Deradicalize the future: Free Gaza and the world from Hamas

For decades, Gaza has been trapped in a cycle of violence, suffering, and manipulation. It has been radicalized, not just militarily, but ideologically— its schools, mosques, and institutions turned into factories of extremism. When we speak about an end to the war, it must mean more than an end to the fighting. It must mean an end to Hamas’s radicalization, control of, and even presence in Gaza.

The Forgotten Condition: Deradicalization

As the second phase of the ceasefire negotiations unfolds (or doesn’t), one question remains conspicuously absent from the conversation: Where is the commitment to deradicalization?

It is widely acknowledged that peaceful relations cannot exist alongside extremism, yet the current discourse prioritizes temporary deals over fundamental change. We discuss ceasefires, humanitarian aid, territorial concessions, hostage to prisoner ratios, demilitarization and other (currently pretty bleak) political resolutions—but without deradicalization, these efforts are nothing more than band-aids on a festering wound. The ideological infrastructure that fuels Hamas will remain intact, ensuring that today’s war will only be paused until the next one—something that we, who are Israeli, all know.

How Radicalization Took Root

The radicalization of Gaza was not accidental. It was cultivated— deliberately and systematically for almost two decades—through a network of Hamas-controlled education, media, and religious indoctrination. UNRWA schools have been exposed time and again for using textbooks that glorify terrorism and demonize Jews. Hamas-run summer camps train children not in life skills, but in martyrdom. Clerics preach annihilation instead of co-existence. This is not just a military struggle; it is a generational war for the minds of Gaza’s youth.

And yet, while Hamas has been clear about its goals, the international community has refused to demand ideological reform as a prerequisite for aid, reconstruction, or political recognition. Why is deradicalization not a core condition in the post-war vision for Gaza?

Deradicalization is a Precondition for “Peace”

True peace requires dismantling the ideological machinery that perpetuates the conflict. This is not without precedent. Even Post-World War II Germany underwent extensive denazification and demilitarization before it could rejoin the world as a peaceful nation. The education system was overhauled, propaganda was removed, and an entire generation was taught new values. Which begs the question—if we could pull off the denazification of Germany, then shouldn’t we be able pull off the “dehamasification” of Gaza?

We cannot simply rebuild Gaza while leaving Hamas’s influence intact. The world must demand that the future leadership of Gaza prove its commitment to peace through action, not just words—by reforming its schools, media, and institutions to teach coexistence, not genocide. Germany certainly couldn’t properly “denazify” while still brainwashing German children in their schools; and yet, that’s similar to what the international community has (unfairly and ignorantly) been asking of Israel to do in terms of agreeing to an end to the war in Gaza. There is no end to this war until there is an actual end to this extremist Islamic Jihadist ideology. That is a fact.

A Blueprint for De-Hamasification

If Israel is to ensure that Hamas does not rise again, it must go beyond military victory and commit to a full-scale ideological and structural dismantling of Hamas. Lessons from history offer a blueprint for how to prevent a resurgence of extremism.

Public Trials and the Death Penalty for Terrorists

One of Israel’s greatest mistakes has been allowing imprisoned terrorists to become bargaining chips in future hostage exchanges. This cannot happen again. Just as the Nuremberg Trials exposed Nazi crimes to the world, Hamas leaders must be publicly prosecuted, their despicable atrocities displayed before an international audience, and humiliated in the eyes of their former followers. The worst offenders—those responsible for mass murder, rape, and other heinous acts, who are serving multiple life sentences in Israeli prisons—should face the death penalty, ensuring that they are never again leveraged in a future war.

International Oversight of Post-War Gaza

Germany after World War I believed it had not truly lost the war—a misconception that fueled World War II (great podcast on this). Today, Gazans believe that Hamas has won the war. This simply cannot stand. Much like how the Allies of World War II had to occupy Germany after the war, a coalition of nations should oversee Gaza’s governance after this war, ensuring that Hamas’s remnants do not simply regroup under a different name.

Saudi-Style Deradicalization Centers in Gaza

In so many ways, however, the success of denazification is not at all relevant to the deradicalization process of Jihadi extremists—the most obvious being that Jihadists willingly sacrifice themselves and others with the full belief that this is the highest divine service a Muslim can perform. That religious belief makes this an entirely different beast to deradicalize. However, the good news is that several Muslim-majority countries have already implemented successful deradicalization programs—including Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, and Singapore. These various programs offer a range of strategies that could greatly inform the development of a deradicalization process tailored to the unique context of Hamas’s influence in Gaza. For further reading on this subject, I recommend the fascinating, comprehensive paper “A New Approach? Deradicalization Programs and Counterterrorism,” which provides detailed insights into various initiatives already successfully implemented elsewhere. It is also a potential contact list of scholars and experts on the subject, who could (and potentially should) be consulted for the process of designing a complementary “soft” counter-terrorism strategy for post-war, post-Hamas Gaza.

Perhaps the most successful of these aforementioned programs is Saudi Arabia’s Muhammad bin Naif Counseling and Care Center, which has rehabilitated over 3,300 former extremists with an 86% success rate. The international community could require the construction of such centers in Gaza, operating around these same core tenants:

• Detain and process Hamas-affiliated individuals, separating hardliners from those who can be rehabilitated.
• Provide intensive religious instruction, led by vetted scholars, to counteract Hamas’s extremist distortions of Islam.
• Incorporate psychological counseling and job training to help former extremists reintegrate.
• Utilize post-release surveillance systems, as in Saudi Arabia, to ensure that former Hamas members do not return to terrorism.

Furthermore, this initiative should extend beyond Gaza. Any Gazans seeking asylum abroad should be required to first undergo ideological screening and, if necessary, placement in deradicalization programs in their new host countries before being granted refugee status.

Prison-Based Deradicalization for Terrorist Detainees

Prisons are breeding grounds for jihadist recruitment. Notably, in Saudi Arabia, there exists two separate prison systems—one for non-extremist criminals, and another for extremist criminals and convicted terrorists—the idea being that, if you separate the two, the extremists will not be able to radicalize the more moderate. To prevent Hamas from regenerating inside Israeli detention facilities, a prison-based deradicalization initiative— modeled after Saudi Arabia’s—should be implemented, ensuring that detainees engage in forced ideological confrontation, receive psychological rehabilitation, are fully isolated from Jihadist networking, and are provided with the social and financial stability to successfully avoid recidivism upon release.

The Real Work Begins After the War

The greatest challenge is not defeating Hamas militarily; it is ensuring that a new Hamas does not rise in its place. This is what “total victory” would actually look like. If the world is serious about securing a better future for both Israelis and for Gazans, it must commit to the long, difficult process of de-Hamasification—through public trials, ideological re-education, and international governance. Without it, Gaza will remain locked in its tragic cycle—perpetually at war, perpetually suffering, perpetually held hostage by the ideology of extremism, perpetually carrying out acts of terror and mass murder in Israel, which perpetually inspire jihadists all around the world to do the same. In addition to hard counter-terrorism operations with the military, a comprehensive and controlled “soft counter-terrorism” approach must be a core requirement for the ending of this war, because it is a vital component for the sake of Israel’s national security.

We must stop pretending that we can achieve an end to this war, let alone an increasingly elusive, even delusional idea of peace, without addressing the root cause of this ideological, religious war. This is a conversation which needs to be had now, and louder. This is the conversation that has been needed to be had for decades. Deradicalize the Future: Free Gaza, and the world, from Hamas.