Arab media have recently extensively covered what they call "Hamas' change of tactics." With the aim of protecting the organization's remaining operatives and equipment until the end of the war, Hamas has been operating recently using different tactics and is adopting a policy based on launching limited attacks against IDF fighters, according to reports, among others in the London-based, pro-Saudi, Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
Sources who spoke with the newspaper in recent days said that adopting this policy allows the terrorist organization to not expose its terrorists to the relative dangers, and allows Hamas to "reserve part of its strength for the day after the war."
The terrorist organization has been using this tactic for a long time, as was reported last month in the New York Times, and is careful to avoid direct confrontations with the IDF. Israel interpreted this in the past as weakness, but Western sources have assessed that it was a strategic move, and claim that Hamas believes that if a significant part of its military force survives the war it will be a victory, even though the Gaza Strip has become a city of ruins.
At the same time, perhaps with the aim of raising morale in Gaza and gaining support for fighting battles outside of the Strip, Hamas recently re-distributed a recording of the head of the organization's military arm, Mohammed Deif, in which he called on the "people of the Arab and Islamic world" to begin the "march toward Palestine, and participate in the liberation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque."
The decision make the recording public was made by the organization after the severe damage it suffered due to the many arrests of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists at Al Shifa Hospital and the announcement of the assassination of Marwan Issa, Deif's deputy, in an airstrike in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Even though the terror group is avoiding direct confrontations with IDF troops, a senior Hamas official claimed in an interview with the Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that "the resistance has begun to prepare for the Israeli move to invade Rafah," and emphasized that "An operation in Rafah will not be the picnic that Israel thinks." According to the official of the terror group, "all the signs we received, through mediators and on the ground, indicate Israeli insistence on launching an operation in Rafah. The resistance fighters of all factions are fully prepared to inflict heavy losses on the Israeli army."
Another senior member of the organization said that "high-level coordination" was carried out with elements of the so-called Axis of Resistance, including Iran and Hezbollah, and claimed that "Netanyahu is leading the entire region to an explosion, and if it occurs no party will be able to control its consequences." The official added that "in recent consultations between the leadership of the movement and the Axis of Resistance, it was emphasized not to allow the breaking of the resistance in Gaza under any circumstances and regardless of the cost."