The current Israel-Hamas conflict, particularly in Gaza, presents a severe dilemma for the IDF and the IAF: how does a nation defend itself against a military group that embeds its war machine in the heart of civilian life, exploiting international law and human suffering to shield itself? Hamas, the de facto rulers of Gaza since 2007, employ tactics that make military engagement not only dangerous for Israeli soldiers and Gazans alike but seemingly impossible without catastrophic civilian tolls. These strategies—building military tunnels under homes, storing weapons in hospitals, and launching attacks from schools and mosques—put on display a chilling disregard for human life, including the very Gazans they were elected to protect. This article explores the near-insurmountable challenges of confronting Hamas, the moral and legal quagmires involved, and the broader implications of allowing such tactics to go unchecked.
A War Waged from Within Civilian Life
Hamas’s military playbook is a masterclass in exploiting Gaza’s dense urban landscape. Research paints a grim picture: an extensive tunnel network ranging 350–450 miles, dubbed the “Gaza metro,” snakes beneath civilian neighborhoods, with entrances hidden in homes, mosques, and even hospitals. These tunnels aren’t just for smuggling; they house command centers, store weapons, and facilitate attacks, as documented in reports from the Lieber Institute at West Point and NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre. When Israeli forces target these legitimate military assets, they risk collapsing civilian structures or killing noncombatants, outcomes Hamas can then broadcast to accuse Israel of war crimes.
Weapons caches in civilian spaces—hospitals like Shifa, schools, residential buildings—further complicate the battlefield. The American University and City Journal notes instances of rockets and arms stashed in protected sites and violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) that turn civilian sanctuaries into legitimate military targets. Hamas fighters, often dressed in civilian clothes rather than uniforms, blend seamlessly into the population, which then further complicates and muddies the legal distinction between combatants and civilians, making every encounter a potential tragedy in the making for both sides.
Perhaps most brazenly, Hamas launches rockets and mortars from civilian areas—homes, hospitals, places of worship—knowing Israel’s response will draw global condemnation. Multiple reports on the Gaza conflict confirm this pattern, citing incidents like the 2023 al-Ahli Hospital explosion, initially blamed on Israel but later traced to a misfired Hamas rocket. These blatant lies by Hamas and their cronies don’t just endanger Gazan civilians; they weaponize their suffering, turning every casualty into a propaganda victory.
Disregard for Life, Gazan and Israeli Alike
Hamas’s tactics reveal a callous indifference to human life, starting with the people of Gaza, whom they were elected to govern in 2006. By consistently embedding military assets in civilian infrastructure, they invite and almost goad the devastation to their own population. The use of human shields—condemned by international bodies but denied by Hamas—purposefully forces civilians into the crossfire. Reports from multiple outlets highlight how this strategy is meant to maximize civilian casualties, which Hamas then leverages to vilify Israel in forums like the International Criminal Court (ICC). The goal of Hamas is to place as many of their own people in harm’s way as possible, forcing Israel into difficult decisions about how to eliminate military targets. Hamas shows no regard for the lives of its own people, nor does it spare Israeli lives.
The October 7, 2023, attack, which killed over 1,400 Israelis, was a murderous reminder of their willingness and eagerness to target civilians explicitly. That horrific attack just adds to the burden of nearly 7,000 rockets Hamas fires toward Israel annually on average, a figure derived from a three-year span that saw a staggering peak of 12,000 rockets launched from Gaza in 2023 alone, according to estimates from The Times of Israel and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, while the barrage tapered to around 7,000 in 2024 as reported by the FDD’s later analysis.
Yet, after such atrocities, Hamas retreats into Gaza’s urban maze with hundreds of hostages, daring Israel to follow. This cycle—attack, hide, accuse—exploits IHL’s protections while flouting its obligations, as City Journal details in its analysis of Hamas’s legal warfare.
The Impossible Fight
Fighting Hamas under these conditions is like navigating a minefield blindfolded and knowing if you step on a mine, you’re going to get blamed anyway. Israel faces a Catch-22: strike military targets and risk civilian deaths, fueling accusations of war crimes, or hold back and allow Hamas to regroup, emboldening further attacks, all while holding hundreds of your citizens hostage after a brutal attack.
The principle of distinction in IHL demands separating combatants from civilians, but when Hamas erases that line, Israel’s options dwindle. Airstrikes on tunnel entrances in Rafah or weapons caches in hospitals, as documented by multiple news outlets and reporters, inevitably lead to civilian losses, even with warnings—warnings Hamas can exploit by urging residents to stay put.
Ground operations are no less fraught. Clearing tunnels or rooting out fighters in civilian clothes risks close-quarters chaos, where mistakes are deadly and inevitable with the conditions Hamas has inflicted on Gaza.
No Regard for Gaza’s Future
The way Hamas has run the Gaza Strip is perhaps the largest betrayal of a population in the world. Instead of building schools or hospitals free of military use, they’ve prioritized tunnels and military equipment, diverting aid from a population begging for resources and proper governance.
Gaza’s total aid since 2006 is estimated to be over $40 billion, driven by UNRWA ($12–14B), EU ($12–15B), and U.S. (~$5–6B), per sources like AP News and GAO. Hamas directly received $2–3 billion, mostly from Iran, with some charity funds, per Reuters and Treasury. Despite receiving billions in aid, Gaza’s GDP per capita has seen no tangible improvement since the election of Hamas in 2006, starting at around $1,000 according to UNCTAD estimates and peaking nominally at $1,202 in 2022 per PCBS data.
Instead of investing in the future of Gaza, their governance seems less about building up the infrastructure and well-being of their citizens and more about perpetuating a war that thrives on Gazan suffering. By using civilian deaths to rally international sympathy, Hamas sacrifices its constituents for strategic gain, undermining any claim to moral legitimacy.
The Critics and the Bigger Picture
Some argue that focusing on Hamas’s tactics unfairly shifts focus from Israel’s actions in their response. Critics, particularly in international forums, often frame Israel’s responses as disproportionate, citing civilian death tolls without acknowledging the context and absolutely evil conditions that Hamas creates. They say that highlighting Hamas’s violations excuses Israel’s conduct or ignores Palestinian suffering. However, I believe this perspective risks missing the most critical question of this conflict: What happens if Hamas’s playbook goes unpunished?
If Hamas can execute attacks like October 7, fire an average of 7,000 rockets toward Israel annually, take hundreds of innocent hostages, retreat behind and under civilian shields, and emerge as victims in the global narrative, what message does that send to other terrorist groups and enemies of Israel and other western powers? It undoubtedly signals that the rules of war—particularly distinction and protection of civilians—can be flouted with impunity. Murder and kidnap your neighbors, hide among civilians, cause chaos, and then claim persecution. This isn’t just a problem for Israel; it’s a blueprint for any group willing to sacrifice lives for leverage on the international stage. Allowing Hamas to set this precedent invites a world where no nation can defend itself, repel its enemies, and retrieve its kidnapped citizens without being paralyzed by legal and moral traps.
Conclusion
Fighting Hamas is a nightmare of impossible choices. Their integration of military operations into civilian life—tunnels under homes, rockets from hospitals, fighters disguised as civilians—creates a battlefield where every move risks catastrophe. This wasn’t inevitable; it’s been a deliberate decades-long strategy that holds Gazans hostage to Hamas’s agenda, showing no regard for the lives they were elected to defend or the Israelis they target. Yet, the world cannot afford to let such tactics become a winning formula. If we condemn Israel’s responses without addressing Hamas’s deliberate and malicious violations, we risk emboldening a model of warfare that thrives on breaking every rule, leaving civilians as pawns and nations unable to defend themselves.
