Hamas's Delusions of Repeating October 7

"[The war will] continue for many more months [to ensure that] our achievements are preserved for a long time."

"There are no shortcuts when it comes to thoroughly dismantling a terrorist organization except being stubborn and determined in the fighting." 

Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) 

"It was a night of hell."

"We haven't seen such bombing since the start of the war."

"[Warplanes flew overhead, gunfire and explosions echoed from the eastern edge of the Bureij refugee camp]."

Rami Abu Mosab, Bureij camp

Israel adamant there will be no peace until Hamas is destroyed   Reuters

It is not possible that Hamas failed to calculate what the response would be by Israel when its operatives flooded into southern Israel, along with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Palestinian civilians who flocked after the two terrorist groups, to wreak deadly havoc on unsuspecting civilians in towns and villages, farming communities and kibbutzim bordering Gaza, by breaching the separating wall. The extent and breadth of the uninhibited human carnage so profound that even now, months after the October 7 bloodbath, forensic pathologists are still identifying human remains.

 

The terrorist horde were given implicit instructions to impose horrors on the defenceless civilians, to rape and to kill, and to record their triumphs for posterity. And record them they did, the horrendously sadistic savagery imposed on children, the videos of mass rapes of girls and women, the slaughter of entire families; there was no mercy from the butchery. The videos produced by the Hamas terrorists while they were in the throes of committing inhumane acts of deranged violence reflected the pride they took in anguishing their victims with dread and pain. 

The Hamas commanders who ordered this massive loss of life in the space of a day where 1,200 mostly civilians were mutilated and murdered, women and girls violently raped before their deaths, infants killed in their cribs, and over 240 men, women and children, among them a handful of Israeli soldiers taken hostage to experience months of fear and deprivation until half were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, would have known what was in store; a military campaign to respond to the unthinkable. 

They knew also that while the Israeli military focused on carrying out their mission to counter the terrorist groups there would be civilian casualties since Hamas plans for them, too, by installing their weapons depots and command centres in public spaces like hospitals, mosques and schools where the populace is dense and most vulnerable, given the vast underground tunnel system from which Hamas operates and finds shelter for themselves only, from the incoming fire responding to their assaults on Israel.

Israel Defense Forces spokespeople are quite clear; the terror infrastructure was being targeted. And the al-Bureij camp was described as an "established Hamas terror nest". Israeli forces, during the operation, located a tunnel shaft leading to a wide underground route with a Hamas training complex and weapons caches. The IDF announced that 200 Hamas targets were attacked in 24 hours on the 82nd day of the conflict across the Gaza Strip. The Hamas elite leaders are fond of assuring the world that Palestinians are prepared to die for the cause of destroying Israel. 

And so, they are dying in Israel's cause of destroying Hamas. For Hamas repeatedly states that nothing will stop them from imposing as many October 7 events as they deem are required to annihilate Israel. Israel intends to beat them at their own game. Even while Palestinians are suffering in Gaza, from lack of water, food, medicine, Hamas has ample supplies; the humanitarian goods that come through to Gaza to relieve the plight of the citizenry, is hijacked by Hamas for its own needs.

 

About 85% of Gaza's population has been displaced: UN  EPA

 

Even while Israel speaks of the bombing campaign and ground offensive to dismantle Hamas and prevent repeats of the October 7 attack, Hamas continues to send rockets into Israel, from border communities to central Israel. There is no lack of rockets, nor the fuel to send them off. Israel has made it abundantly clear to the outside world its attention fixed on the plight of the Palestinians, that it is Hamas that has imposed this plight, and because Hamas's intention is to destroy Israel and it vows never to surrender, this is a conflict with a long life ahead of it, until Hamas is destroyed.

Just as Israel is adamant that it cannot and will not rest until Hamas is gone as a threat to Israelis, Hamas says no more hostages will be released until Israel ends the war, and the remaining captives will be traded by Hamas for large numbers of Palestinian prisoners including high-profile terrorists imprisoned for mounting deadly attacks in Israel. Hamas feels entitled to dictate any terms related to a conflict that it initiated through terror and indiscriminate slaughter. Terrorists have no sense of conscience at the results of their murderous savagery.

Egypt has presented a proposal to end the war that would include release of all hostages held in Gaza and all Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. The fault line there is that Palestinians imprisoned in the past for terrorism and the murder of Jews, have a tendency to return to the very same tactics that brought them imprisonment to begin with, and since the entire point of Israel's intention to destroy Israel is to protect its citizens from any future October 7s, releasing more Hamas operatives opposes the purpose of defanging that serpent.

 

Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip set up tents in Deir al Balah, Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)