July 18, 2024:
Israel believes it must eliminate all traces of Hama in Gaza. This is difficult to do because any Palestinian that can obtain a weapon can proclaim themselves a Hamas militant. Hamas fighters wear no uniforms so all it takes is a weapon and individuals proclaiming membership in Hamas for Hamas to continue in Gaza.
In June Israel declared that eliminating the ability of Hamas members to attack was the primary objective, rather than its initially stated goal of eliminating Hamas in Gaza. Currently Hamas has about 10,000 armed men, which is about a third to half of what they started with in October 2023. Israelis make a point of seizing weapons whenever possible and destroying them. Without a weapon a Palestinian is not an armed member of Hamas. There are plenty of potential recruits because a March 2024 poll of Gaza Palestinians revealed that 71 percent still supported the October offensive. This was up from 53 percent in December 2023. While many Palestinians are killed during these Hamas offensives, as memories fade approval of the Hamas attacks increases.
When asked who they believed should govern Gaza when the fighting ends, 52 percent favored Hamas, 40 percent the corrupt and ineffective Palestinian Authority that governs the West Bank while five percent favored one or more Arab nations. Arab countries want nothing to do with governing Palestinians, who have proved violent and resistant to any form of government. Israel tries to persuade, without much success, the Palestinian Authority (PA) to provide effective rule. The PA leaders are more interested in stealing aid and any cash provided to maintain a government. For example, while there is a lot of food in the Palestinian territories, people have little cash to buy it because salaries of PA employees have not been paid. Where did the money, provided by Western and Arab countries, go? It was stolen by the PA, who either tried to blame someone else or claimed administrative problems. Hamas does the same thing in Gaza. In the Palestinian territories the primary administrative problem is the Palestinian government.
Meanwhile the fighting goes on in Gaza as Israel slowly seeks to destroy the remaining armed Hamas men while minimizing Israeli casualties. They have been much more successful in minimizing their own casualties. In response, Hamas uses hundreds of kilometers of tunnels under Gaza to hide weapons, supplies and known Hamas fighters. Israel destroys tunnels as it finds them but admits 70 percent of the tunnels are still intact. And in those tunnels Hamas fighters, their weapons, ammunition, rockets and other supplies survive. Hamas realizes that as long as most of their senior combat commanders and veteran fighters survive, rockets can still be fired towards Israel and casualties inflicted on Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The senior Hamas leaders can also plan larger attacks on Israel and communicate with their supporters outside Gaza about obtaining more weapons to use against Israeli towns and cities as well as Israeli troops in Gaza,
Hamas leaders are also aware that large numbers of Palestinian civilians killed during the fighting keeps Palestinians angry at Israel, not Hamas. Because of this hostility, Israel will not allow Hamas to resume governing Gaza. At the same time many Palestinians in Gaza do not want to be ruled by Palestinian Authority officials who run the West Bank. Those administrators are notoriously inept and corrupt and, when the Palestinian Authority ran Gaza before Hamas took over, were thrown out in an election because they were too inept and corrupt.
Iran, which is determined to destroy Israel, is a primary supporter of Hamas. Iran provides millions of dollars in aid to Hamas although most of this money never reaches the Palestinian people or Hamas. The cash remains under the control of a few very wealthy Palestinian leaders who live in Arab Persian Gulf countries. The United States has assisted Hamas as well by refusing to designate it as a terrorist organization. Instead the Americans consider Hamas a resistance movement. This is very diplomatic of the Americans but ignores the reality of Hamas activities among the Palestinian people in Gaza and elsewhere.
Hamas also realizes that they win if they don’t lose all of their weapons and other assets. Hamas has created an administrative organization that is resistant to complete destruction. Hamas has several billion dollars, perhaps ten billion, in assets outside the areas where the fighting is going on.
Israel, faced with this reality, has come up with a number of new concepts and tactics that aim to destroy Hamas capabilities in Gaza. The Israelis realize the external Hamas support will revive Hamas military power if given time. The new Israeli strategy seeks to prevent that from happening in Gaza and other Palestinian territories. Israel and Hamas realize that most Palestinian civilians would prefer to live peacefully with opportunities for employment and building better lives for themselves. This is anathema to Hamas, which needs widespread violence and lots of dead Palestinians to survive. The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas is all about Israelis trying to keep the peace while Hamas fights back with death and destruction.