‘Fauda’ Creator Avi Issacharoff Sees War Without a Great Outcome: ‘PA Controlling Gaza Is Best Option’
“The Hamas government is done. I don’t see any Israeli government allowing the Hamas government to continue functioning.”
Avi Issacharoff, creator of the hit TV action series Fauda, has spoken on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and, unfortunately, he doesn’t see a good way out of the conflict. Speaking to international journalists on invitation from the Israeli Government Press Office, Issacharoff says Israel “must choose between bad, and worse, options.”
On the one hand, Israel is making “impressive military progress, managing to get to many Hamas leaders on the battalion and platoon level,” says Issacharoff, who notes that Israel has eliminated over 2,000 Hamas terrorist militants in Gaza so far. But, on the other hand, it will likely take concerted and costly effort to achieve the ultimate aims of freeing Israeli hostages and wresting Gaza from the Iran-backed terror group’s control.
And, of course, this is to say nothing on the effects of the psychological and ideological war in parallel to the physical conflict.
When asked how Israel could possibly uproot Hamas’ extremist ideology and prevent a resurgence of violence in the future, Issacharoff replied “There’s no guarantee …” but in his fantasy “as a bored scriptwriter,” the PA (Palestinian Authority) would take control and suppress Hamas as it did in the West Bank in the last 15 years.
“I know it’s a fantasy, but back in 1997, it happened” with the Hebron Agreement. And sometime after Israel and the PA came to that understanding, “[Yasser] Arafat and [Mohammad] Dahlan went around the PA and arrested hundreds of Hamas people, punished, tortured, and jailed them. … So sometimes miracles happen. [But] can it happen in the future? I don’t know.”
In any case, first comes the “kinetic” conflict with the aims of ending Hamas’ governance in Gaza and rescuing the 240+ Israeli hostages.
Challenges in urban warfare
As an award-winning journalist with decades of close coverage of the Hamas terror group as well as of Gaza, Issacharoff is also a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces’ elite Duvdevan unit—comparable to special forces. And he describes the Hamas terror group as a guerrilla fighting force.
“The tactics Hamas uses … it’s not face-to-face against the IDF, because [they know] the IDF is way stronger” head-on. Instead, Hamas pops up from underground in small cells of two to three, uses a drone attack followed by an RPG … “they fire at a tank or vehicle, and then they run back into the tunnels.”
The fighting in Gaza is very dense and complex. The aim is to dismantle Hamas cells and get to the tunnels under Gaza; [and the IDF] didn’t even start yet with all the tunnel infrastructure which is unimaginably huge … allowing Hamas to transfer not only terrorists and hostages, but also motorbikes, artillery, etc.
“The fighting in Gaza is very dense and complex,” Issacharoff explains, with heavy artillery, bombing, air raids, and a ground incursion of armored vehicles as well as ground troops. “The aim is to dismantle Hamas cells and get to the tunnels under Gaza; [and the IDF] didn’t even start yet with all the tunnel infrastructure which is unimaginably huge … allowing Hamas to transfer not only terrorists and hostages but also motorbikes, artillery, etc.”
‘Nearly everywhere there’s a tunnel’
The world recently saw images of the devastation caused by attacking such tunnels, in Jabalia. Israeli forces attacked the location of Hamas operatives and weapons stores, but residential buildings nearby fell deep underground after the bombing—meaning that the target collapsed into a large terror tunnel, which no doubt was another reason for targeting that spot.
“The sad thing is that Hamas doesn’t care about their own people. They use human shields like in Shifa [Hospital]” says Issacharoff. And what’s worse, he points out, is everyone seems to know it, but goes along with the Hamas narrative anyway.
“In Fauda season 3—about five years ago when we wrote it—we featured Shifa Hospital and the Hamas military headquarters underneath. It’s not a classified secret … every kid in Gaza knows that there’s the Hamas HQ there, but they don’t talk about it … and Gaza’s population is paying the heaviest price.”
“The IDF is facing the biggest Catch-22 you can imagine,” says Issacharoff. “Hamas did the biggest attack on Israeli territory since the Holocaust. But what they did immediately after was go underground…” into the hundreds of kilometers of terror tunnels built “under houses and neighborhoods in Gaza City, hoping that Israel won’t bomb them because of human shields. Or that if they do attack, they’ll kill civilians, and the world will accuse Israel of war crimes—which it is.”
‘[Hamas] predicted it, they wanted it, and in a way, they are succeeding’
Still, to achieve the goal of uprooting Hamas, Israel has no choice but to play into the role Hamas prepared for it.
“Maybe the IDF won’t like me saying this, and I see abroad that people don’t understand this. But if you ask me as a journalist, this is not a surgical operation. It’s a war where the enemy is rooted with the locals and hopes that [the] Israelis will [actually] kill their people,” Issacharoff laments.
“It sounds cynical because it is. Not only [for them] to kill Israelis, but also as many Palestinian civilians [as possible]. It’s good for [Hamas] because it makes Israel look bad.”
That said—given Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7—Israel’s image abroad is having less of an effect on the IDF’s actions in the field than one might think; which many experts say took the Gaza terror group by surprise.
For this reason, a cease-fire—even for humanitarian aid—is unlikely to come without major strings attached; namely, the release of Israeli hostages.
Nor would a cease-fire last for more than a few hours, says Issacharoff. “Any more than that and the Israeli public will crucify the government. This may have surprised Hamas, that the Israeli public is so united and supportive of going to very crucial operations and measures against Hamas and Gaza.”
Israel’s public always appeared ‘weak’ to Hamas, Issacharoff explains, in that they weren’t willing to pay the high human cost of a ground invasion. But today, “Israel is saying do whatever is needed to bring down Hamas’ regime and leadership.”
“They [the IDF] will not stop after a small-scale thing. They want to bring Hamas down. … Yes, Israelis are getting killed and injured, but Hamas is paying a very heavy price and they’ll continue to pay a heavy price.”
When asked what he thinks victory will look like, Issacharoff says that “in a grotesque sort of way,” Israel needs the “heads” of Yahya Sinwar and Mohammad Deif—Hamas’ chief in Gaza, and military commander, respectively—”to see and understand that they’re dead once and for all. That would be the sort of ‘victory photo’ for Israel.”
But at the same time, Issacharoff adds, “We can’t really talk about a ‘victory photo’ with 1,400 people killed and [more than] 240 hostages. There’s no [real] victory out of this mess.”
Meanwhile, Israeli flyers dropped above the war zone call on Palestinians to turn Sinwar in to Israeli authorities for a reward. But pushed on whether Palestinians might actually turn on Hamas, particularly given the destruction in Gaza, Issacharoff tells The Media Line that Hamas certainly gained some popularity points both in Gaza and the West Bank on Oct. 7. And indeed Hamas’ popularity dropped precipitously in Gaza after seeing “the consequences of Hamas’ decision, militarily.”
But Issacharoff imagines “Sinwar and other commanders are hiding deep underground where the average person has no access anyway.”
Gaza after Hamas
Now, regardless of how it happens, “The Hamas government is done,” says Issacharoff. “The military wing is different. We can’t kill every guy with an AK-47 who calls himself Hamas. But we will severely damage the army’s capabilities … and I don’t see any Israeli government allowing the Hamas government to continue functioning.”
The question, then, is what does the day after Hamas look like—and this is the bigger challenge.
Taking aim at Israeli leadership, Issacharoff jokes that “several [Israeli] ministers have suggested stupid plans,” like far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who called for reoccupying Gaza, or equally far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, who was suspended for suggesting a nuclear option.
Additionally, Israeli media reports on an allegedly leaked document from a group within the intelligence community which suggests annexing Gaza altogether, after relocating the Palestinians into the Sinai.
‘The best bad idea at the moment’
Whatever the choice, Issacharoff points out that all the options range from bad to worse, and the ‘least bad’ option must be found, which he says relies on the Palestinian Authority.
“The PA is weak and corrupt, I know…” and PA President Abbas will soon be 88 years old. “But honestly, for the long run, I don’t see another option. We can talk about a different force coming together, but what state will send troops to Gaza? Not Egypt or Jordan.”
“It’s the best of the bad ideas at the moment. Can we trust the PA to regain its sovereignty and law and order in Gaza over Hamas? Not at all. Not in its current weak and corrupt state. Hamas would overcome it in hours like they did in 2007.”
But at the same time, Issacharoff says he was pleasantly surprised when the PA reformed its security forces in the West Bank, and (in partnership with Israel) managed to gain power and sovereignty over militants in Judea and Samaria.
“The PA prevented hundreds of attacks against Israeli settlers and soldiers in the last 15 years. … The PA cleaned the West Bank from militants, arms, explosives, and went on an impressive campaign against chaos … against fauda.”
Further, the screenwriter-journalist explains that the “biggest punishment” to Hamas would be an Israeli-Palestinian peace.
“Hamas would go crazy if they’d lost everything they invested in—if another Palestinian force on the ground gained legitimacy” which led to prosperity in Gaza … “a force that wouldn’t have the current limits on goods, electricity, power, etc.”
