Israel’s War Objectives Not Yet Reached, Fighting Continues With Major Decisions Ahead

Internal and international pressure is mounting for the Israeli government to secure the hostages' release and decide its war and post-war Gaza strategies

It has been over three months since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza erupted.

It began with Hamas’ surprise offensive on Israel’s south, which shocked Israelis and led the country’s leaders to immediately declare war on Hamas. The goals were set out and articulated to the public: The government tasked Israel’s military to destroy Hamas, rid it of its military capabilities, and essentially remove it from power. The other goal was to free over 250 hostages that Hamas had captured during its October 7 onslaught.

However, 106 days later, the fighting shows no sight of ending.  

While almost half of the hostages were released several weeks ago, time is pressing for those hostages still in Hamas captivity, and public pressure within Israel is mounting for the government to secure their release.

Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have insisted that both goals—the hostages’ release and toppling Hamas—can be achieved simultaneously. However, exerting military pressure on Hamas while negotiating with the terrorist group on a hostage release deal seems almost contradictory.

“From the beginning of the war, there was an inherent tension between the goals, but they do not completely cancel each other out,” Professor Danny Orbach, a military historian from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told The Media Line. “The goal of releasing the hostages must be a secondary goal. Israel needs to think about those who will be abducted or murdered in the future. This war is intended to remove an existential threat against Israel and this needs to be the unequivocal goal,” he added.

Hamas has increased its psychological warfare against Israel, touching a nerve in the Israeli public. Releasing chilling videos showing hostages in dire condition or already dead has amped up the tension within society. Israel’s leadership has insisted that both goals are given the same priority.

Hamas’ attack on Israel resulted in the killing of approximately 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians. Thousands more were injured as terrorists stormed Israel’s southern border with Gaza. Since the beginning of the military operation, almost 200 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza. According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, over 24,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israel’s military response, and over 60,000 injured. There is no data on how many of them are terrorists.

In the immediate response to Hamas’ offensive, approximately 300,000 Israeli reserve soldiers were called up to reinforce the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) regular forces. Many of them have been sent home in recent days as the army scales down some of its operations in Gaza.

According to IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, there are currently three divisions in the Gaza Strip, each operating in a separate area, with the largest one in the southern city of Khan Younis, where at least some of Hamas’ leadership is believed to be hiding, possibly together with hostages as human shields.

“Israel has taken a two-track approach,” said Dr. Marina Miron from the War Studies Department at King’s College London. “By bombing the tunnels, you risk killing the hostages, or you risk provoking Hamas to kill the hostages.”

Addressing the Israeli public on Wednesday, Hagari emphasized that the hostage release was the “top” goal of the military operation. While the Israeli military has the capability of operating against Hamas with much more firepower, it has not used its full force.

“This is a time-consuming operation because we must maintain the safety of our forces and also the safety of hostages who may still be in that area,” he said, referring to the operation in Khan Younis.

“The less intense fighting is in places where Hamas is less active,” Orbach told The Media Line. “In southern Gaza, we are seeing an increased intensity.” The battles in that area are “heavy,” according to Hagari, and the IDF confirms that in recent days, several Israeli soldiers were killed there while tens of Hamas terrorists were eliminated.

Hagari’s statements came after rising speculation that Israel was scaling down its war effort despite neither of its goals being accomplished.

“The rotation of the forces is an operational matter…It’s impossible to fight for such a long period of time, without also training and drawing lessons. The operational situation on the ground…requires adjusting the forces…based on intelligence, the enemy’s location, etc., sometimes even reducing forces in the field, for our security and…(for) better mission accomplishment,” Hagari said in the press conference.

“The aim of the next stage of fighting is to release hostages, kill as much of Hamas’ leadership and members as possible, and totally destroy Hamas’ infrastructure,” said Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, former national security advisor and former head of the Research Department in the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, in an online press briefing. “This stage does not require as many soldiers.”

Earlier this week, rockets were fired into Israel just hours after troops withdrew from the center of Gaza. The barrage was followed by public criticism and concern about the measure of success of the military operation.

“It will take a year to clean Gaza from all the rockets,” said Amidror. “But already now, their ability to reproduce rockets has been hit. Continuation of rocket fire doesn’t attest to the IDF operation but serves as indication of how long Hamas’ preparations took.”

At the beginning of the war, Hamas was believed to have possessed thousands of rockets. In addition, it is believed to have invested tremendous resources in developing a web of underground tunnels, hundreds of kilometers in length, further complicating Israel’s push to destroy Hamas.

“Even if the upper layers of the tunnels have been destroyed, there are still lower layers of that network that might be working,” said Miron. “It seems they are still working; Hamas is still using the network even if its damaged.”

Caught by surprise, both Israeli officials and citizens were outraged by the Hamas’ October 7 offensive.

“It is us or them,” was a sentiment echoed by many Israelis, indicating that they wanted to see Hamas removed from Israel’s southern border. As the days and weeks progressed, there were more questions about Israel’s strategy and how it sees the Gaza Strip in the future.

Removing Hamas means the Palestinians in Gaza will need a different leadership. The Israeli government has ruled out re-introducing the Palestinian Authority (PA) into Gaza, saying its ideology is not much different than Hamas’.

“At this point in the war, a political plan for the day after the war becomes increasingly important, even for the coming war moves,” Orbach said. “A decision needs to be made about what is to be done with the civilian population. On the one hand, Israel has said it wants no responsibility for the population, but on the other hand, if it doesn’t want Hamas there, making the alternative is unclear.”

According to Orbach, this results in the constant movement of the civilian population from one place to another within the Gaza Strip. This is becoming more challenging as the UN reports almost two million Gazans have been displaced, many of them cramped into the southern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military is currently operating.

“Militarily, Hamas can be destroyed, but the problem is there is no plan on how to deal with Gaza after that,” Miron told The Media Line. “All the people in Gaza having lost family members and witnessed destruction—if they didn’t support Hamas before, there is a potential that this will grow into a different group that will still pose a threat to Israel.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who led Israel successively from 2009 to 2021, with a brief pause until he resumed office at the end of 2022, was a major part of Israel’s policy toward Hamas. The Israeli leader aided the group, perpetuating the internal Palestinian rift between Hamas in Gaza and the PA in the West Bank. He reportedly said that keeping Hamas in power in Gaza would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Hamas was treated as an asset that could keep Gaza quiet, as Israel conveniently ignored the gradual strengthening of the terrorist organization. However, Hamas grew into a sizeable enemy that is posing a consistent challenge to Israel.  

“Netanyahu pathologically avoids decision-making,” said Orbach. “This will become even more problematic as the war continues. The army needs to know what to do with the civilian population [in Gaza]. If Israel becomes an occupying power in the southern Gaza Strip, it will be subject to responsibilities under international law that include military rule. This takes more than one day of organization and giving Israel’s allies a heads-up on its intentions.”

As Israel faces a possible war on its northern border against the Lebanese Hizbullah organization, it needs to get its ducks in a row in Gaza. Part of this may be relieving reserve forces ahead of a fiercer war in the north.

This time, it appears, Israel will need to make a clear-cut decision as internal and international pressure mounts.