Gaza Conflict: Jordan doubtful whether Israel can destroy Hamas

The foreign minister of Jordan expressed scepticism on Saturday on Israel’s ability to completely destroy Hamas through its intense shelling and invasion of the Gaza Strip, which has long been controlled by the Palestinian Islamist movement. “Israel declares its intention to destroy Hamas. “There are a lot of military personnel here, but I’m not sure how this goal can be accomplished,” Ayman Safadi remarked during Bahrain’s annual IISS Manama Dialogue security conference. After Hamas launched a deadly cross-border assault on Israeli communities on October 7, Israel swore to eradicate the organisation. Israel has taken control of the enclave’s north, blasted most of Gaza City to ruins, and now it is focusing on intensifying its attacks on Hamas in the south. At the meeting, regional power Saudi Arabia demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas. “Every day, we witness civilian deaths. And that has to stop today, not tomorrow,” stated Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia. Before the 240 hostages that Hamas kidnapped on October 7 are released, Israel has ruled out any kind of truce. Hamas has promised to fight Israel for a very long time. At the Manama meeting, Brett McGurk, the chief Middle East advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, predicted that the release of Hamas detainees will result in a major ceasefire in Gaza and an increase in the flow of humanitarian aid. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has sparked concerns among international, regional, and UN authorities about who would lead the small, heavily populated region in the event that Hamas loses the enclave it has controlled for sixteen years. After the Israel-Hamas conflict ends, only the Palestinian Authority (PA), the organisation supported by the West and enjoying limited autonomy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would be able to govern Gaza, according to European Union foreign policy leader Josep Borrell. (With agency inputs)