Claims that the war in Gaza is 'stuck' or 'going nowhere' and that the military strategy has 'failed' are, in my view, unfair and mainly incorrect statements. They embody an expectation that the IDF should have achieved more in the elapsed time, while ignoring that during this same period, it invested half of its resources on the northern front and achieved remarkable success in that arena. The flip side is that in Gaza – a dense urban area interwoven with the world's most extensive underground fortification system – the IDF has had to fight with half of its resources.
Despite this, this fighting has brought a significant achievement: the IDF has surrounded the Strip, split it in two, and established solid control over 30% of its area.
The fact that the IDF can empty entire cities of their inhabitants, destroy them, and establish control in open areas without population, while Hamas cannot in any way challenge or threaten Israeli control in these areas, is an enormous pressure lever on Hamas, which was one of the main factors that led it to agree to a deal under more limited terms than it demanded in the past.
Among other things, the significance of this fact is that Israel can apply unlimited time pressure on Hamas without paying any real price. Israel can simply continue to hold Philadelphi, Netzarim, and the northern Strip, and also expand its control to additional open areas in the southern Strip, while Hamas neither succeeds in causing casualties among the soldiers holding these areas, nor really manages to fire rocket barrages that disrupt life in Israel. This is a position where time works in our favor, and it's a very, very comfortable position from which to conduct negotiations.
Given its military failure, Hamas relied on two things working in its favor: first, that the Israeli population would struggle to endure prolonged fighting and therefore break psychologically and demand an end to the fighting; and second, that military achievements could always be neutralized through the return of hostages. They were quite right about both, but – and it's important to emphasize this – this is not a military failure.
It is definitely advisable to continue the military momentum after the first phase of the deal, and I also think that's what will happen. This momentum can bring achievements at a much faster pace than before, since the IDF will finally be able to redirect forces from the northern front to Gaza, and since we'll receive a much freer hand from the new Trump administration.
Precisely for all these reasons, avoiding a return to fighting and giving up on conquering Gaza and destroying Hamas cannot be considered anything but an abject failure that would require immediate government resignation and new elections. No achievement on another front could atone for this failure; not normalization with Saudi Arabia and not even striking Iran's nuclear facilities. Without destroying Hamas, the government has no right to exist.
Elad Nahshon is a PhD student at Bar Ilan University, studying the political and social history of Zionism and the State of Israel.
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