The Israeli government has yet to translate the IDF victories in the Gaza Strip into a political victory that eliminates Hamas as a governing entity, however.

The IDF and the Israeli government needed to define a clear political end state to turn the military victory into a victory that secured all three war aims.

The Israeli government refused to identify such an end state, making it difficult for IDF commanders to execute military operations that would have set better conditions to destroy Hamas’ ability to control the strip and rebuild its government.

The United States similarly never seriously articulated a desired political outcome in the Gaza Strip beyond a nebulous “peace.”

US and international insistence on political outcomes based on the Palestinian Authority, a body that has no capacity to govern the Gaza Strip (and can hardly control the West Bank) greatly constrained creative thinking about an approach to post-Hamas governance in Gaza that might actually come to pass.