The leadership of Hamas may not be dealing with reality, but an increasing number of their fighters seem to be. It was confirmed this weekend by the Times of Israel that more Hamas fighters have approached IDF troops, laid down their weapons, and surrendered. After being taken into captivity, some of them have been providing Israel with intelligence regarding what’s going on inside of the ranks of Hamas. The fighters said that their own leaders are “in denial of reality.” They also provided the locations where some of the terror group’s leaders are hiding out, providing “more targets” for the IDF to strike.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari confirms many Hamas members have surrendered to troops in the Gaza Strip today, saying they have revealed intelligence information on the terror group’s functioning amid the ground offensive.

“In Shejaiya and Jabaliya, terrorists who surrendered handed over weapons and equipment,” he says, confirming footage that leaked today.

“From the interrogations of the terrorists who surrendered, the following intelligence has emerged: The situation of the operatives on the ground is difficult, and the Hamas leadership, led by [Yahya] Sinwar, denies the reality even though it is updated on the details,” Hagari says.

It certainly sounds like Israel is winning and their relentless offensive is slowly grinding down what’s left of Hamas’ forces in Gaza. The number of places they have left to hide is no doubt shrinking now that Israel is flooding the tunnels. The departing fighters are also telling the IDF that their leaders don’t really care much about the Palestinians living above ground and are only concerned with themselves. But I’m fairly sure that most of us knew that already. Hamas makes that obvious by embedding its operations among human shields.

Here’s some leaked footage of a Hamas fighter surrendering to the IDF.

Leaked footage from the northern Gaza Strip today shows an apparent Hamas operative slowly placing an assault rifle on the ground, as dozens of Palestinian men surrendered to IDF troops. pic.twitter.com/glEbGBj50i

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 9, 2023

This spate of surrenders doesn’t mean that the enemy is fully defeated or ready to give up entirely, however. The Hamas leadership does appear to be “out of touch.” Yesterday a Hamas spokesperson said that no more hostages will be released alive unless “all of their demands” are met.

Hamas on Sunday threatened to kill all of its remaining hostages if demands such as more aid for Gaza and prisoner exchanges were not met, after suffering repeated losses in its battle with Israel.

The Palestinian terror group is still holding the bodies of 20 hostages who died in captivity, Israel said over the weekend.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, claimed Sunday that not another single kidnap victim will leave Gaza alive unless Israel agrees to all its demands in negotiations that broke down at the start of December.

Precisely what demands does Hamas still have that Israel hasn’t already been meeting? They’ve released three times as many prisoners (many of whom were charged with terrorist activity) as Hamas has released hostages. They’ve been sending truckloads of aid into Southern Gaza. What else are they waiting for? Do they expect Israel to surrender?

Not only is Hamas not releasing living hostages. They’re refusing to turn over the bodies of 20 hostages who “died in captivity.” That’s a more polite way of saying twenty more Israelis who were killed by Hamas. While it’s sad to say, we don’t even know for sure if any of the remaining hostages are still alive, so all of these negotiations may prove futile in the end. It just feels as if the IDF needs to get on with its work and move into the “mopping up” phase of the operation. Once the tunnels are fully flooded, they should be able to locate and either kill or detain the rest of the Hamas fighters. Some of them will certainly abandon their uniforms and try to blend in with the civilian population and that’s probably happening already. But if the Palestinians don’t want to see another scorched earth attack like this in the future, they would be wise to drop a dime on any hidden Hamas fighters so the IDF can pick them up. Perhaps some sort of reward program might be in order.