WhatsappOne of the things that makes the current Gaza-Israel war important is not just the immediate stakes, but even more importantly, it reveals the trajectory of regional battle lines and who has staying power in the Middle East.
As Israel prepares the ultimate ground operation into Gaza City, Hamas, which rejected generous offers in the past to end the war, has begun to scramble to find a way to stave off defeat. While it’s true that most of the hostages are in the center “refugee camps” of Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah, Gaza City remains the main stronghold of Hamas, in terms of armed resistance and remaining leadership. Gaza City is Hamas’s Raqqa.
Once the non-combatants leave Gaza City, Israel will smash it to pieces and uproot the terror infrastructure from below the ground. Leveling Gaza City will not look pretty, but it will send a message to Jihadists across the Middle East – in the end, they will lose.
No one knows if this strategy will work, and it could be that the remaining areas after Gaza City will need to be taken, but razing Gaza City to the ground is a form of psychological defeat for not only Hamas, but their main backers - Qatar. Unlike Qatar and Turkey’s gamble in Syria that paid off, Gaza is a losing proposition. The most that has been accomplished is a tarnishing of Israel’s reputation.
Hamas may have achieved carnage and destruction and considerably harmed Israel. Still, if the group loses Gaza City regardless of holding onto the remaining areas in the Gaza Strip, it will be remembered as a failure.
