Hamas probably won’t be defeated until the end of the year, Israel’s national security adviser said, underscoring the difficulty the country faces in achieving its stated aim of crushing the Islamist group in Gaza.

“We have another seven months of fighting to deepen the achievement and attain what we define as the destruction of the governmental and military capabilities of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad,” Tzachi Hanegbi said on Wednesday in an interview with state broadcaster Kan. Islamic Jihad is a separate anti-Israel militant organization that also has fighters in Gaza. Hanegbi reiterated the war in the Palestinian territory is “justified” and “necessary” for Israel to preserve its security.

His comments came after almost eight months of conflict that began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Israel says it’s killed around 15,000 Hamas fighters but there are still up to 8,000 lodged in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, the center of which Israeli tanks entered this week. Hamas’s most senior figures — including its leader, Yahya Sinwar, and his military chief, Mohammed Deif — remain at large and fighters have managed to regroup in parts of the Gaza Strip that the Israel Defense Forces cleared months ago.

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never set a timeline for what he calls “total victory,” and Hanegbi said the army always stated 2024 would be a year of fighting, many analysts believe Hamas has been more resilient than the Israeli army expected.

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