The New York Times said that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is still reaping the benefits from its surprise attack on Israel on October 7, as it gained prestige among the Palestinians, poisoned Israel’s relations with the Arab world, and returned the Palestinian issue to the Western agenda, while Israel became stuck. In a war you cannot win.
After two months of continuous Israeli bombing, the state of devastation that most of the Gaza Strip has become, and the massive and increasing death toll, Israel has not killed senior Hamas leaders, has not returned those detained by the movement, and has not provided convincing evidence that it is capable of achieving its goal of eliminating Hamas, which… Its presence only appears when its fighters go out to attack Israeli tanks or fire missiles at Israel.
The newspaper explained – in a report written by Ben Hubbard from Istanbul – that the high ceiling of Israel’s target constitutes an additional advantage for Hamas, which can declare victory as soon as it survives to fight another day. Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib, a Middle East policy analyst, said that “Israel will remain stuck in “This is an unwinnable war that will cause massive death and destruction.”
Unprecedented brutality
The newspaper wondered what exactly Israel could achieve, knowing that continuing the war could, over time, harm its economy and international standing, while encouraging a new generation of Palestinians to hate Israel, all of which would benefit Hamas.
Although the sudden attack led by Hamas on Israel was “barbaric,” the newspaper says, the Israeli response came with unprecedented brutality.
She said that Israel dropped thousands of bombs on Gaza and launched a ground invasion with the aim of destroying the military structures of Hamas, so the war was disastrous for the 2.2 million people of Gaza.
She added that more than 15,000 people were killed, two-thirds of whom were women and children, and about 85% of them were forced to leave their homes, and they now face increasing challenges in finding food, water, shelter, and medical care.
Although estimates indicate that the number of Hamas fighters reaches 25,000, and Israeli officials claim that several thousand of them were killed in Gaza, fighters from Hamas and other armed factions continue to attack Israeli forces inside Gaza, and have killed more than 90 soldiers since the beginning of the ground invasion. Israeli, according to the newspaper.
Despite the state of war, coordination continues between Hamas members inside and outside Gaza, allowing leaders based in Qatar to negotiate the exchange of detainees for prisoners.
In Beirut, Hamas hosted a public symposium to evaluate the “achievements and challenges” of the war so far, and its representative, Ahmed Abdel Hadi, said that the battle represented a “qualitative shift” in the conflict with Israel, and that Hamas and the Palestinians had accepted the necessary sacrifices to keep the Palestinian cause alive.
He added, “The Palestinian people and their resistance had to make a costly strategic decision, because the costs of liquidating the Palestinian cause and wasting Palestinian rights would be much greater.”
Israel may lose
While Israel, the United States and other countries consider Hamas a terrorist organization, the Palestinian Authority, which recognizes Israel’s right to exist and has limited authority in parts of the West Bank, has come under increasing criticism from Palestinians who view it as corrupt, undemocratic and infiltrated because its security forces coordinate with Israel to arrest Palestinian fighters.
The newspaper concluded that US President Joe Biden and other officials fully supported Israel throughout the war, but in recent weeks, they mixed this support with some concern that the massive destruction and high death toll could undermine Israel’s broader goals, and renewed their calls for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians as… The only way to achieve long-term peace.
The New York Times concluded with what John Alterman, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, published a month after the war, under the title “Israel May Lose,” as he indicated that the war may serve Hamas’ long-term goals by withdrawing support from the Palestinian Authority. In favor of the movement, it may also increase Israel’s isolation from the countries of the Arab and developing world and complicate its relations with the United States and Europe, concluding that “this is the necessary first step to reverse the power that Israel gains from integration in the region and the world” from Hamas’ point of view.
