The Ceasefire Illusion

Until Hamas is eradicated, every ceasefire in Gaza is just an intermission in an unending war.

Israel’s latest assault on Gaza, the heaviest since the ceasefire killing over 400 people, was swift and devastating. Hamas confirmed that Essam al-Dalis, the head of its government in Gaza, was among the dead. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mincing no words, warned this was only the beginning and that Israel would no longer entertain the idea of diplomacy as an alternative to force.

Hamas, in turn, accused Israel of undermining mediation efforts, urging its allies to pressure the United States into restraining its client state. But Washington under Donald Trump has remained unmoved, holding Hamas responsible for the resumption of hostilities.

In the years since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, ceasefires have never led to a lasting peace. Hamas has always prioritized military confrontation over governance, diverting humanitarian aid to build tunnels and rockets instead of improving the lives of Palestinians. It embeds military infrastructure within civilian areas, ensuring that Palestinian casualties mount whenever Israel responds to attacks. The group’s strategy is not to seek peace but to perpetuate war, believing that ongoing conflict serves its long-term interests. Instead, they have provided Hamas with an opportunity to regroup, rearm, and prepare for the next confrontation. The latest breakdown was predictable. Israel sought to extend the first phase of a ceasefire agreement, but Hamas, still holding dozens of hostages, refused unless the second phase involving Israeli concessions was implemented.

The point – if it ever needed emphasizing – is that Hamas is not interested in a political settlement; it remains committed to Israel’s destruction. And as long as Hamas holds power, the people of Gaza will continue to suffer.

For those railing Israel and the IDF’s heavy-handed bombing of Gaza, recall that when the U.S.-led coalition sought to eliminate the Islamic State from Mosul and Raqqa, those cities were turned to rubble. Entire neighbourhoods were flattened in the battle to rid Iraq and Syria of the ISIS menace. There was no great outcry from Washington or the international community about the destruction of those cities because the world understood that eradicating ISIS was a moral and strategic imperative.

Why, then, does this logic not apply to Hamas? The group is, by all measures, just as radical and dangerous as ISIS. It has governed Gaza with an iron fist, suppressing dissent, diverting humanitarian aid to its military operations, and using Palestinian civilians as human shields.

History suggests that peace in the Middle East has only been possible when one side has suffered an unequivocal defeat. Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian leader who famously made peace with Israel, first launched the 1973 Yom Kippur War in an attempt to wipe the Jewish state off the map. Egypt initially made gains, but Israel regrouped and delivered a crushing defeat. It was only after that failure that Sadat realized military force was not a viable option. His subsequent peace treaty with Israel in 1979 transformed Egypt’s role in the region and remains one of the few enduring diplomatic successes in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

For years, the international community of ‘liberals’ have indulged the fantasy that Gaza’s suffering is the result of Israeli aggression alone. But the true architects of Palestinian misery are Hamas and its backers. The elites in the West – from student activists on varsity campuses to so-called Hollywood liberals - conflate Hamas with the Palestinian people, failing to recognize that the group is as much a threat to Palestinians as it is to Israel. The real tragedy is that Palestinians trapped under Hamas’s rule are unable to express dissent or seek an alternative future.

The only path to peace in Gaza is through Hamas’s total defeat. Palestinians must understand that terrorism and military confrontation will only bring them further suffering. Only then can a new political reality emerge - one in which Gaza is not a launchpad for rockets but a place where genuine statehood and economic stability can take root.