Benjamin Netanyahu is risking a pyrrhic victory in Gaza that damages the chances of long-term peace
Israel has undoubtedly weakened Hamas after six months of fighting in Gaza, but the short-term tactical gains against the group behind the October 7 attack may come at a significant cost to Israel’s long-term security, as well as complicating potential postwar efforts to resolve one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.
The Israel Defense Forces have killed thousands of Hamas fighters and seized critical military infrastructure, reducing the group’s ability to launch future attacks.
But Israel’s actions in Gaza have led to accusations of genocide in an international court, have distanced the country from its closest ally, the United States, and have damaged chances of securing a lasting peace.
“Israel is being sent before the International Court of Justice and condemned by the U.N. And, most important of all, its relationship with the United States is fraying at the seams,” Mohammed Hafez, an expert on Islamist political violence and Middle East politics at the Naval Postgraduate School, told Newsweek.
“While Israel has achieved substantial military success in its campaign in Gaza, it has destroyed its image around the world,” Hafez said.
Israel now faces growing criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where more than 30,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict according to the Hamas authorities. They do not say how many of the group’s fighters were among the dead.
Israel has yet to achieve its objectives of destroying Hamas and freeing all of the remaining hostages the group abducted in its attack last October, which killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also hasn’t laid out a clear postwar plan for the Gaza Strip, raising questions about longer-term ramif-ications—and renewing an existential debate about whether Israel can survive in its current form without agreeing to live alongside an independent Palestinian state or whether such an agreement would put it at greater risk.
“ There’s the issue of what comes next in Gaza, and Israel hasn’t addressed it,” Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Newsweek. Israeli officials and others argued defeating Hamas would make Israel safer.
“Ultimately, we have a primary obligation to the citizens of the state of Israel. We need to protect them. We’re not safe with Hamas on our border,” Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the outgoing deputy mayor of Jerusalem, told Newsweek.
“If we don’t destroy Hamas, it’s a green light for other terrorist organizatio
