With Passover behind us, two reserve divisions mobilized, and Hamas refusing all offers in the ongoing hostage negotiations, it seems increasingly likely that the IDF will at last enter the southern tip of the Gaza Strip. Meir Ben-Shabbat explains why the operation is necessary—regardless of U.S. or international pressure—and assesses the military situation:

The IDF’s starting position for this operation is better than at the beginning of the campaign in the northern Gaza Strip or the Khan Yunis area. The enemy will now be entering combat with a command echelon that has been depleted, with many fighters dead, wounded, or arrested, [while] the IDF will have replenished its forces, updated its intelligence, and improved its fighters’ operational combat-worthiness through lessons learned from previous stages of the fighting.

Yet, Ben-Shabbat observes, Hamas will have some new advantages as well:

Its logistical preparedness has improved thanks to humanitarian aid entering the Strip, and it is equipped with fuel and food that allow prolonged survival in tunnels. Additionally, the terrorists draw encouragement from the pressures exerted on Israel to minimize casualties. . . . Above all, they are emboldened by their demonstrated ability to survive the IDF onslaught so far and the fact that even after over 200 days of fighting, Hamas continues to be the central power in the Gaza Strip.

This week, there have been numerous unconfirmed reports about the fate of Esmail Qaani, who is the head of the Quds Force, the expeditionary arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Benny Avni writes:

On Thursday, Sky News Arabic reported that Mr. Qaani was rushed to a hospital after suffering a heart attack. He became [the Quds Force] commander in 2020, after an American drone strike killed his predecessor, Qassem Suleimani. The unit oversees the Islamic Republic’s various Mideast proxies, as well as the exporting of the Iranian revolution to the region and beyond.

The Sky News report attempts to put to rest earlier claims that Mr. Qaani was killed at Beirut. It follows several reports asserting he has been arrested and interrogated at Tehran over suspicion that he, or a top lieutenant, leaked information to Israel. Five days ago, the Arabic-language al-Arabiya network reported that Mr. Qaani “is under surveillance and isolation, following the Israeli assassinations of prominent Iranian leaders.”

Iranians are desperately scrambling to plug possible leaks that gave Israel precise intelligence to conduct pinpoint strikes against Hizballah commanders. . . . “I find it hard to believe that Qaani was compromised,” an Iran watcher at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, Beni Sabti, tells the Sun. Perhaps one or more of [Qaani’s] top aides have been recruited by Israel, he says, adding that “psychological warfare” could well be stoking the rumor mill.

If so, prominent Iranians seem to be exacerbating the internal turmoil by alleging that the country’s security apparatus has been infiltrated.