Regarding the "vanishing Hamas fighters", Mao said, in his treatise "On Guerrilla Warfare", that "the guerrillas swim in the people as a fish swims in the water"... so it's not unheard of, and has precedent in nearly every guerrilla war fought, ever.
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“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger.”
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake