Until Gaza’s civilians are physically separated from its fighters, every “victory” will just be the prelude to the next war.
It’s the same movie we’ve all seen before—Netanyahu in front of a camera, talking tough about taking control of Gaza to defeat Hamas, and then… the walk-back. Now the talk is about a methodical advance into Gaza City, telling civilians to leave before the IDF moves in.
Sounds reasonable on paper. In reality? Hamas knows this script better than anyone. They melt into the crowd of fleeing civilians, keep some fighters behind to ambush advancing troops, and live to fight another day. Israel racks up a few tactical wins, destroys a few more tunnels, and two years later we’re right back where we started.
And those tunnels—don’t think they’re gone. Even the rosiest military estimates say much of that underground web is still there, ready to be used again.
Here’s the core problem: Hamas isn’t going to change. The group’s endgame hasn’t shifted an inch, no matter how much destruction Israel deals out. As long as they can hide among civilians, they’ll rebuild, regroup, and retake control. That’s why the “win a battle, go home, call it a day” approach is just buying time.
But almost nobody—outside of Israel’s hard-right political fringe—wants Israel to rule Gaza outright. Netanyahu has said so himself. His preferred “day after” scenario is some kind of technocratic leadership, likely backed and bankrolled by Arab monarchies like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the UAE. The problem? You can’t hand over a functioning, peaceful Gaza to anyone if Hamas is still embedded in the population.
So what’s the missing piece? Physical separation. Pull the civilians out of the combat zone entirely. Not shuffle them from one part of Gaza to another. Move them out, full stop. Only then can the IDF clear the territory properly—no civilians in the crossfire, no cover for Hamas fighters, no half-finished jobs.
It’s not a pretty idea, and it’s not simple. Nobody’s lining up to take in Gazan refugees. Egypt, for one, has no appetite for importing a population seen as sympathetic to Hamas—their own Muslim Brotherhood cousins. Other Arab states, while happy to denounce Israel from afar, aren’t opening refugee camps or building housing. Europe bashes Israel and makes grand gestures about recognizing an illusory Palestinian state to pacify its own restive Muslim populations — but it’s all words and no plan.
And let’s be honest—many Gazans themselves are wary of leaving. They’ve seen what happened in 1948, when Palestinians who fled ended up stranded in camps for generations. But here’s the thing: they don’t have the freedom to choose right now anyway. Hamas controls their movements, their speech, their lives.
That’s why commentator Haviv Gur’s “crazy” idea might be the most logical one on the table: create a secure refugee zone inside Israel itself. I know—it sounds backwards. But think about it. Israel could ensure the civilians are safe, fed, and cared for, while keeping them completely apart from Hamas. The IDF could then operate in Gaza without the nightmare of urban warfare among noncombatants. And the international chorus accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” would have a much harder case to make if the displaced civilians were literally inside Israel, under Israeli protection.
No solution here is clean. None of them are pretty. Dealing with a terrorist group that actively uses its own people as human shields is going to look ugly no matter what. But the one thing that’s absolutely certain is this: if Hamas and Gaza’s civilians aren’t physically separated, nothing changes. Every ceasefire will just be an intermission. Every rebuilding effort will just be a prelude to the next war.
It’s easy for outside observers to call for “restraint” or talk about “addressing root causes.” The reality is that the root cause in this case has an army, a tunnel network, and a death wish—for Israel and, tragically, for many of the people it claims to represent.
Separate Hamas from the civilians, or resign yourself to watching this same bloody cycle repeat. Over and over. Forever.
rubenthoughts 