"Zero Waiting": Israel Reveals Strategy to Exhaust Hamas in Gaza

The Israeli army has revealed a shift in its method of operation inside the Gaza Strip under the heading "Zero Waiting", based on striking any military capability or infrastructure belonging to Hamas as soon as it is detected, alongside pursuing brigade and battalion commanders to prevent the replacement of any targeted leader. The army said the air force carried out more than 500 strikes on targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip over the past month, including more than 140 targets in Gaza, among them three Hamas brigade commanders, weapons depots and operatives it said were working on developing attack plans. A report by journalist Shai Levi on the Israeli website "mako" quoted a senior Southern Command official as saying that targeting commanders aims to damage operational expertise and the chain of command, and that the previous "target bank" policy has been replaced by immediate strikes the same day and at the same moment, noting that Hamas's area of control has shrunk to between 38% and 40% of the area it controlled on the eve of the war.