Hamas, hostages, and diplomacy: the IDF's complex task - analysis

This war is unlike any before. It is slow, and methodical, and successful, but without a dramatic moment of victory.

 Soldiers walk on tanks near Gaza, as seen from southern Israel yesterday. (photo credit: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)
Soldiers walk on tanks near Gaza, as seen from southern Israel yesterday.
(photo credit: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

As the Gaza war enters its seventh week, millions of Israelis wake up each morning hoping to hear news of some Entebbe-like raid overnight to free the 239 hostages, or some type of military maneuver – akin to the encirclement of the Egyptian third army during the Yom Kippur War – that would signal a victorious end to the current war.

But each day, so far, they have been disappointed.

Which doesn’t mean that the IDF is not doing its job. It is doing its job, and it is doing it well, having recovered swiftly and effectively from the initial shock of October 7.

But it is doing its job slowly, methodically, and carefully to minimize IDF fatalities – which so far have been far fewer than the doomsday predictions in years past of what would happen were the IDF to try to move into Gaza City – and also to minimize casualties among Gazan non-combatants.

What this slow, methodical fighting means is that, instead of waking up to some dramatic piece of news heralding decisive victory and an end in sight, the nation wakes up each morning to terse reports about solidifying control of the northern Gaza or closing in on Al-Shifa hospital. It also wakes up to the dreadful words of the radio newsreader: “Cleared for publication...” which leads into a reading of the names of the IDF soldiers who fell the day before inside Gaza.

 Smoke and flares during an exchange of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah terrorists on the border between Israel and Lebanon, November 12, 2023. (credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90)
Smoke and flares during an exchange of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah terrorists on the border between Israel and Lebanon, November 12, 2023. (credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90)

Incremental progress, no knock-out punch

It wakes up to incremental progress: to right hooks and sharp jabs and uppercuts, but, as of yet, no knock-out punch.

The IDF’s activities inside the Gaza Strip have so far been enveloped in a thick fog. The country has a rough idea of what the army is doing, but few details about exactly where the forces are, what kind of resistance they are coming up against, and how they are neutralizing the maze of underground tunnels.

Although this lack of information can be frustrating, it serves a purpose. If Israelis don’t know exactly where the troops are or what they are doing or planning, neither does the enemy. Indeed, even reports of fallen soldiers are just bare-bones, with no details of how they fell, in what circumstance, or up against which type of force.

IT IS A a different war, this war that is still without a commonly used name: its official name, Swords of Iron, having never caught on. It’s a war that will get a name that will come into prominence once the war ends: perhaps the Simchat Torah War, or the First Gaza War, or the Hamas War.

It’s a different war in that it’s an urban war, but one where tanks are still playing an enormously important part.


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It’s a war where commandos in the engineering corps – responsible for flushing out and destroying tunnels – are playing a starring role. It’s a war in which there is wall-to-wall consensus – something rare in Israel – for its justification, even as it has gone on for seven weeks.

It’s a war in which hospitals or, more precisely what is under the hospitals, are key military targets. And it’s a war in which the army is being slowed down less by enemy resistance, and more by the knowledge that Hamas is holding 239 children, women, and men.

Immediately after the October 7 atrocity, the political and military echelon said that the war had two main objectives: to destroy Hamas, meaning to eliminate its political and military capabilities and to gain the release of the hostages. A third goal was tacked on as well: to restore deterrence and serve as a cautionary tale to Hezbollah and other enemies in the region.

While both military and political leaders deny it, there is somewhat of a contraction between the first and second goals: destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages.

The IDF says that pursuing the first goal, eliminating Hamas, will better enable the freeing of hostages by placing military pressure on the terrorist organization, but some of the relatives of the hostages say that they are worried the relentless military pressure endangers their loved ones.

Were it not for the hostages being held by Hamas, the pace of the war might be faster. Were it not for the hostages, it is doubtful Israel would agree to what is being discussed – a break in the fighting for between three to five days to allow for the release of some of the hostages – nor would it allow any fuel to enter the Gaza Strip.

Were there no hostages, Israel might very well have been further along in its goal of destroying Hamas’ military