According to Hamas, October 7 was merely a prelude. Open sources affiliated with the terror organization increasingly reference 2027 as the year in which Israel will be destroyed, citing an old prophecy by Ahmed Yassin, the group’s founder who Israel killed over two decades ago. While the IDF has reduced Hamas’ operational capabilities, its morale and motivation remain largely intact. The combination of half a million young individuals of fighting age, and tens of thousands of pounds of explosives obtained from unexploded IDF ordnance continues to fuel Hamas’ ambitions.
For Hamas, the operation to “rise again” remains active. A key reason Eyal Zamir was selected as the new IDF Chief of Staff over other candidates was his unwavering commitment to decisively defeating Hamas in Gaza—once and for all. Zamir discarded his predecessor’s plans, believing they would lead to prolonged attrition affecting both the enemy and Israel itself. His new strategy is swift, lethal, and uncompromisingly forceful.
The necessity for such an approach arises from a critical need to maintain support from both the public and reserve soldiers—a challenging task under current circumstances. The heavy emotional toll of the hostages held by Hamas profoundly weighs on the Israeli public, who must be convinced that military action is the only viable option left. This partly explains Israel’s hesitance to immediately resume fighting. Should the renewed fighting result in high casualties without a clear resolution, public support would quickly erode. The hostages’ continued captivity combined with military losses without visible progress is an unbearable scenario.
The primary shift introduced under Zamir’s leadership involves mobilizing extensive military forces and correcting the paradoxical situation where Israel attempts to dismantle Hamas militarily while simultaneously sustaining it economically through humanitarian aid. This contradiction, likened to the tale of Baron Munchausen—whose thirst remained unquenched because the water he drank immediately spilled from his open wound—will no longer persist.
Former Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi initially received two goals from the Israeli government at the start of the war: destroying Hamas militarily and ending its governance over Gaza. While there was significant military progress, the toppling of Hamas’ governing capabilities was stalled, largely due to American insistence on continued humanitarian aid and internal IDF reluctance to manage the aid’s distribution. However, circumstances have changed: the American administration has shifted its stance, the IDF leadership has evolved, and Gaza now stands just a few hostage negotiations away from experiencing profound transformation—and potentially even military governance.
The above is an excerpt from my Shabbat column in Yedioth Ahronoth.
