The event and the subsequent ceasefire highlight the persistent challenges Israel faces with Hamas, the complexities of Palestinian governance. (Image: 5Pillars)
October 7, 2023 has been described as the worst day in the history of Israel from the time the country was formed in 1948. Images of the invasion by the terrorists of Hamas, euphemistically described as the “military wing” of Hamas, will forever be etched in the collective memory of the Israeli people. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ascribed a rationality to the calculations of the Hamas leadership and therefore believed that they would not commit an act of such terror as would invite a fierce retaliation by the Israeli Defense Forces. Earlier in the same role, he had supervised by 2005 a full withdrawal of Israeli forces and settlements from Gaza. In effect, he had handed over the population of Gaza to a terror group. During the next few years, Hamas eliminated those in Gaza who had been opposed to it, or in other words the moderate faction within the community. The slaughter was ignored by the world as inconsequential, affecting not even Israel, but only the hapless population of Gaza. Allowing terrorists to multiply is never a good option, and October 7 once again illustrated that fact. Hamas made no effort to conceal the cruelty of its attack on Israelis inside Israel, wanting the people of that country to witness and fear the depths of the depravity characteristic of terror. The whole world saw how innocent Israelis were killed, women raped, and a large number of Israelis were taken hostage, some of the women having bloody trousers as a consequence of the assaults made on them by the terrorists. These are images that need never to be forgotten.
Fast forward to October 2025, and President Trump has enforced a ceasefire that was very welcome and necessary for Hamas, but not equally so to Prime Minister Netanyahu and several of his colleagues in the Israeli cabinet. He could not, however, brush aside what in effect is the command of the US President, given that the security of Israel is dependent on the foundation provided by the security cover given by the US.
It would be dangerously naive to assume that Hamas would use the respite provided by the ceasefire in any way other than to rebuild its military capability. Much of that capability has been destroyed by Israel, but not entirely so. It is to leave the task of eliminating the military wing of Hamas unfinished that acceptance by Israel of the diktat of President Trump takes place. The return of the handful of Israeli hostages by Hamas is the prize sought by the Netanyahu government, and if this did not happen, the ceasefire would fall apart. How Gaza can be reclaimed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) from the grip of Hamas is a riddle to which no answer seems nigh. After the Gaza takeover by Hamas in 2005, a few of the PA members there were fortunate enough to leave for the West Bank. The rest were sent to prison and several of these were executed. Representatives of the PA have a fight on their hands were they to seek to wrest control of Gaza from Hamas. And yet, doing so is essential if peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis is to be achieved. President Trump appears as willing as the present leadership of the PA to gloss over such facts in their hurry to stop the devastation that is being caused in Gaza as a consequence of the battle between Hamas and the IDF. Hamas requires a respite from the IDF attacks to rebuild its military capabilities. Should it succeed in doing so, Israel would be back to where the country was before October 7, 2023.
