Hamas fighter: 'We fight Israel one day on, one day off'

Abu Jundal stands on a Gaza City street, unarmed and wearing civilian clothes. Only his black, multi-pocketed tabard and his beard give a hint of who he really is: a Hamas platoon commander having a day off in the middle of the war with Israel.

“We work in shifts, one day on, one day off, so we do not get exhausted,” he said, adding that his shifts run from 10pm until 5am every other night. His was one of three platoons operating in this sector of the northern Gaza Strip.

Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, has promised “all-out war” against the Islamist movement, but Abu Jundal, 29, said that Hamas had so far thrown only a fraction of its 15,000-strong guerrilla force into the fray. At the current rate of attrition, he said, it could carry on the battle for another three months.

“We are only working at 10 per cent of our capacity. There is always somebody backing us up, held in reserve. There are different lines of defence,” he said, looking strained from days of fighting. Despite serving on the shifting front lines, Hamas fighters still have to provide for their families in their time off, as Gaza runs out of basic supplies of food and fuel. [thanks AS for the fwd]