…lies through the Rafah offensive.

The military strategy for Hamas’ October 7 attack was to create the largest scale of atrocity possible and survive Israel’s counterattack. Then, having survived, it intended to build up for many more October 7 attacks, all with the aim of achieving its grand strategic goal: the destruction of Israel and the death of the Jewish people.

Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas political leader, stated as much, saying, “Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country … the Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, third, and fourth. Will we pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it.”

Hamas’s hope is that repeated attacks like October 7 will eventually break the will of the Israeli population. To do that, Hamas would need to survive the war.

The solution is simple, then. Don’t allow them to survive the war.