Hamas still maintains 25 to 30 thousand fighters and produces rockets in Gaza

Nearly three years after the October 7 massacre, Hamas's military wing still numbers between 25,000 and 30,000 fighters, and the organization continues maintaining tunnels, operating rocket-manufacturing lathes, distributing weapons to supporters and smuggling weapons from Egypt.

According to the report, Hamas is far from its pre-war state, yet also far from disappearing, and elimination of fighters continues. The organization's military wing still numbers between 25,000 and 30,000 fighters, including newly recruited members. On Saturday dozens of armed men with uncovered faces were seen at a funeral procession of a fighter in Gaza, and many of them are apparently Hamas operatives.

According to the report, Hamas continues maintaining and reinforcing existing tunnel networks, particularly in areas beyond the Yellow Line, and operates lathes to manufacture rockets in areas where the IDF has not operated and within civilian population concentrations. The rockets are not currently being launched, partly due to concern over Israeli response, but manufacturing capability still exists.

At the same time, the organization distributes weapons to residents who are aligned with it, who are not necessarily formal Hamas members. The assessment is that this is an attempt to keep weapons available to its supporters in a scenario where in future they may be required to hand over their weapons.

Another active channel is smuggling weapons via drones from Egypt. At this stage there is no assessment of the scope of smuggling.