But in his interview, Netanyahu painted a rosier picture, saying that “total victory” over Hamas is “within reach” and indeed only “weeks away” if the attack on Rafah goes forward. Netanyahu has been clear since October that he sees wiping Hamas “off the face of the earth” and attaining the “eternal disarmament of Gaza” as achievable war aims. Yet assumptions that Hamas is on the brink of total destruction don’t stand up to even cursory scrutiny. To the contrary, there is greater evidence by the day that the Israeli military campaign has failed to eliminate the group’s capacity for violence. By some metrics, the group’s strength has grown over the course of Israel’s war in Gaza.
