Israel and Hamas WILL keep fighting……
It is doubtful that Israel will be able to completely erase Hamas from Gaza….
Here’s what we know:
Both Israel and Hamas have staked out seemingly intractable positions in public, leading diplomats to say they believe that a truce remains far off.
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Truce proposals circulate, but prospects for a new cease-fire appear remote.
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Satellite imagery shows Israel’s advance into central Gaza.
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The number of Palestinians in Israeli jails is at a 14-year high, a rights group says.
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Israel returns the bodies of 80 Palestinians to Gaza, officials say.
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The latest Israeli raid in the West Bank kills 6, Palestinian officials say…..
You have to understand….
This IS a ‘blood fued’……
Neither Israel or Hamas CARE about much of anything else….
And IS hurting each other and thousand’s of others on BOTH sides…
This while the outside world stands by helplessly watch the carnage ….
And critics both within Israel and outside have questioned whether resolving to destroy such a deeply entrenched organization was ever realistic. One former Israeli national security adviser called the plan “vague.”
“I think that we have reached a moment when the Israeli authorities will have to define more clearly what their final objective is,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said this month. “The total destruction of Hamas? Does anybody think that’s possible? If it’s that, the war will last 10 years.”
Since it first emerged in 1987, Hamas has survived repeated attempts to eliminate its leadership. The organization’s very structure was designed to absorb such contingencies, according to political and military specialists. In addition, Israel’s devastating tactics in the Gaza war threaten to radicalize a broader segment of the population, inspiring new recruits….
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Hamas is rooted in the ideology that Israeli control over what it regards as Palestinians lands must be opposed by force, a tenet likely to endure, experts said.
“As long as that context is there, you will be dealing with some form of Hamas,” said Tahani Mustafa, senior Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank. “To assume that you can simply uproot an organization like that is fantasy.”
The Israeli military said this week that it had killed about 8,000 Hamas fighters out of a force estimated at 25,000 to 40,000. But it is unclear how the count is being made. About 500 have surrendered, according to the military, though Hamas has denied that all were from its ranks.
The military has at times delivered positive progress reports on its objectives, describing as “imminent” full control over the areas in northern Gaza where it began its ground offensive in late October.
But Mr. Netanyahu acknowledged on Sunday that the war “is exacting a very heavy cost from us” as the military announced that 15 soldiers had been killed in the previous 48 hours alone. Rockets are still being fired almost daily from southern Gaza into Israel, albeit far fewer than before….
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Dec 26, 2023 – ISW Press
Hamas and other Palestinian militias are exploiting the Israeli hostages they are holding to ensure that Hamas and its partners are involved in any negotiations about the future of the Gaza Strip. Hamas having a role in the future of the strip is incompatible with Israel’s stated war objectives of destroying Hamas, demilitarizing Gaza, and deradicalizing “Palestinian society.”