US-based defence think tanks the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) said Hamas will likely use the end of Israel’s “intense phase” of ground operations in Gaza to “reconstitute its combat units” and reassert “governing authority”, Al Jazeera reports.

Israel’s Army Radio has announced that Israeli forces will transition to raid operations once they have declared Hamas defeated in Rafah, which the military says will happen in the coming days.

However, the latest battlefield report by ISW/CTP points out that thousands of Palestinian fighters departed Rafah prior to the Israeli ground incursion and these forces could provide the “human resources to reorganise themselves into composite, fully combat effective units”.

The think tanks, which have previously noted the limitations of Israeli raids, reiterated the limited effectiveness of the plan in Gaza.

“Hamas is capable of regrouping in the Gaza Strip in the absence of sustained military pressure and a viable alternative to its rule. Raids can temporarily disrupt but will not stop a reconstitution process,” the ISW/CTP report states.