After 15 months of war... Deir al-Balah remains a resilient Hamas stronghold in Gaza 

Fifteen months into Israel’s full-scale war against Hamas, Deir al-Balah remains a stronghold for the terror group, underscoring its continued military presence despite relentless Israeli operations aimed at dismantling its military and governing capabilities.

The latest military parade by Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, held during the handover of Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben-Ami as part of the fifth exchange deal, further highlighted the group’s resilience. The handover took place in Deir al-Balah, a key area in central Gaza that includes the refugee camps of Nuseirat, al-Bureij, and al-Maghazi, as well as the town of al-Zawaida.

During the war, Deir al-Balah was mainly subjected to air raids that affected some of its mosques, houses, buildings and agricultural and open lands, but it was one of the least exposed areas to shelling and damage, and the Israeli forces did not enter by land, and only entered the eastern region of it, specifically Wadi al-Salqa and its surroundings, which are mainly agricultural and open areas located east of Salah al-Din Street, which witnessed the handover of prisoners.

According to field sources and journalists from Deir al-Balah who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat, the IDF focused on conducting air strikes in the city, which at the beginning of the war housed thousands of displaced people, and then became home to about 700,000 displaced people after Israeli forces occupied the city of Rafah, south of the Strip, in May 2024.

Israeli forces focused their raids on infrastructure, including central water wells and the only desalination plant, in addition to the Deir al-Balah municipality headquarters and the assassination of its president, Diab al-Jarro, along with some field commanders in the Qassam Brigades and other Palestinian factions.

According to Israeli Army Radio, al-Qassam's Deir al-Balah Brigade remained intact as well as the nearby Nuseirat Brigade, because the IDF did not operate on the ground there, unlike other areas, as demonstrated by the recent handover.