Standing in front of a gray backdrop decorated with Hamas logos and emblems of a gunman that commemorate the bloody October 7 attack on Israel, Osama Hamdan, the organisation’s representative in Lebanon, professed no concern about his Palestinian faction being dislodged from the Gaza Strip.

“We are not worried about the future of the Gaza Strip,” he recently told a crowded news conference in his offices in Beirut’s southern suburbs. “The decision-maker is the Palestinian people alone.”

Hamdan thus dismissed one of Israel’s key objectives since the beginning of its assault on Gaza: to dismantle the political and military organisation that was behind the massacre of about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, and which still holds more than 100 hostages.

A Palestinian youth carries a Hamas flag amid clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank on October 27.Credit: Getty

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly emphasised that objective even while facing mounting international pressure to scale back military operations. The Biden administration has dispatched senior envoys to Israel to push for a new phase of the war focused on more targeted operations rather than sweeping destruction.

And critics both within Israel and outside have questioned whether resolving to destroy such a deeply entrenched organisation was ever realistic. One former Israeli national security adviser called the plan “vague”.

“I think that we have reached a moment when the Israeli authorities will have to define more clearly what their final objective is,” French President Emmanuel Macron said this month. “The total destruction of Hamas? Does anybody think that’s possible? If it’s that, the war will last 10 years.”

Since it first emerged in 1987, Hamas has survived repeated attempts to eliminate its leadership. The organisation’s very structure was designed to absorb such contingencies, according to political and military specialists. In addition, Israel’s devastating tactics in the war with Hamas threaten to radicalise a broader segment of the population, inspiring new recruits.

Analysts see the most optimal outcome for Israel probably consisting of degrading Hamas’ military capabilities to prevent the group from repeating such a devastating attack. But even that limited goal is considered a formidable slog.