A senior US Air Force officer said that "Israel's attack on Gaza is in fact an attack on civilians," stressing that the problem in Tel Aviv is its arrogance, according to what was reported by the American magazine "Newsweek", Wednesday, December 13, 2023.

The US Air Force officer's statements came after his participation in internal deliberations within the administration of US President Joe Biden and other discussions with his Israeli counterparts, according to the magazine.

The officer told the American magazine, "Israel has lost the information war, and the size of the Israeli strikes does not seem disproportionate to the type of measures used in international law."

Newsweek magazine confirmed that "Israel has so far attacked 25,000 targets in Gaza from the air, sea and land, and dropped about 140,000 weapons, 60% of which were artillery shells and 40% were weapons dropped by aircraft."

“It is difficult to believe that such widespread destruction was necessary to confront the threat posed by Hamas,” says Ken Roth, former director of Human Rights Watch and a visiting professor at Princeton University, reflecting a view shared by many in the US government, which is that it was Israel could and should have pursued different strategies to eliminate Hamas.

Meanwhile, a prominent Israeli military analyst said on Wednesday that the Israeli army had lost its “advantage” in the course of the fighting in Gaza, stressing that control over the Shujaiya neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip “is still out of reach.”

Analyst Amos Harel said, in an analytical article in the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz, that the combat conditions on the ground and the close encounter between the Israeli army and Hamas members “reduced the relative advantage that the Israeli army enjoys in the field of technology and intelligence.”

He also described the network of tunnels established by Hamas as “its size and complexity exceeding what Israeli intelligence expected,” and considered that these circumstances “also increased the number of Israeli casualties.”

He pointed out that the Israeli army "is still far from controlling the Shujaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City (north), the last remaining stronghold of the Hamas movement in the northern Gaza Strip, and the site that is witnessing ongoing fighting."

He added: "The Israeli army is still far from controlling the area (referring to the Shujaiya neighborhood), and in the Jabalia refugee camp, resistance has diminished somewhat in recent days."

He continued: “The fighting itself, by infantry, and to a large extent also by tanks, takes place at a very close range and in densely built-up areas, only some of which have been destroyed, enabling groups of Hamas fighters to clash with the Israeli army, in some cases at a distance of only a few meters.” .

He added: "These circumstances reduce some of the relative advantage that the Israeli army enjoys in the field of technology and intelligence, and increase the number of Israeli casualties."

Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli army announced that the number of officers and soldiers injured since the beginning of the ground war in the Gaza Strip had risen to 619, including 139 seriously injured, while the number killed since the beginning of the battles reached 115.

Harel also indicated that "the offensive operation is taking place alongside an attempt to locate the bodies of the hostages."

He added: "It appears that further progress in another round of hostage negotiations has not yet begun, but the Qatari mediators and other countries participating in the talks are trying to formulate a new agreement that includes the release of some of the 137 hostages who are still being held."

He also pointed out that Tel Aviv's priorities in the hostage exchange are "women, sick and wounded men, and then elderly men."

Harel noted that at the present time, "Hamas has not shown any sign of the necessity of reaching an agreement urgently."

He also explained that "there is no evidence at the present time that Hamas feels that its bargaining power in future negotiations has diminished."

He said in this regard, "The hostage exchange deal reached last month (November) was crucial for Hamas, because the movement needed a ceasefire so that it could restore its forces and reorganize."

But on the other hand, he considered that now that “the northern part of the Gaza Strip is largely under the control of the Israeli army, and most Hamas fighters have withdrawn, the organization’s leadership does not feel the need to move” (to negotiate now).

He added: "Senior Hamas officials said in recent days that more abductees will not be released except as part of a comprehensive deal, under which all Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel will be released."

In this context, the Israeli analyst said that Tel Aviv also “is not in a rush to reach an agreement.”

He added: "Despite the harsh conditions the hostages were suffering from, the Israeli army announced the killing of more than 20 of them."

Harel considered that the Israeli leadership's failure to complete another deal was due to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "fear" of the possible reaction from his partners in the far-right coalition.

He said: “One of the reasons is political pressure: Netanyahu fears that (the exchange deal) will be seen as a surrender to Hamas’ demands and a disruption of the ground operation (which began last October 27).

Last Sunday, Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the Hamas movement, stressed that “no Israeli prisoners or detainees in the Gaza Strip will be released except through the conditional exchange announced by the Palestinian resistance since the beginning of the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood.”