"Hamas's gunmen are afraid to come out and fight,” a senior IDF officer said Saturday. “We have identified cases of [Hamas terrorists] going AWOL and deserting,” he added. The officer said that Hamas's reluctance to fight helped the IDF to eliminate a senior Hamas commander Saturday. Everything OK -- IDF soldiers, Gaza. Flash 90 The commander, Amir Mansi, was in charge of Hamas's rocket and mortar squads in the Gaza City area and was an expert on the use of medium range Grad rockets. Since his men's motivation to fight was flagging, Mansi came out himself and tried to fire mortar shells at an IDF Golani Brigade force. The IDF fired at him, killing him and wounding two others. Hamas's senior officers are unaware of the extent to which their militia has been hurt, the senior officer said, and hinted that at the possibility that they are being misled by their own men. “On the day that the organization's senior men come out and inspect the damage and the price that they have paid, they will understand the might of the IDF,” he added. "We know that entire Hamas companies have simply been erased,” the officer said. “We have identified cases of [Hamas terrorists] going AWOL and deserting the battlefield.” He added that the IDF is in constant movement and is “deepening its grasp on the territory.” He said that while Hamas squads were firing rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and more deadly, long range guided anti-tank missiles, most of these units were eliminated before they manged to hit the IDF.
