alt Hacker News> Estimated total force is of 15,000-20,000 armed combatants.
And how many after you stop counting journalists and little kids? We've all seen what Israel is doing, no matter how they try to hide it.
> Estimated total force is of 15,000-20,000 armed combatants.
And how many after you stop counting journalists and little kids? We've all seen what Israel is doing, no matter how they try to hide it.
It's hard to see under the masks e.g. here: https://youtu.be/a88Dcd5lFR0?si=87Fw0rOIZ2UJoGie&t=238
Hamas has definitely recruited children: "Hamas won't say how many thousands of men it has, but some here estimate as many as half of Gaza's teenaged boys want in. Mohamad, 18, and his 16-year-old twin brothers Hussain and Awad are newly trained. All three say if war were to break out with Israel tomorrow, they'd be ready to fight, though they've only had a week of training."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hamas-grows-with-young-recruits...
Re: journalists: "New York, June 25, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is conducting a full review of its database of journalists killed during the Israel-Gaza War after militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) published obituaries identifying as combatants individuals previously listed by CPJ as journalists."
https://cpj.org/2026/06/cpj-undertakes-review-of-its-documen...
There are a lot of children in Gaza and it's a tragedy how many died and suffer in Gaza. For sure. But there are still armed Hamas combatants who played a major part of the suffering of the civilian population of Gaza. If we want to protect the children of Gaza today we need to figure this out.