This is John Batchel, a conversation with Ahmed Fuad al-Khqqtib of the Atlantic Council,

his new article in the Atlantic magazine about Gaza, looking ahead, more war.

Here, Ahmed is very helpful identifying what Hamas has left inside the less than half of Gaza

they are now dominating with their gunmen,

and what they pay for their gunmen, and what the gunmen look like, and how many there are,

and how many they claim there are.

This is fresh from inside Gaza, the 47% that Hamas uses the power of the gun to maintain control.

More of this later tonight.

Here's Ahmed.

I'm in constant contact with folks on the ground in Gaza.

I've maintained a robust network of contacts, friends, allies, even family

members, close and extended, who have endured the past two years, the horror of life under Hamas,

the horror of the war, what followed after October 7th, I've lost family members.

And so I don't just speak about this from an analytical point of view.

I speak about it based on a lot of information that is relayed to me from folks who are on the ground.

And as far as some of the estimates of the numbers of Hamas, I have seen the high end that refers to 15 to 20,000 or 30,000, of which I am highly, highly skeptical that that is indeed the overall number of combat ready or combat effective troops that Hamas has.

And there are other numbers and estimates behind the scenes that I have been able to see

in which it's believed that Hamas is offering between $20 to $25 a day to its fighters,

to carry rifles, to be a part of its activities, of its brigades,

and that entails reestablishing command and control, re-accessing tunnels and repairing them,

collecting unexploded munitions, and recycling them into IEDs and rockets,

being able to regain command and control over the disparate units that were decimated by two years of war. And so my personal estimate and

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