US says Israel has beaten Hamas as much as possible, now diplomacy is way forward: Report

The United States believes that Israel has beaten Hamas militarily as much as possible and it is now time for the diplomacy to lead the way, according to a report.

Following the invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, by Hamas and allied terrorist groups, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a war against Hamas with the twin objectives of completely defeating Hamas and bringing home all the hostages taken by the terrorists.

In the Oct. 7 attacks, the terrorists killed around 1,200 people, injured around 5,400, and abducted around 250 people and took them to Gaza Strip as hostages. In the war since then, more than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza with Hamas-run local government saying deaths are as high as 40,000. In May, Netanyahu acknowledged that at least 14,000 terrorists and 16,000 civilians had been killed in Gaza.

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Now, the Joe Biden administration of the United States believes that Israel has diminished Hamas’ military abilities and destroyed Gaza’s tunnel network as much it could and now the objective that remains is the return of hostages, according to The New York Times.

The newspaper reported that the Biden administration officials believe the only way to get the hostages back is through diplomacy and not military means.

The report comes as ’now or never’ talks are being held in Qatar’s Doha for a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages. Even as the talks stand compromised with new demands inserted by Netanyahu and Hamas’ boycott, the Biden administration has said it is hopeful of a positive outcome.

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Hamas diminished as much as possible, total defeat not possible: US

The United States believes that Israel has severely beaten Hamas but complete defeat of the group is not possible, according to The Times.

The reason behind that is that much of the tunnel network of Hamas in Gaza is still there even as Israel has dismantled a large part of it. According to an estimate, the tunnel network underneath Gaza is around 560-740 kilometres-long. For comparison, the entire Delhi Metro rail network is 392 kms-long.

The officials told the newspaper that Israel has beaten Hamas much more than it was expected.

In addition to driving out Hamas out of the vast majority of Gaza, Israel has also destroyed or seized crucial supply routes from Egypt into Gaza, including the Philadelphi Corridor — the land strip along the Gaza-Egypt border. It has also claimed to have eliminated half of Hamas’ top leaders — including the military chief Mohammed Deif. The Iran and Hamas have also accused Israel of assassinating previous Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

The military campaign has now, however, peaked and further progress in the war’s remaining objective to bring back hostages can only be achieved diplomatically, according to US officials cited by the newspaper.

The US officials believe that Hamas is no longer capable of planning or executing an attack on the scale of Oct. 7, as per the newspaper.

Hamas is an ideology, can’t be defeated: Israeli military

The US assessment is in line with what the Israeli military itself said in June.

Israeli military spokesperson Real Admiral Daniel Hagari said in June that Hamas is an ideology and an ideology cannot be completely defeated.

“To say that we are going to make Hamas disappear is to throw sand in people’s eyes. If we don’t provide an alternative, in the end, we will have Hamas. Hamas is an ideology, we cannot eliminate an ideology,” Hagari told Israel’s Channel 13 at the time.

Hamas, in addition to being a terrorist organisation, is also an ideological movement that had initially spawned off the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist movement and a terrorist organisation with roots in Egypt. It is supported by Iran and shares its rejection of Israel’s right to exist and is committed to the destruction of Israel. It is part of Iran-backed groups in the region, such as the Hezbollah and Houthis, which share the opposition to Israel, and form the ‘Axis of Resistance’.