It’s time to invade Gaza and finish the job with Hamas

On January 29, 2024, I wrote a short article for the Washington Outsider entitled “Time limitations, negotiations, and ceasefires do not go along with the objective of eradicating Hamas”, where I criticized the former US administration’s pressure on Israel to rush the war in Gaza and negotiate with Hamas. Among other things, I said that it was absurd even to think that it would have been possible to eradicate 17 years of Hamas rule in a couple of months; that it wasn’t just a war between Hamas and Israel, but a broader regional conflict that involved Iran and its other proxies, the Houthis and Hezbollah.

Regarding the hostage negotiations, I said that it was impossible to eradicate Hamas while at the same time trying to cut a deal with it since, as a terrorist and genocidal organization, it is unreliable. Most important of all, I made clear that the hostages are Hamas’ only insurance against the eradication from Gaza. It is therefore naïve to believe that the hostages will all be released.

It is now March 2025, and Hamas is still in Gaza, and so are 59 hostages (24 indicated as still alive and the rest presumably dead, according to the latest info). Hamas did not comply with the deal, refusing to free additional hostages and blamed Israel for it, as always.

I’m saying it once again, Hamas will not free all the hostages. There is absolutely no interest for the terrorist group to do it. Hamas leaders will aim at dragging forward the release process for months, maybe years and, in the meantime, Hamas will ask for guarantees regarding its permanence and political role in Gaza while regrouping and rearming.

Moreover, the whole mechanism of releasing a few hostages at the time benefits nobody except Hamas (and anyone else who wishes to maintain the current situation). The remaining hostages who are still alive will not survive for much longer in Hamas’ underground concentration camps. In addition, it’s unfair to have some released and others not. They all deserve to be freed immediately.

In addition, the “few at the time” mechanism only prolongs the Israeli internal issue regarding the demonstrations in favor of a “deal” that would imply surrendering to Hamas and to transnational terrorism. Of course, the families of the hostages wish to believe that accepting Hamas’ demands would be the solution, and that is understandable due to the dramatic situation they are stuck in. However, we do not live in Alice’s Wonderland and reality often differs from what we wish.

Hamas must be subjected to such pressure that it has no choice but to release the hostages. Qatar, as a Hamas longstanding supporter, despite its alleged role as a “mediator”, should be pressured too, and the United States have all the tools to do that.

As I already said several times, cutting deals with terrorists is wrong, and not just ethically, but practically speaking.

1- Negotiations and deals encourage terrorists to repeat atrocities, because they know that at the end of the game, their demands will be met. Negotiating with terrorists means putting the lives of more citizens at risk, because they will become targets of more terrorist actions, inside and outside of the borders. (Hamas reconfirmed that they would perpetrate more attacks, and they will, maybe through the hands of those who are being released by Israel. In addition, it recently emerged that Hamas was recently planning a new October 7^th style attack from Gaza). Let’s also not forget that the October 7^th massacre was the result of previous negotiations.

2- Negotiations provide the terrorist organization with political legitimacy, elevating them to legitimate interlocutors, when instead they should be marginalized and subjected to strong pressure by all possible means.

3- Negotiations and possible agreements allow terrorists to boost their propaganda, presenting the results achieved as a “great victory of the resistance”. That is exactly what happened during the release of the hostages with Hamas setting up the stage to show that it is still in power, while humiliating the released hostages.

4- Terrorists and their supporters tend to call for the level of conflict to be raised when they are in the grip of exaltation. This is clear and obvious because when the terrorists perceive the negotiation as a “victory of the resistance” or a “surrender of the enemy,” they aim to persist in the fight with greater intensity.

The only way to eradicate Hamas from Gaza is by invading the Strip, occupying it militarily and suffocating the terrorist organization until full surrender. The enemy must be encircled and totally isolated to avoid the possibility of restocking weapons, fuel and any other goods. All its leaders must be hunted down, wherever they may hide.

That’s what the US-led coalition did in Mosul against ISIS; that is what the Russian army did in Chechnya during the Second Chechen War. The Chechens used tunnels and underground hideouts to avoid Russian troops, but that did not help them in the medium-long term. Would you have imagined the US or Russia allowing “humanitarian aid” and fuel to their enemy during the siege?

It’s time to move in and finish the job. Unlike some European and Arab leaders wish to believe, the only obstacle to peace is Hamas, not the Israeli military activity, and the conflict cannot end until the terrorist organization is eradicated.