On Saturday morning, missiles launched from the Gaza Strip landed off the coast of Tel Aviv, in what Hamas claimed was an accident caused by lightning. Yesterday, a machinegun was fired from Gaza into an empty field in Israel; a few days beforehand, a sniper in Gaza shot an Israeli civilian near the border fence; and Hamas has been involved in numerous terrorist attacks from the West Bank in recent weeks. These incidents suggest to Amos Gilad and Michael Milshtein that Jerusalem’s strategy of issuing work permits for Gazans wishing to enter Israel and allowing Qatari funds to flow into the Strip isn’t succeeding in maintaining calm:

Israel is working to improve the economy in the Hamas-controlled enclave to make life in the Gaza Strip better, since Israeli officials believe it will give incentive to the local population to stand up against the jihadist principles promoted by Hamas and its leader Yahya Sinwar. Hamas, however, is using the ceasefire reached following the May war to rehabilitate its military power ahead of a future conflict, and endlessly threatens to renew the violence if its demands aren’t met not only with regard to developments in Gaza, but also in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and in Israel’s prisons where many Palestinian inmates are held.

Israeli policymakers [must] change their mindsets and actions when it comes to the Gaza Strip. First, it is necessary to recognize the limitations of the Western way of thinking, which assumes that good economics can counter radical ideologies. This model has failed many times over the past decades in the Middle East.

Secondly, . . . Israel’s promotion of civil gestures toward the Gaza Strip—like giving out work permits to merchants—without demanding that Hamas return fallen soldiers and civilians, and stop rearming and promoting terror in the West Bank and Jerusalem, may result in a temporary quiet in the area, but could also become a strategic challenge in the long run.

Most importantly, Israel needs to improve its ability to understand Hamas’s logic. . . . For Hamas, the wellbeing of Gaza’s residents is a consideration, not a constraint, and Israel tends to have a hard time understanding that.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.