“From Hamas’s perspective, they are making a major comeback as a dominant force in Gaza,” Dr. Michael Milshtein, a senior researcher at the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, told 103FM on Thursday regarding the developments in the Gaza Strip in the context of the hostage deal and the ceasefire.
“Their situation is not bad. It’s terrible for us to say this because we wanted to see a battered, beaten, and maybe even barely existing organization. Yesterday, the education system in Gaza announced that schools will soon reopen, even though 85% of schools no longer exist. 6,000 Hamas police officers have been deployed throughout the strip, making it clear to everyone who is in charge and signaling that there’s no point in talking about the ‘post-war era,'” he said.
“We need to get into the mindset of many Palestinians, especially Hamas – in their view, the price was worth it. In their count, 50,000 died, and the destruction of Gaza is the justified price for the harm caused to Israel and for their national pride. I’m not justifying them, but that is their narrative, and it’s time we understand that,” he added.
“The mainstream sentiment is one of authentic achievement. Blinken spoke about 4,000 new recruits to Hamas, and that’s just from the past few months. They will use the near future to rebuild. This means organization structures, new appointments of commanders, and attempts to locate weapons’ wherever possible.”
Milshtein continued and addressed the statements made by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said that the fighting must not stop: “I’ll say where Smotrich is wrong. I also want Hamas to cease to exist, but the war banner managed here over the last 15 months has not been advancing us toward that goal. The deal saved us from getting stuck in a war of attrition without boundaries and without a clear strategy. I don’t think the strategy managed over the past year and a half could have led us to the downfall of Hamas.”
“Here, we need to adopt a long-term view. The immediate future should be invested in freeing the hostages. At the same time, a long-term plan should be prepared, not just for the next few days, on how to completely dismantle Hamas,” he added. “This is real planning for the conquest of all of Gaza, which doesn’t currently exist.
Mission accomplished?
“With all due respect to Smotrich’s statements, they remain good as slogans. I couldn’t understand how, after four months of intense fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, we reached the goal of dismantling Hamas. The proof was on Sunday when you saw that almost everywhere, people returned to work. Yesterday, Hamas waved one of the major symbols of this statement – the commander of Beit Hanoun, whom we thought we had killed, ended up being still alive.”
When asked about the future, he said: “This is a journey for many years. This is not an event that will end in a few months or even a few years. Therefore, long-term planning is needed, which we did not have on October 7.
“With all due respect to the plans formulated here over the last 15 months, these were not in-depth plans. After we enter the deal, we need to start looking at the future and planning long-term moves. There is no way to continue living with Hamas in the long term, and we believe that this will change the way we thought it would before October 7. I don’t know if this leadership style is fit for this, but I hope that future leaders will learn from these lessons.
Jesus Christ is King
