months of war, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Sunday will send a negotiating team to talks in Qatar.
The statement also asserted that Hamas was seeking 'unacceptable' changes to the proposal US President Donald Trump has pushed for an agreement and will host Netanyahu at the White House on Monday to discuss a deal.
'There are 20 hostages that are alive, 30 dead. I am determined, we are determined, to bring them all back.
'And we will also be determined to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,' Netanyahu said before departing, emphasizing the goal of eliminating Hamas' military and governing power.
Inside Gaza, Israeli airstrikes killed 41 Palestinians and another 10 were killed while seeking food aid, hospital officials in the embattled enclave told The Associated Press.
People walk past makesfift shelters as smoke billows east of Gaza City, in the central Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment on July 6, 2025
Two American aid workers with the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were also injured in an attack at a food distribution site, which the organisation blamed on Hamas, without providing evidence.
The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.
Israel responded with an offensive that has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
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NBC News
19 minutes ago
- NBC News
New Israeli report says Hamas used sexual violence as a 'weapon of war' in Oct. 7 attack
Newly released interviews and documentation further bolster evidence that Hamas systematically used sexual violence as a weapon of war during its Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack, according to a report by a group of Israeli gender and law experts unveiled Tuesday. The report, titled "A Quest for Justice," was published by the Dinah Project, a legal research initiative led by law professor and women's rights activist Ruth Halperin-Kaddari of Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University, Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, a lawyer and the former chief military prosecutor at the Israel Defence Forces, and Nava Ben-Or, a former judge and deputy attorney general. Partly funded by the British government and Jewish non-profit organizations, the report contains previously unheard testimony from 15 returned hostages from Gaza, along with a rape survivor from the Nova music festival, one of at least six different locations where Hamas carried out its attacks. It also includes eyewitness testimony from at least 17 different incidents of sexual assault, as well as accounts from first responders, forensic evidence, and audio and visual documentation. The issue of sexual assault and rape during the Oct. 7 attacks is highly emotive and charged, with some in Israel accusing United Nations observers of betraying survivors by downplaying the issue. Meanwhile, some international observers, including a U.N. official appointed to investigate, say that while there is evidence of cases where rape and sexual assault took place, it does not point to those incidents having been systematic or directed by militant leaders. Hamas has denied its militants committed sexual crimes on Oct. 7, 2023. The report states that clear patterns emerged of sexual violence being perpetrated, including victims who were found 'partially or fully naked with their hands tied, often to structures like trees or poles; evidence of gang rapes followed by execution; genital mutilation; and public humiliation.' The details add to and corroborate past reporting on sexual violence that took place during the attacks. The sexual violence "continued in captivity, with many returnees reporting forced nudity, physical and verbal sexual harassment, sexual assaults and threats of forced marriage,' the report adds. The victims also include two returned male hostages who were released in January and February after being held captive for about 500 days, where they were subjected to "sexual humiliation, which included forced nudity and physical abuse when naked," according to the report. In light of the testimonies, the report aims to have the sexual violence acknowledged as crimes against humanity and to hold the perpetrators accountable. Notably, it calls on the U.N. to send a fact-finding mission and blacklist Hamas as a group. 'We hence call upon the U.N. Secretary-General to blacklist Hamas as an organization responsible for the tactical use of sexual violence as a weapon of war,' it states. Reem Alsalem, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said in a statement that she and fellow rapporteurs and experts emphasized that reports of such violence needed to be independently verified and investigated and perpetrators be held accountable. She added that the U.N. special commission appointed to investigate "found patterns indicative of sexual violence against Israeli women at different locations. The Commission was also unable to independently verify specific allegations of sexual and gender-based violence due to Israel's obstruction of its investigations." "It is my understanding that neither the Commission nor any other independent human rights mechanism established that sexual or gender-based violence was committed against Israelis on or since the 7th of October as a systematic tool of war or as a tool of genocide," Alsalem wrote in the statement. The Dinah Project report's findings follow previously published reports by the U.N. and the International Criminal Court on sexual violence and gang rape during the attack. In March 2024, a report compiled by Pramila Patten, the U.N. Special Representative on sexual violence in conflict, stated that it had found 'reasonable grounds' to believe some victims of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 were raped and sexually assaulted. There was 'clear and convincing' information that some of those taken captive were subjected to sexual violence, the U.N. team of experts said in their report, including rape and sexualized torture — violence it said 'may be ongoing.' In December 2023, NBC News published a separate report which reviewed evidence suggesting that dozens of Israeli women were raped, sexually abused or mutilated during the Oct. 7 attack, where more than 1,200 people were killed in Israel. Since then, Israel's ongoing military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 56,000 people and seriously injured thousands more, according to health officials in the enclave. It also comes after a U.N.-backed body, the Human Rights Council, released an extensive report in March this year which accused Israel of 'the systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other gender-based violence' in the Gaza Strip. The report by the found that the widespread destruction of Gaza, the use of heavy explosives in civilian areas, and Israeli attacks on hospitals and health facilities had led to 'disproportionate violence against women and children.'
The Guardian
19 minutes ago
- The Guardian
US only has 25% of all Patriot missile interceptors needed for Pentagon's military plans
The United States only has about 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors it needs for all of the Pentagon's military plans after burning through stockpiles in the Middle East in recent months, an alarming depletion that led to the Trump administration freezing the latest transfer of munitions to Ukraine. The stockpile of the Patriot missiles has fallen so low that it raised concern inside the Pentagon that it could jeopardize potential US military operations, and deputy defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, authorized the transfer to be halted while they reviewed where weapons were being sent. Donald Trump appeared to reverse at least part of that decision on Monday when he told reporters in advance of a dinner at the White House with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would 'send some more weapons' to Ukraine, although he did not disclose whether that would include Patriot systems. Trump also told Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a phone call that he was not responsible for the halt in weapons shipments and that he had directed a review of US weapons stockpiles but didn't order the freeze, according to people briefed on the conversation. But the determination last month to halt the transfer, as described by four people directly familiar with the matter, was based in large part on the Pentagon's global munitions tracker, which is used to generate the minimum level of munitions required to carry out the US military's operations plans. According to the tracker, which is managed by the joint chiefs of staff and the Pentagon's defense security cooperation agency, the stockpiles of a number of critical munitions have been below that floor for several years since the Biden administration started sending military aid to Ukraine. The Trump administration started a review of the depleted level of Patriot missiles and other munitions around February, the people said. Deliberations accelerated after the US deployed more of the interceptors in the Middle East to support the Houthi campaign and to Israel. The situation also became more acute following Trump's move to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities last month, the people said, when the US fired close to 30 Patriot missiles to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles fired in performative retaliation at the Al Udeid base in Qatar. The recent depletion of Patriot missiles and other munitions formed part of the basis of a 'recommendation memo' by Elbridge Colby, the under secretary of defense for policy, that outlined several options to conserve weapons and sent to Feinberg's office. Earlier reports said Colby, who has drawn criticism from Democrats for prioritizing shifting resources from the Ukraine conflict in preparation for a potential war with China, had paused the transfer but two of the people said the undersecretary's office lacks the power to make such a unilateral move. The decision was rather made by Feinberg, the former chief executive or Cerberus Capital Management to whom Colby reports, the people said. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth then signed off on Feinberg's determination. But the abrupt pause has come at a critical time for Ukraine, as Russia last week launched its largest aerial offensive to date and Ukraine has limited options to acquire both precision-guided and more basic weapons to hold off increasingly intense Russian attacks. Ukraine is also largely unable to directly buy weapons from defense contractors for its purposes, since a new order is estimated to take years to fulfill, and it would only be completed after the Pentagon had its own orders completed since the defense department is a higher priority customer. Trump's decision to reverse course and allow some defensive munitions to be sent to Ukraine appears to have come amid growing frustration with Russian president Vladimir Putin, who he criticized on Monday for not helping end the war. Spokespeople for the White House and the Pentagon confirmed some transfers would resume at Trump's direction but did not specify whether the weapons being sent to Ukraine would involve munitions at critically low levels. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'As Operation Midnight Hammer proved, the American military is stronger than it's ever been. President Trump wants to stop the killing and has pledged to provide Ukraine with additional defensive munitions,' said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly. While Trump has publicly complained about Ukraine aid in financial terms, Feinberg was briefed that the larger problem has been with the ability for the US to manufacture the weapons to quickly backfill the depleted stockpiles, two of the people said. The US has been transferring weapons to Ukraine using two principal channels: through a drawdown of defense department stockpiles, and through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), where the defense department pays contractors to manufacture weapons to go to Ukraine. Both transfer mechanisms was set to have been affected by the freeze, the people said, since the Pentagon is prioritizing replenishing its stockpiles using the same defense contractors being relied upon to build weapons for Ukraine through the USAI program. For the latest weapons shipment to Ukraine, the US had earmarked dozens of Patriot missiles among other munitions including air-to-air Sparrow missiles, Hellfire missiles, GMLRS rocket artillery and anti-tank guns. The principal concern appears to revolve around the Patriot missiles, which the US produces 600 per year but Iran alone has more than 1,000 ballistic missiles remaining it could theoretically use against US bases in the region if the ceasefire with Israel were to break down. The US has also transferred around 2,000 Stinger missiles to Ukraine, which officials estimated to be equivalent to two-and-a-half years of production, and is increasingly used by the US military for its own defense purposes against hostile drones, the people said.
Daily Mail
21 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump publicly burns Pete Hegseth with major U-turn on Ukraine weapons stance
President Donald Trump announced a sudden policy change that will once again ship powerful weapons to Ukraine – while sitting next to the the top official credited with unilaterally ordering the pause. The stunning U-turn came at an evening meeting with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and top members of his security team. It followed a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that drew a rare public rebuke from Trump, and returns the U.S. to the posture of sending lethal weaponry to its beleaguered ally. Trump was seated next to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during the event, which came just hours after the White House defended what it called a 'standard pause' to review the state of U.S. stockpiles, even admit Russia's relentless and ongoing attacks. 'We're going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They're getting hit very hard. Now, they're getting hit very hard. We're going to have to send more weapons, your defensive weapons, primarily, but they're getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess,' Trump said. Hegseth could be seen glancing at Trump and nodding repeatedly while the president spoke about Russia 's ongoing attacks on Ukraine. Also making noticeable gestures was CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who was seated next to Hegseth. Ratcliffe glanced quickly in Trump's direction, raised an eyebrow, then looked upward while taking a large breath. NBC reported July 4th that the Pentagon held up a shipment of weapons for Ukraine for a week amid concerns about the capacity of U.S. stockpiles. It said the move blindsided lawmakers, allies, and officials in Kiev and was a 'unilateral step' by Hegseth. Trump, who held an angry Oval Office argument with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February where Vice President JD Vance accused Zelensky of not being thankful, on Monday called the war a 'horrible, horrible thing.' 'And I'm not happy with President Putin at all,' he said. Just hours before Trump announced the U.S. would be sending weapons, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had dismissed a question about whether Trump had ordered the change or if the Pentagon did it without his approval. 'This was a standard review by the Pentagon of all weapons and all aid and all support that the United States is providing,' he said, adding that it applied to regions around the world. 'When the Secretary of Defense took office, he directed the Pentagon to conduct this review to ensure that everything that's going out the door aligns with America's interests,' she said. 'So it's a pause to review, to ensure that everything the Pentagon is pushing out there is in the best interest of our military and our men and women.' The Pentagon confirmed the change, saying at Trump's direction the DOD 'is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops,' spokesman Sean Parnell said. During the NATO summit, Trump fielded a question from Ukrainian Myroslava Petsa of the BBC, who asked if the US would sell Patriot missile defenses that Ukraine is using to defend against repeated Russian drone and missile attacks. Trump called it 'rough stuff.' The Telegraph reported Monday that Ukraine would get a third of the Patriot defense interceptors it was seeking. Trump had shared his frustration after his last Putin call, telling reporters: 'I didn't make any progress with him at all.' On Friday, shortly after they spoke, Russia unleashed its largest drone attack of the war on Kiev. Celebrating the news of the shipment was House Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas. 'Glad to see this news. Vladimir Putin is a thug who feigns an interest in peace, then turns around and bombs entire cities. He must be stopped before his aggression extends beyond Ukraine. Thank you, @potus, for projecting peace through strength in every corner of the globe!' McCaul posted on X. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted 'restrainers' in the administration and issued a statement attacking the 'strategic incoherence of underfunding our military and restricting lethal assistance to partners like Ukraine.' 'This time, the President will need to reject calls from the isolationists and restrainers within his Administration to limit these deliveries to defensive weapons. And he should disregard those at DoD who invoke munitions shortages to block aid while refusing to invest seriously in expanding munitions production,' he said. The statement tore into 'self-indulgent policymaking of restrainers' that he said 'has so often required the President to clean up his staff's messes.'
