A Hamas festival in Gaza. Photo: WikiCommons.

Israel Defense Forces Southern Command officers said that Gaza based terror group Hamas has been greatly weakened since Operation Pillar of Defense, last year, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported on Tuesday.

The officers compared Hamas’s terror activity after 2009’s Operation Cast Lead to 2013’s Operation Pillar of Defense, and found that Hamas had been much more soundly beaten in the latter operation.

In the wake of Operation Cast Lead, in 2009, Hamas launched 202 attacks against the IDF with Qassam rockets, Grad rockets and launching mortar shells; in 2013, the number of attacks after the operation fell to 37.

In 2009, there were 20 bomb attacks against Israel; in 2013, only 4. In 2009, Hamas fired anti-tank guns at the IDF 10 times; in 2013, not once.

The figures put last week’s Hamas attack in context, when five Israeli soldiers were injured after the IDF detonated part of a Hamas terror tunnel near the Gaza border in the Khan Yunis, and an ensuing Israeli airstrike in response to the Hamas attack killed three Palestinian terrorist commanders.

“We are […] determined to make the most of Hamas’ disadvantage and I think we have been successful,” an unnamed senior officer at Southern Command told Ma’ariv.