Mr. Netanyahu spoke last weekend about destroying Hamas' “military and governance capacity” and ensuring the group no longer poses a threat to Israel.
Few dispute the fact that Hamas has suffered heavy losses to its military infrastructure. Some say they have suffered huge losses from public support and street control in Gaza.
But there is no indication that Israel killed or captured Supreme Leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, and leaving them behind in Gaza to celebrate the withdrawal of Israeli troops is an embattled Israeli move. It would spell political disaster for the Prime Minister.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department said the United States had not responded to the deal proposed by Hamas.
The spokesman said Hamas' capabilities have steadily declined in recent months, but it remains a threat and the United States does not believe the group can be eliminated militarily.
Separately, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said the Israeli military would be able to guarantee Israel's security if there is a ceasefire and hostage deal agreed to by the government.
But Yanir Kozin, a diplomatic correspondent for Israeli military radio station GLZ, believes Netanyahu will not end the war until he makes it a success.
“The deal to leave Hamas is a huge failure,” he said. “He doesn’t want to end the war when, after eight months, he hasn’t achieved any one of his war goals: ending Hamas, not rescuing all the hostages, securing the borders. But he also knows he cannot leave until the next Israeli election in 2026.”
“If he can say, ‘We have expelled Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, they are not living in Gaza,’ and if people living in Gaza and near the northern border can go back, I think he can keep his government together. . But there are too many ‘what ifs’.”
Hamas is highly unlikely to agree to the expulsion or surrender of its senior figures. But clear divisions are emerging among Hamas leaders both inside and outside Gaza.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is also defense minister, said in an interview with Israel Radio on Monday that President Biden announced the deal “after seeing Netanyahu go ahead only when he was sure Sinwar would reject it.”
“How do you think Sinwar will react when he agrees and hears that? But hurry, because even after sending all the hostages back, we still have to kill you,” he said.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Israelis who became refugees after the October 7 Hamas attack are watching the prime minister's next move.
Among them is Yarin Sultan, a 31-year-old mother of three who fled her home in Sderot on the Gaza border the morning after the Hamas attack. She said she would not go home until Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif were no longer free.
“This ceasefire will kill us,” she told the BBC. “We will rescue the hostages, but a few years from now you will be the next hostage. You will be the next murdered, raped woman. “It will all happen again.”
Additional reporting by Rushdi Aboualouf
