IDF Soldiers: Photo: IDF.

Despite sporadic rocket fire and trying to pull off terror attacks, Hamas in Gaza is primarily engaged in licking its wounds after 50 days of the Israeli air, land and sea pummeling it received in Operation Protective Edge, a senior army official told Israel’s 0404 news, Tuesday.

In the last few weeks since the Aug. 26^th Cairo-brokered cease-fire went into effect, Hamas is still assessing the immense damage caused to the organization due to the IDF strikes.

Thousands of targets were destroyed, hundreds of terrorists and their networks were either killed or compromised, and 32 multi-million-dollar attack tunnels were discovered and either partially or totally collapsed.

Hamas, however, is still trying to show that it’s “business as usual,” and not desperate, according to the unnamed official.

The Islamist organization which runs the coastal enclave is trying to rebuild itself; it’s researching improved versions of its rockets by firing them out to sea, and trying to perpetrate attacks both out of Gaza and via cells in the West Bank, in order to show its residents and external supporters – like Qatar – that it’s still alive and kicking, according to the official.

Overnight Sunday, IDF forces rounded up a seven-member terror cell near Hebron that was planning an attack during the upcoming Rosh Hashana weekend.

“Hamas is trying to rebuild itself from the immensity of the blow it received in Protective Edge; its internal and external infrastructure was degraded and destroyed. It’s not just a financial or image issue. It’ll take Hamas a very long time to regain some of what it lost. They’re as badly injured as Islamic Jihad,” he pointed out.

However, the military does acknowledge that, outwardly, at least, Hamas gained an advantage.

“They were firing rockets up until the last minute, and this ability was not completely destroyed and it is clear to everyone,” the official noted, but added that, “these rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome and the damage they would have done – in such a relatively long operation – is limited to non-existent.”

In this video, shot at the end of July and cleared by the IDF censor, a military helicopter is seen evacuating IDF soldiers wounded in Gaza fighting:

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