The capture of Gaza City would be a fitting end to the Swords of Iron War that Israel launched after the murderous terrorist attack carried out by Hamas on October 7.
Hamas as a conventional army, with an offensive force capable of surprising Israel and striking it, has not existed for some time. Nothing remains of the "state in the making" the organization established in the Gaza Strip, those government ministries and networks of social and economic services through which it ruled the lives of Gaza's population.
And yet, the city of Gaza is the Strip and the Strip is Gaza City, and therefore its capture could constitute a symbolic end to the war, a victory image in the struggle to decisively defeat Hamas. It is a pity only that Israel was unable to complete the picture by eliminating the Hamas leadership abroad, and for that it will have to wait for the next opportunity.
But despite the importance of destroying Hamas's military power and even of capturing Gaza City, those alone will not be enough to end the struggle with Hamas. After all, there will always be some cleric who continues to preach jihad against Israel and there will always be a lone attacker or a terror cell in Gaza or even in the West Bank that seeks to carry out an act of terror.
On the eve of October 7 we misjudged Hamas. We assumed it was an organization that thinks like we do, that it acts according to a Western calculus of gains and losses. In precisely the same way we are mistaken now when we assume it is possible to reach understandings with it or even an agreement that will bring this war to an end, secure the release of our hostages, and dismantle the organization's armaments.
In the past Hamas agreed more than once to a hudna, a temporary ceasefire, until it could renew its struggle against Israel. Those truces were never intended to be steps toward a settlement and peace, as happened with Egypt or Jordan, states that act and make decisions according to state logic. In Hamas's case it was always a respite, a step on the path to renewing the "holy war" with a force greater than before.
The suffering of Gaza's population never raised or lowered anything for Hamas and its leaders. After all, Ahmed Yassin, the organization's founder, already explained: "We, unlike the Israelis, love death more than life." If that is the message, then it is clear why human life has no value or meaning. On the contrary, it is a worthy and desirable price on the altar of jihad, whether in the form of suicide attackers the organization sends to their deaths or the population of the Strip as a whole.
If that is the way of thinking, what kind of agreement exactly can be reached with Hamas? Probably only an agreement of our surrender, in which Israel accepts all its terms and allows it to continue existing in Gaza, to fight and to harm it.
The attempt to reach a deal with Hamas is therefore like trying to square the circle. And the expectation that it can be brought to raise a white flag is not realistic and cannot be relied upon. ISIS was defeated in Syria, but it did not raise a white flag and continues to operate from the depths of the desert and to carry out attacks. Hezbollah was struck a heavy blow, but it too did not raise a white flag and is waiting for an opportune moment to renew its terror activity. And so, by the way, are the Muslim Brotherhood movements in Egypt or Jordan, which were outlawed and whose leaders were imprisoned, and yet the threat still simmers below the surface.
The struggle against movements like Hamas, the terrorist organization, is a struggle that will never end and it requires a clear military decision, which is the foundation and key to everything, but alongside it also a political decision that in the past served as the final nail in the coffin of terror organizations and the ideas they embody.
Neither a Hamas surrender that will not come, nor a white flag that will never be raised, will be the image of victory and the fitting end to the war. Israel must set its targets, not vague slogans that cannot be fulfilled, but clear and specific objectives. When we achieve them we will know we have won the battle, but a long campaign still lies ahead of us.
