The Strategic Victory of Palestinians’ in the War against Israel

And a ceasefire was reached! The agreement between the Palestinian de facto government and resistance of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip with the Israeli government contains the provision that it will lead to a truce in the medium term and perhaps to peace in the long term, provided that the terms of the agreement are always respected. With or without a ceasefire, however, it is now clear that Hamas has defeated Israel in the fifteen-month war that has raged with unabated violence and unexpected developments.

While it has so far been categorically refuted by developments on the front, Benjamin Netanyahu’s explicit commitment that he would not stop the war unless Hamas was defeated has been nullified in practice. According to former US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken himself, Hamas has managed to make up for any losses it had in manpower and equipment and, despite the assassination of key leaders, to project its power to the same extent as it had on October 7, 2023. This American admission belied the Israeli rhetoric about a weakened and dying Hamas and confirmed the comparatively few analyses, including this author’s, that spoke of the resilience of Hamas and the Palestinian Resistance.

Beyond the given solidarity of the regional Resistance Front (Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen – with the participation of Assad’s Syria until recently) in the Palestinian struggle for the establishment of an independent state, there are two secrets of the victorious Palestinian Resistance in the Gaza Strip: on the one hand, the undergrounding of the infrastructure of their deterrent capacity, and on the other hand, the unbreakable unity between the civilian population and the fighters, despite the unprecedented in scope, degree and variety of hardships to which the Netanyahu government subjected the Palestinian civilians, who are full of superhuman reserves of patience, perseverance, militancy and solidarity, in order to divide them: through disproportionate and collectively punitive inhuman military violence, famine, thirst, pestilence and constant displacement with endless marches under difficult and adverse conditions without shelter. In this context, the International Criminal Court has issued international arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Galland and other Israeli officials on charges of genocide.

The results of the ceasefire agreement are clear: Hamas retains its power, the leading voice in the reconstruction of Gaza and a catalytic influence on the political scene of the West Bank. The reluctant, but necessary, acceptance by Israel of the otherwise terrorist Hamas as the official authority and authority to supervise the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip with Hamas men wearing their official uniforms. With its prestige increased, the Palestinian Resistance is sending the message that the moment of establishing an independent Palestinian state is now closer with the resumption of negotiations that will be synchronized with the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

For its part, Israel, exhausted due to the operational failure in morale and spirit, is losing the war so far and is satisfied with the exchange of prisoners and the ability it has to influence the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, maintaining its ulterior motives towards Donald Trump for the attempt to annex the West Bank, a process that could provoke the next Palestinian-Israeli war.

If anything, this war has resulted in a shift in the balance of power between Palestinians and Israelis somewhat in favor of the former, a development that is a key prerequisite for the path that will lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian State based on the Two-State Solution. This is the only solution to stop the ongoing bloodshed and for the two peoples to live in peace and security.