US intelligence officials say Israel not close to defeating Hamas

Israel has not even come close to defeating Hamas through its military offensive on the Gaza Strip, US intelligence officials have said.

According to the New York Times, the officials told members of Congress earlier this week that while Israel had managed to degrade Hamas’s fighting capabilities, they were still very far off actually crushing the organisation.

Officials also said that given the nature of Hamas' military wing as a fundamentally "guerilla" force, defeating the group might not even be possible and that simply weakening their combat strength might be a more realistic goal.

Netanyahu claimed last month that Israel had killed two-thirds of Hamas' fighting force, but American officials say privately that their estimates are considerably lower, saying maybe only a third of Hamas's estimated 20,000 to 25,000 fighters had been killed.