By Scott Ritter
The recently announced ceasefire is a blessing for Palestinians and Israelis alike—a chance for prisoners to be exchanged, humanitarian aid to be distributed to those in need, and for emotions on both sides of the conflict to cool down.
While the ceasefire, negotiated between Israel and Hamas by Qatar, was mutually agreed between the two parties, let no one be fooled into thinking this was anything less than a victory for Hamas. Israel had taken a very aggressive position that, given its stated objective of destroying Hamas as an organization, it would not agree to a ceasefire under any conditions.
Hamas, on the other hand, had made one of its primary objectives in initiating the current round of fighting with Israel the release of Palestinian prisoners, and in particular women and children, held by Israel. Seen in this light, the ceasefire represents an important victory for Hamas, and a humiliating defeat for Israel.
One of the reasons Israel eschewed a ceasefire was that it was confident that the offensive operation it had launched into northern Gaza was going to neutralize Hamas as a military threat, and that any ceasefire, regardless of the humanitarian justification, would only buy time for a defeated Hamas enemy to rest, refit, and regroup. That Israel signed on to a ceasefire is the surest sign yet that all is not well with the Israeli offensive against Hamas.
This outcome should not have come as a surprise to anyone. When Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel, it initiated a plan years in the making. The meticulous attention to detail that was evident in the Hamas operation underscored the reality that Hamas had been studying the Israeli intelligence and military forces arrayed against it, uncovering weaknesses that were subsequently exploited. The Hamas action represented more than sound tactical and operational planning and execution—it was a masterpiece in strategic conceptualization as well.
One of the main reasons behind the Israeli defeat on October 7 was the fact that the Israeli government was convinced that Hamas would never attack, regardless of what the intelligence analysts charged with watching Hamas activity in Gaza were saying. This failure of imagination came about by Hamas having identified the political goals and objectives of Israel (the nullification of Hamas as a resistance organization by undertaking a policy built on “buying” Hamas through an expanded program of work permits issued by Israel for Palestinians living in Gaza.) By playing along with the work permit program, Hamas lulled the Israeli leadership into complacency, allowing Hamas’ preparations for their attack to be carried out in plain view.
The October 7 attack by Hamas was not a stand-alone operation, but rather part of a strategic plan possessing three main objectives—to put the issue of a Palestinian state back on the front burner of international discourse, to free the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and to compel Israel to cease and desist when it came to its desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest place. The October 7 attack, on its own, could not achieve these outcomes. Rather, the October 7 attack was designed to trigger an Israeli response which would create the conditions necessary for Hamas’ objectives to reach fruition.
The October 7 attack was designed to humiliate Israel to the point of irrationality, to ensure that any Israeli response would be governed by the emotional need for revenge, as opposed to a rational response designed to nullify the Hamas objectives. Here, Hamas was guided by the established Israeli doctrine of collective punishment (known as the Dahiya Doctrine, named after the West Beirut suburb that was heavily bombed by Israel in 2006 as a way of punishing the Lebanese people for Israel’s failure to defeat Hezbollah in combat.) By inflicting a humiliating defeat on Israel which shattered both the myth of Israeli invincibility (regarding the Israel Defense Forces) and infallibility (regarding Israeli intelligence), and by taking hundreds of Israelis hostage before withdrawing to its underground lair beneath Gaza, Hamas baited a trap for Israel which the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predictably rushed into.
Hamas has prepared a network of tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip that, in total, stretch for over 500 kilometers. Nicknamed the “Gaza Metro,” these tunnels consist of interconnected deep underground bunkers used for command and control, logistical support, medical treatment, and billeting, along with other tunnel networks dedicated for both defensive and offensive operations. The tunnels are buried deep enough to avoid destruction by most bombs in Israel’s possession and have been provisioned to withstand a siege of up to three months (90 days) in duration.
Hamas knows that it cannot engage Israel in a classic force-on-force encounter. Instead, the goal was to lure Israeli forces into Gaza, and then subject these forces to an endless series of hit-and-run attacks by small teams of Hamas fighters who would emerge from their underground lairs, attack a vulnerable Israeli force, and then disappear back underground. In short, to subject the Israeli military to what is the equivalent of a death by a thousand cuts.
And it worked. While Israeli forces have been able to penetrate into the less urbanized areas of the northern Gaza strip, taking advantage of the mobility and firepower of its armored troops, the progress is illusory, as Hamas forces harry the Israelis continuously, using deadly tandem-warhead rockets to disable or destroy Israeli vehicles, killing scores of Israeli soldiers and wounding hundreds more. While Israel has been reticent in releasing the figures of armored vehicles lost in this fashion, Hamas claims the number is in the hundreds. Hamas’ claims are bolstered by the fact that Israel has halted the sale of older Merkava 3 tanks, and instead has organized their inventory of these vehicles into new reserve armor battalions to make up for the heavy losses being sustained in both Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah forces are engaged in a deadly war of attrition with Israel in operations designed to support Hamas in Gaza.
But the main reason for Israel’s defeat to date is Israel itself. Having taken the bait, and fallen into the Hamas trap, Israel went on to execute its Dahiya Doctrine against the Palestinian population of Gaza, carrying out indiscriminate attacks against civilian objects in blatant disregard for the law of war. An estimated 13,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed by these attacks, including more than 5,000 children. Many thousands more victims remain buried under the rubble of their destroyed housing.
While Israel may have been able to garner the support of the international community in the aftermath of the October 7 attack by Hamas, its gross overreaction has instead turned world public opinion against it—something Hamas was counting on. Today, Israel is increasingly isolated, losing support not only in the so-called Global South, but also in traditional strongholds of pro-Israeli sentiment in the US, UK, and Europe. This isolation, combined with the kind of political pressure Israel is unaccustomed to receiving, helped contribute to the Netanyahu government’s acquiescence regarding the ceasefire and subsequent prisoner exchange.
Whether the ceasefire will hold or not remains to be seen. So, too, the question of turning the ceasefire into a lasting cessation of hostilities remains an open question. But one thing is certain—having declared that victory is defined by Hamas’ total defeat, the Israelis have set the stage for a Hamas victory, something Hamas achieves simply by surviving.
But Hamas is doing more than surviving — it is winning. Having fought the Israel Defense Forces to a standstill on the battlefield, Hamas has seen every one of its strategic objectives in this conflict reach fruition. The world is actively articulating the absolute necessity of a two-state solution as a prerequisite for a lasting peace in the region. Palestinians held prisoner by Israel are being exchanged for the Israelis Hamas took hostage. And the Islamic world is united in condemning Israel’s desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque.
None of these issues were on the table on October 6. That they are being addressed now is testament to the success Hamas enjoyed on October 7, and in the days and weeks that followed, as Israeli forces were defeated by a combination of Hamas’ tenacity and their own predilection for indiscriminate violence against civilians. Far from being eliminated as a military and political force, Hamas has emerged as perhaps the most relevant voice and authority when it comes to defending the interests of the Palestinian people.
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Comments
23 responses to “Scott Ritter : Hamas Winning Battle for Gaza”
I hope that it will be as you say. However, I can’t see the two state solution working.
Gerard
as always, an excellent report from Scott Ritter.
You are all missing a vital factor — the organisation and social force of the Israeli hostage families. They know and the public know that the Israeli state would happily let the hostages rot so they mobilised urgently, taking advantage of the national loathing for Netanyahu and his gang — who had thought the Hamas assault was their stay out of jail card — and you cannot exchange hostages without a ceasefire.
Hamas was created in 1987 by Zionist Israel to serve as an eventual replacement to the non religious and secular the PLO, under the leadership of Yasser Arafat assassinated by the Mossad.
Today Hamas represents, the heart and soul of Palestine and as such, deservers all available support from all quarters. It is entirely possible that the evil Zionist Entity will disappear from the face of the earth to the happiness and delight of its neighbors. Is about time I say.
Never mind the two state solution, which will not solve the root problem facing the Middle east and the world at large. Let it be and let’s hit the iron while it’s hot.
Agreed ! However, the world needs to be educated first on the Ashkenazim-Khazar-Zionists, whom hide amongst the Ashkenazi Jews (and in league with the Judeo-Mongols). As written in Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’, it pays to “know thy enemy”. I suggest finding a way for people to read the following books which contain all the answers required to end this madness once and for all.
1. ‘Against Our Better Judgement’, by Alison WIER
2. ‘The General’s Son’, by Miko PELED
3. ‘The Lemon Tree’, by Sandy TOLAN
Only then, can the Palestinian people be free; NOT before. But again, the global public must be first educated on the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW, and WHY regarding Zionists (Zionism), and THAT includes exposing TRUMP, and Robert KENNEDY Jr, whom are devout, loyal, and financial members of the Zionist Organisation of America (ZOA); as they too must be removed from having any public and or private platform of influence. Anyone supporting, and or advocating Zionism are without question, war criminals. And must be treated as such.
Thank you for the reading recommendations. I was looking up Alison Weir’s “Against Our Better Judgment” and found this interesting review on Amazon.
Have you read any of Mr. Green’s suggestions?:
“Michael Green
3.0 out of 5 stars There are better books on the subject
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2016
Verified Purchase
As a well-informed anti-Zionist I bought this book because of the stellar reviews and was badly disappointed. To understand the perverse deceit, cruelty, hypocrisy and often simple evil at the heart of the Zionist enterprise, it cannot hold a candle to at least half-a-dozen books that occur off the top of my head: Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest; Ralph Schoenmann, The Hidden History of Zionism; Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine; Ben Hect, Perfidy; John Loftus, The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People; or, Lenni Brenner, Zionism in the age of the Dictators. All these books take you in one form or another into the dark hearts and souls of the Zionists, repulsive as they are. By contrast, Weir is a small town newspaper reporter with a good heart but little or no psychological or spiritual depth whose book reads like a well-intentioned high school term paper. If you do not know much about Zionism, this book won’t tell you what is important and it gives off a slight whiff of anti-Semitism by portraying Jews as incredibly sneaky and underhanded.
Here’s a concrete example of incapacity that she demonstrates throughout the book. One of the deep and vicious ironies of Zionism is its service to imperial powers, the upper-class ties it had to ruling elites in England and Great Britain, and its wholesale disdain if not contempt for the actual Jewish people suffering through the Holocaust. Hecht’s whole book is about this, Schoenmann underscores its wickedness. The Zionists cut off sanctuary for Jews fleeing the Holocaust to Allied nations in order to force emigration to Israel and then refused to take the old or infirm because they needed the young and strong to build a new nation in a hostile land. The cold-hearted rot at the core of Zionists aches to be exposed and has been exposed by others, while Weir treats us to such commentary as:
“Some at the time and since have considered the [Irgun] Delegation’s efforts heroic, but critics point out that it did not manage to rescue any Jews during the Nazi holocaust, though it may have helped contribute to the pressure on President Roosevelt to later create a War Refugee Board.” (p.65)
Other parts of the book have hints at the other parts of the picture but she cannot pick them up. Worse, the picture of Zionist scheming is vaguely anti-Semitic—cf. The Creature from Jekyll Island for equally clandestine plotting without such overtones—and Weir suffers from a naive picture of true American patriotism in the national interest vs. Zionist scheming to undermine same, to which Harry Truman falls victim. Thus she quotes from State Department heroes (e.g., Dean Acheson) who bemoan the loss of American prestige and power when the US allegedly betrayed its principles and supported the partition of Palestine to get Truman votes. She would do better reading Loftus, pp.166-170 to read how David Ben-Gurion blackmailed Nelson Rockefeller for support for creating Israel just before the crucial vote by threatening to expose the latter’s full-scale support for the Nazis, to understand that the “heroes” of her narrative are the very ruling elite who have turned our country into a totalitarian state.”
Israel was never going to win this colonial war. However, its abuse of the Palestinians has been so cruel that one shared state is unlikely to work and two states are the only option. Israel should return to UN Mandated borders.
What do you mean by UN Mandated borders? Are you including the land of Jordan?
But if you think that the UN established any borders regarding Jews and Arabs, you’re mistaken. The UN Security Council made only a non-binding recommendation that the Arabs refused, as was their inalienable right. What peoples would agree to giving their lands away to foreigners?
Specifically the un resolution 46 which mandated the creation of the israeli and palastine state the was proposed never ratified.
Since 1917 the Balfour Declaration marked at that early stage, the forced creation of a Zionist entity in Palestine as eventually happened in 1948. We must remember that the control center of World Zionism, is in the House of Rothschild conveniently located in England for a number of centuries. Everything worked out, the way it was planned long ago. As for the UN like any other institution created at the end of WWII by America, serves the interests of the US Evil Empire and they must be replaced by new organizations free of US control.
I agree the UN had no right. But the borders in the partition plan for 1947 remain the only ones Israel could hope to defend in a court of law. Either that or a new plan divides Palestine but ensures that Jerusalem is not in the Israeli part as the original Partition Plan decided, and the Palestinians get back a State with contiguous borders and the right to defend those borders. From the River to the Sea would work.
It is true that the global battle for hearts and minds has been lost by Israel. No longer the heavily armoured nuclear equipped israel publicly machine can convincingly cry ‘ Poor Jew me surviving the holocaust only to be to decried by anti semics for the simple act of defending ourselves’ . The cruel monster in charge does not even attempt to hide behind the world class Israeli publicity and defence machine . Even the Zionist’s total underground control of the US publicity machine (otherwise know as the U.S Empire’s fair and free mainstream media) can hide the horror that that the Israeli war machine is inflicting on defenseless women and children while the Hamas fighters shelter in deep tunnels and inflict massive damage on the men and machines of the Zionists. In some ways this is a bad reflection on Hamas but in others it is not very different to the savagery inflicted on the civilians of what was then Leningrad by the German war machine . I should add the fast losing German war machine.
Hey Israel… hmmm, ” Do unto others…” I guess you have no religion anymore—just theneed to own and control—a guaranteed downfall for all nations.
Zionists are atheists. They hate all religions including Judaism. Christian Zionists don’t care because they want Armageddon and hope the Israelis will deliver so everyone can die, but them, and Jews along with all unbelievers will be consigned to the fires of hell. Poetic justice really given the fires of hell Israel has created for the Palestinians over 75 years.
From its inception and in all its wars of aggression in the region, the Zionist entity (a.k.a. “Israel”) relied heavily on the U.S. and Britain to save it. The reason the U.S. has its two largest aircraft carriers, accompanied by French, British and German frigates in the region is because they were fearing Israeli defeat. Remember, Israel is one of the largest military forces in the world and it is fighting defenseless population.
The coward Jews killed more than 17000 Palestinian civilians, including 4000 women and 6300 children.The Jews have been recognized as chronic liars, babies and children’s mass murderers. The UN Secretary General Guterres said: Israeli Jews have turned “Gaza into a graveyard for children.” UNICEF called Jewish war on the Palestinians, war on hospitals. Indeed, the Jews have turned Gaza hospitals into mass grave graveyards. It does not make sense and you cannot win war by killing women and children unless the aim is Genocide, a real holocaust, not the ubiquitous fabricate Holohaux.
I support the Palestinians 100%, the same way I admire the Vietnamese when they defeated the United States. I was an Army medic in that war, and I often say, I was born in America but my heart is Vietnamese. The most important thing I have to say about Scott Ritter’s article, is I think he underestimates the brutality of Israel. I do not think Israel is done being berserk against the Palestinian people, especially with the U.S. being a partner in mass murder. If two million Israelis were to hit the streets in Israel demanding a permanent ceasefire, I would say there is hope. I do not trust Israel, and I think Hamas has a breaking point. The whole world is watching, but Israel’s arrogance is still a monster… I hope I am wrong. We are all Palestinians, and if the rest of the world stands up in lockstep against Israel, there is hope. I do believe Israel’s power is shrinking, because the obvious enemy is in plain sight. How many more children have to be murdered and wounded to prove that? 500,000 Iraqi children had to die because of U.S. sanctions and the unfathomable power of explosive weapons. The Pentagon is the most evil piece of real estate that has ever existed on the face of the Earth. The U.S. is also on global trial, just like Israel. For the sake of precious peace, we are all Palestinians…
Yes!
Hamas might have a breaking point but the Palestinian Resistance does not and will not. Neither will the Muslim and Arab worlds, all of which support Palestine even if they are cautious about admitting it. As long as one Palestinian out of 16 million exists in the world and as long as Arabs and Muslims exist, the Palestinian Resistance will endure and grow stronger. Israel cannot win and it has been utterly stupid in thinking it could win this colonial war of hate and genocice.,
Unfortunately, Scott, the Israelis will be back. Too much triumphalism here given the unimaginable destruction in Gaza and the loss of Palestinian lives….with much more destruction to come since it is very clear Israeli decision makers are unhinged war criminals. How can Scott Ritter say that THE WORLD is now aligning with Palestinians? Yes, vast numbers of people are out on the streets around the world, but even greater numbers are sitting on their couches in the United States and in Europe….the two centers of power where almost every government is still supporting Israel’s genocide…doing nothing at all to make any outrage known they ‘might’ be experiencing. I dip into the Yahoo News article comment sections every now and then. It is absolutely frightening to see the horrendous comments of people and the overwhelming majority of ‘likes’ supporting such comments. Let’s get real. The bottom line around the world is that we’ve entered a new era. People and governments are sitting on their hands while the worst possible war crimes are being committed.
Most people have aligned themselves with their humanity, they can’t deny the truth anymore after seeing the by their own eyes what’s happening, but they have the feeling of being helpless and don’t know what to do, that includes Palestinians all over the world by the way.
As for the comments that you see and liked by big numbers of people, that’s part of the Israeli electronic war machine which pay to thousands of young people to only create fake names and respond to what is happening
The mainstream media is de-sentitizing the public at large into accepting genocide and ethnic cleansing as viable political/military options. There was a brief glimmer of higher consciousness at the end of WW2 when war crimes were declared and the vanquished were punished. Similarly Serbs and African despots were tried before the ICC even though big violators like the US and UK were given a free pass to terrorize the global south. The double standards are glaringly apparent with the Israeli/US assault on Gaza. The public sits mesmerized watching war crimes in real time on TV, sandwiched between advertisements for various consumer goodies. As the world population increases and conflicts become more heated the ancient tradition of mass murder by victor societies is becoming more acceptable and normalized by politicians and media pundits.
l vociferously disagree with your assessment of what took place on Oct 7! The most secure border in the world and it took 7 hours for the lDF to respond? l’ve heard numerous times that Egypt gave lsrael ample warning! lt is my belief and understanding that lsrael conspired with Hamas and allowed them to enter lsrael freely! The plan was to garner sympathy for lsrael for the atrocities committed! What most people don’t realize is that the majority of the atrocities committed on lsraeli citizens that day were committed by the lDF! All the reports of babies slaughtered, babies raped, babies ripped out of their mother’s wombs, babies baked in ovens were atrocious propaganda to garner sympathy so lsrael could commit genocide with worldwide support!
Thanks people, great commentary, and good to see Mike Hastie here. It is a mystery to me why no one brings up the phenomenon of ‘identity.’ Are we not all starved to be ‘somebody’ in this world? Is it not easy to understand the psychosis of others? So, here’s the thing, identity is always based on mythology. That means what? It’s a lie, a fabrication. All the bullshit in the Torah and the Old Testament and the New Testament is are just bullshit mythological stories of people starved for a sense of person value. What’s the solution? Look straight into the hollowed out eyes of the people around and show them that you value their journey through life. Code Pink made the excellent observation recently, ‘Every life lost is the loss of a universe.’ Which does not mean…..I know this will confuse you……that every fertilized egg has to be nurtured into another psychotic Homo sapiens. The planetary ecosystem is finite, and is in ‘overshoot’ as far as the number of Homo sapiens already present on the planet. In summary: Ecology is god.