US says Hamas has replaced almost all killed fighters in Gaza with new recruits

Hamas has been able to recruit almost as many new fighters as Israel killed during its ferocious offensive on the Gaza Strip, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a farewell speech where he said that mediators were "on the brink" of a ceasefire.

Blinken’s remarks on Tuesday at The Atlantic Council in Washington DC provide a rare window into US intelligence assessments of Hamas’s strength, which is likely to ruffle Israel’s positioning after a potential ceasefire, given its stated objective of “total victory and the eradication of Hamas”.

While Israel succeeded in decapitating Hamas’s leadership in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, Blinken suggested that the group remains a power in the Gaza Strip and could complicate plans for post-war governance of the enclave.

Blinken’s speech comes in the final countdown of the Biden administration’s days in office. It was unusually forthright and laced with criticism of the US’s ally.

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