Why did Hamas invade Israel? Surely they didn’t hope to take any territory, and even more surely, they didn’t hope to defeat Israel. After raping women and causing mayhem and as much Israel outrage as possible, they went back into Gaza. What did they hope to gain by that? Did anyone think that Israel would just let them go without any response? I’m not hearing anyone in the media discussing Hamas’ motives.
Clearly, the intent was to provoke Israel into a full scale invasion of Gaza. No one can deny that Hamas brought this on themselves. They knew that Israel would strike back with all their fury. One could then criticize Israel for the inevitable ‘disproportionate response.’ Hamas invited Israel to destroy Gaza.
Also, most people accept that Hamas embeds itself inside and under schools and hospitals. Again, did anyone think that Israel would just leave these embedded military operations alone? No, Hamas invited Israel, and counted on Israel, to attack the schools and hospitals. One must conclude that Hamas wanted the thousands of dead children and civilians.
Hamas had no hope of actually winning this war. Rather, the hope was that film footage of dead children and maimed civilians would provoke such international rage against Israel, that the wider Palestinian communities and even the Arab and Islamic nations would finally gang up on Israel and put an end to the Zionist regime.
Hamas has truly succeeded in bringing about their desired thousands of dead children and maimed civilians, thereby bringing rage against Israel, but they have failed to bring in other nations to destroy Israel. Other than some Houthi strikes on ships, the international community has stayed out of the fray. True, Hamas and their Iranian backers have succeeded in preventing any normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. There is still hope that the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon will explode, but the West Bank appears to want to stay out of this.
For Hamas, what would winning even mean? Driving the IDF out of Gaza? Of course not. The best they can hope for is to prolong the slaughter as long as possible, so that they can maintain the image to the world of the brave Palestinians holding out against the evil Jews. The international community is trying to press Israel for a ceasefire. Why don’t they press Hamas for a ceasefire? Hamas has lost the war, especially if one considers Hamas to be synonymous with Gaza. Hamas, by their own count, has brought about the deaths of some 30,000 civilians. A ceasefire should therefore include the end of Hamas, along with the destruction of the tunnels under Gaza. The international community, including the US, is eager to reconstruct Gaza, once the war is over. Hamas could end the war in a second, but they clearly don’t want this carnage to end.
Perhaps a temporary solution would be the neutralization of just Rafah under international supervision, even if the war in the rest of Gaza goes on. However, Hamas wants only the escalation of the war to the wider community, and so still clings to the hope of provoking Israel to kill more civilians in Rafah. If this happens, the blood of all those Palestinans (Sunnis, as opposed to Hamas Shias) will be as much on Hamas’ hands as on Israel’s.