[News] Israel prepares new Gaza offensive amid claims Hamas 'rearming'

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Israel prepares new Gaza offensive amid claims Hamas 'rearming'

Tel Aviv continues to demand that Hamas disarm while refusing to honor its
obligations under the October 2025 ceasefire

News Desk <https://thecradle.co/authors/news-desk-9>

JUN 29, 2026 -
https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-prepares-new-gaza-offensive-amid-claims-hamas-rearming
(Photo credit: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

A new report from the Israeli military claims that Hamas is manufacturing
new weapons and recruiting new fighters to resume its fight against
occupying Israeli troops in Gaza, Israel's Public Broadcaster (KAN) reported
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-idf-warns-hamas-is-readying-to-return-to-war-us-opposes-new-israeli-offensive/>
on 29 June.

Details of the unsourced report were submitted by officers from the
Military Intelligence Directorate and Southern Command to Chief of Staff
Eyal Zamir last week.

It claims that Hamas is somehow managing to produce hundreds of explosive
devices and anti-tank missiles every month. The resistance movement has
also recruited new fighters between the ages of 18 and 22 and restarted the
training of members of its elite Nukhba force, the report added.

The Palestinian resistance movement is also allegedly rebuilding its tunnel
network under Gaza and trying to smuggle drones and communication devices
from Sinai.

“Hamas is strong on the ground,” the officers reportedly told Zamir.
“Nobody is threatening it, and the organization is unwilling to give up
control of Gaza.”

The Israeli military is using these claims, for which there is no public
evidence, to justify a renewed military campaign in Gaza, as Israel seeks
to cleanse the strip of its millions of Palestinian inhabitants to pave the
way for renewed Jewish settlement.

“In light of this information, the report said the IDF believes that it
must restart its offensive against Hamas,” the *Times of Israel *wrote.
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-idf-warns-hamas-is-readying-to-return-to-war-us-opposes-new-israeli-offensive/>


The US is allegedly opposed to a renewed Israeli offensive, preferring to
move forward with US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” initiative
instead, the Israeli paper added.

Trump’s plan for Gaza resulted in a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in
October 2025 that was supposed to lead to a permanent end to the war.

Hamas met the requirements of the first stage of the ceasefire by giving up
the last of the Israeli captives it took on 7 October 2023.

However, Israel has not fulfilled any requirements of the first stage. The
military has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Gaza, killing
over 1,000 Palestinians in the eight months since the ceasefire went into
effect.

Israel has also expanded the territory of Gaza it occupies from 53 percent
to 60 percent. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told his
troops to expand the occupation further, to 70 percent.

Israel has also continued to block the entry of desperately needed
humanitarian aid into Gaza.

While refusing to fulfill its obligations under the first stage of the
ceasefire, Israel has demanded that Hamas disarm, which is a requirement of
the second stage.

The second phase also calls for a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the
strip, which Israel has refused, as well as the deployment of an
international security force.

The Board of Peace envoy in Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, has also demanded that
Hamas disarm without demanding that Israel fulfill its obligations under
the first stage of the ceasefire deal.

Israel continued
<https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-palestinians-war-ceasefire-hamas-ecd5e42902fa2ea31b6cd64e84adeebd>
its attacks on Gaza. On Sunday, it killed at least four Palestinians,
including a 13-year-old girl, Eileen al-Farra, who died from shrapnel from
Israeli tank shelling.

Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 75,811 Palestinians in Gaza,
according to the health ministry. Independent estimates suggest that the
death toll is vastly higher, reaching into the hundreds of thousands.
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