ISRAELI FRUSTRATION OVER ITS FAILURE TO OVERTHROW HAMAS IN GAZA AFTER THE WAR STOPPED

Mon 03 February 2025:

Now that the Israeli aggression on Gaza has ended, albeit temporarily, the Israelis, after nearly 500 days since the 7 October attack, are still searching for an answer to the historical question of why Hamas carried out this attack. Meanwhile, they are ignoring the fact that the Palestinians broke the barrier of fear a long time ago, and this major change and shift has passed under the Israeli radar. It is a dramatic change that does not bode well for the Occupation.

The Israeli reading of the reality of the relationship with Gaza, and Hamas at its heart, after signing the ceasefire agreement, carries dangerous implications, the most important of which is that nearly 90 captives remain a few hundred metres, a few kilometres at most, away from the Occupation army, which remains unable to rescue them.

More than 15 months after they occurred, the events of October prompted the Israelis to ask the question: How could it be that “little” Gaza started a comprehensive war against the “strongest” power in the Middle East, launched several thousand rockets at it, as it did in every round in recent years, and all the while, Hamas maintained its presence there, despite the severe wounds it sustained?

The answers to these legitimate questions have been presented in recent years with clarity and transparency, but the Israelis did not read them well. The result is that what happened in October 2023 is evidence that Hamas climbed the wall, or rather, broke it, blew it up and entered through it to carry out an attack that the Occupation did not imagine would occur in such a dangerous and violent manner.

__________________________________________________________________________

https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22

__________________________________________________________________________

Today, after the Palestinians began returning to their homes, and the fighters emerged from their tunnels and are conducting the handovers of Israeli captives in these unprecedented scenes, the Israelis have begun to show their need to simply listen to what is being said on the other side by the Palestinians in Gaza, without underestimating the value of their words, and without closing their ears. They would hear that willingness of the average Palestinian in Gaza to fight for their freedom has not changed.

After nearly 500 days of millions of shells and explosives being dropped on their heads, the Palestinians in Gaza who have a developed a heightened sense of smell, still do not smell the end of Hamas among them. Quite the opposite, they see that even after these long months of fighting, Hamas still controls everything, from the north to the south.

This damning fact requires directing harsh questions to the Occupation government, which has been driving the Israelis crazy with talk of “absolute victory, eliminating Hamas and the day after”. However, now, it must ask itself how it reached this point where it is no longer able to benefit from what it claims are “achievements” made by the army in the battle.

The scenes coming from Gaza in recent days, especially during the handing over of the Israeli captives, and the accompanying scenes of Hamas fighters, confirm the great doubts that have been raised since the beginning of the war about the Occupation’s ambitions to change the image in Gaza from beginning to end, especially since the Occupation government has not presented what can be described as “creative solutions, and has shown no out-of-the-box thinking”, except for the demagogic slogans it has put forward about radically changing the situation in Gaza.

These frustrating Israeli convictions confirm that the Occupation’s invasion of the entire Gaza Strip, and its claims about dismantling Hamas’s battalions and brigades, did not lead to the Occupation’s desired result because, according to the current Israeli assessment, after the announcement of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas will continue to rule in the absence of a ruling alternative, and although the Israeli war provided an opportunity to change the existing reality in Gaza, the change that the Occupation seeks to make more dramatic will bring it regret for years to come.

While it is true that the Israelis announced since the first day of the war that its main goal was to overthrow Hamas’s authority in Gaza, and to turn the page on its control over the Strip, these difficult days and months of brutal and violent aggression did not succeed in achieving this goal, through various means, military, political and economic, which raises questions about the reason behind Israel’s failure.

The Israeli aggression that caused enormous damage to the Gaza Strip, and in which the Occupation received immense and full support from the American administration and most Western governments, was not accompanied by a successful and complete overthrow of Hamas, thus raising more inquisitive questions to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is described as a lot of bad things, and is said to have a group of offensive personal traits.

The fact that the army ended the war on Gaza, even temporarily, is met with the fact that Hamas is still far from being eliminated. This is a dilemma that many Israelis are trying to explain and understand, as the Israeli failure to overthrow Hamas coincides with a failure to impose any local, regional or international options for a solution in Gaza, all of which have not succeeded, at least so far.

Such options contradict Netanyahu’s positions, who has worked hard throughout his years in power to hide the “Palestinian issue” from the international agenda, but today he believes that moving forward in the “post-Hamas world” will make it difficult for him to avoid the Palestinian issue and the demands of the US and the world in this regard. This will directly lead to the dissolution of his government that is required to answer questions about talking about any alternative to Hamas, and to hold a real discussion about the future of the Palestinian Territories.

The Israeli inability to eliminate Hamas reveals a conflict in Israeli goals on the one hand, between the political and military levels, and on the other hand, the movement’s ability to withstand the use of all this deadly military arsenal, which ultimately means that it will remain in Gaza, ruling and controlling, even from a distance, despite the severe damage it has suffered. However, Israel leaving Gaza after nearly 500 days there raises more Israeli questions and doubts about the failure of this aggressive war, unlike any war the Occupation has fought in its history.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Independent Press.

by Aziz Mustafa

__________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

WhatsApp CHANNEL
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22