Two Years of Complete Deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian War

The two-year anniversary of the unprecedented and ongoing war in the Gaza Strip finds both sides, Palestinians and Israelis, tired of the war of attrition on both sides. The anniversary coincides with yet another much-touted peace plan – not the last – by the US, which is trying to put an end to the issue of the release of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners but is failing, as it is biased in favor of the Israelis, to create a modus vivendi between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Resistance.

The impasse in this war is due to a single element: Hamas’s ingenious strategy of undergrounding the military infrastructure of the Palestinian Resistance in the Gaza Strip, i.e., creating a city under the city. The underground Labyrinth of Gaza has the effect of, on the one hand, neutralizing the Israelis’ air superiority over the Palestinian fighters, and, on the other, strengthening Hamas’ hybrid (semi-regular-semi-partisan) modus operandi against the Occupying Forces.

For their part, the Israeli Occupation Forces, seeing their inadequacy to hit Hamas’ underground infrastructure and their inability to impose themselves and win, have leveled the surface of the Strip and in flagrant violation of International Law, they are breaking out. on the civilian Palestinian population, resulting in the collective punishment and genocide of Palestinian civilians while attempting ethnic cleansing with Operation Gideon’s Chariots 2, actions which tarnish the honor of  the Israeli army and cause sharp. reactions of the military towards Netanyahu.

In these two years, the change in the balance has been reflected, with the Palestinian Resistance having considerably reduced the gap that separated it from the Israeli Occupation Forces. It is noteworthy that before 2007 the Palestinians fought with slingshots, while now they have rudimentary artillery with rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles, bombs of various types and the level of an organized army in communications and modus operandi in general.

In this impasse that leaves the Palestinians as winners, with the morale of their successful armed resistance boosted, and Israel deeply troubled by the image of the Israeli occupation army “pointlessly strolling” across the Strip, having failed to free the prisoners and defeat the Palestinian Resistance, the Americans, who are trusted without diplomacy to support Netanyahu 100%, are trying to gauge the morale of the Palestinians at regular intervals of months with lopsided diplomatic initiatives. peace, like Trump’s.

This initiative-plan was much worse than Biden’s initiative in December 2024, who had submitted a peace plan that was formally of an equidistance nature but failed due to the Americans’ support for the Israelis and the non-understanding on their part that diplomatic initiatives reflect and do not shape the outcome of developments on the ground. And the proposals on the ground for two years have been clear: In an unprecedented development in global military history, Palestinian fighters and civilians have pinned the Israeli occupation forces on the surface of the Strip to raze and commit genocide. without having the strength to descend into the underground Labyrinth of the Palestinian Resistance and above all having failed nevertheless to break the fractious unity of civilians and fighters.

It becomes clear that the Trump Plan will succeed only if a) it recognizes the political role of the armed Palestinian Resistance as an equal interlocutor who will maintain its weapons and its political entity after the war in a broader scheme of political unity. in the Palestinian Authority and b) it ensures with guarantee clauses a lasting five-year peace. These two points constitute the Bitter Cup that Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to become for the last two years.
Here is the dilemma, then: Realism-pacification or fundamentalism-futility?