Facing enormous pressure at home and abroad, how much longer can Israel continue its war in Gaza?

By Ian Parmeter, Australian National University

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set a high bar for victory right at the start of the Gaza conflict: the complete destruction of Hamas and freedom for all of the approximately 250 hostages taken by the group during its raid into Israel on October 7 last year.

He has doubled down several times on these objectives. During a media conference in January, he said:

There are those who claim victory is impossible. I utterly reject this. Israel, under my leadership, will not compromise on less than total victory over Hamas.

On that measure, Israel is still a long way from victory six months into the war. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have had no trouble destroying buildings and other infrastructure in Gaza, resulting in enormous numbers of civilian casualties and immense suffering for residents, but their hold on territory seems tenuous.

Israeli journalist Anshel Pfeffer wrote in this week’s Sunday Times, for instance, that when he was embedded with an IDF unit recently, he had observed what he believed to be Hamas snipers in the ruins of the Al-Shifa Hospital following the army’s “successful” conclusion of its operations there.

The other goal of freeing the Israeli hostages still seems far off, as well. There were hopes for more releases following the brief ceasefire in November negotiated by Qatar, Egypt and the US, which led to the exchange of 105 hostages for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

But just three Israeli hostages have so far been freed by Israeli military action. About 100 hostages are believed to be still in Gaza, and alive.

Despite these poor results, Netanyahu argues that only military pressure on Hamas will lead to more hostage releases. Netanyahu, who leads the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, has the support of his cabinet in this belief.

Some far-right members of the cabinet have threatened to leave the government if he waivers from this aim.

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