As Israeli troops launched a ground assault aimed at taking control of Gaza City, experts said the operation showed that diplomatic efforts to end the war appear severely diminished, if not moribund.
What is clear after nearly two years of intense fighting that has left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins is that neither side intends to back down from its longstanding objectives.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said from the outset of the war that he had two priorities: to bring home the hostages captured by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attacks and to destroy Hamas.
But the goal of eradicating Hamas has been a challenge for Mr. Netanyahu to define. Even if Israel vanquishes the group, its ideology will most likely survive the war. And the objective itself raises questions. Once Israel declares success, who will govern Gaza? Mr. Netanyahu has suggested unspecified “Arab forces,” but his additional requirements, like keeping the Palestinian Authority out of power in Gaza, make the idea a nonstarter in Arab countries.
For their part, leaders of Hamas have long sought to eliminate the state of Israel and had hoped the 2023 attacks would force the world to reckon with Palestinian statehood. As well as killing about 1,200 people, the group and its allies also took about 250 hostages as leverage against a ground war with Israel. Hamas had calculated that to free those captives, the Israeli military must pull out of Gaza — an outcome that would leave the group fundamentally intact and claiming victory. That thinking, of course, has not worked out in the ways Hamas would have hoped. Whatever leverage Hamas had with the hostages appears gone, and the war has badly damaged Hamas’s fighting capabilities.
The intransigence on both sides is a steep barrier for any negotiations toward a cease-fire or a peace deal. Neither Hamas nor Mr. Netanyahu has shown interest in giving up political power or influence in exchange for peace. For Mr. Netanyahu, that means ensuring his government does not fall. Hamas has not demonstrated a willingness to surrender its weapons or to loosen its grip on Gaza.
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