Hamas Won

Members from the al-Qassam Brigades and al-Quds Brigades are deployed in Gaza’s Palestine Square during the exchange of four Israeli female soldiers and Palestinian prisoners on January 25.
Ayman Alhesi/Anadolu via Getty Images

Hamas Won

Is this what ‘total victory’ looks like?

One man of Israel had a reputation as the nation’s most fearsome warrior. He tore a lion apart with his bare hands. He slew 1,000 enemy soldiers with the jawbone of an ass. God gave this man his strength to free Israel from oppression.

But the man took his divine gift for granted. Instead of keeping God’s laws, he was a prostitute’s client and later lived with a woman in sin. He even broke his covenant with God by letting his hair, the symbol of his covenant, get cut. This last transgression caused God’s miraculous power to leave him.

Judges 16 describes what happened next to Samson: “But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house. … Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand” (verses 21, 23).

You could call Samson the original Gaza hostage.

The State of Israel has been in a ceasefire with Hamas since January 19. Gaza is releasing some of its hostages, but it’s clear Hamas has not been decimated. Seeing scores of Hamas terrorists out in the open, proudly in uniform, “holding back” jeering masses snarling at the hostages as they’re transferred to the Red Cross, brings to mind the hooting and hazing ancient Gazans must have given to their hostage, Samson.

It has been over a year since Hamas started its war on Oct. 7, 2023. Soon after Hamas’s attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known. The enemy will pay an unprecedented price. … We are at war, and we will win it.” In the months since, Netanyahu repeatedly said his war aim in Gaza was “total victory.”

The current ceasefire may not be the end of the war, but many are hoping it is. Former United States President Joe Biden indicated as such when he announced the deal. Let’s examine the war’s current numbers to see if “total victory” has been met.

The Numbers

Israel has listed the names of 841 soldiers killed in the Gaza war, the majority of them during Israel’s ground offensive. Sixty-nine police officers also died. By the end of 2024, Israel had spent an estimated $65.6 billion on the war. Ninety-one hostages, dead and alive, are still in Gaza.

There have been tangible gains for Israel. Hezbollah, Hamas’s ally in Lebanon, has been decapitated and decimated. Israel probably won’t be threatened by Lebanon anytime soon. Hamas’s leaders, Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, are dead. Mohammed Sinwar, Yahya’s brother, is Hamas’s new leader.

But what does Hamas as an organization look like now?

Israel claims to have killed over 17,000 Hamas terrorists. But various analysts suggest Hamas has replaced them with new recruits. Former U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed on January 14: “Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost. That is a recipe for an enduring insurgency and perpetual war.” Israel Defense Forces Gen. Amir Avivi (Ret.) claimed Israel is “in a situation where the pace at which Hamas is rebuilding itself is higher than the pace that the idf is eradicating them.”

Hamas’s governing capability hasn’t evaporated either, shown by the mobs of Hamas soldiers popping out of their foxholes to celebrate their victory.

With the ceasefire, humanitarian aid has poured into Gaza, with Hamas acting as guarantor. Hamas divisions patrol convoy routes and coordinate the distribution of aid and the return of displaced Gazans to their homes. “These tasks make Hamas the de facto governing body in the Gaza Strip, at least in certain areas,” the Institute for the Study of War think tank wrote. The report later stated: “It is notable in this context that Hamas is the sole actor in the Gaza Strip capable and willing to undertake this relatively broad spectrum of tasks. Hamas, therefore, appears to be prepared to reemerge as the sole authority in the Gaza Strip, even though the idf destroyed its government structure.”

Some elements of Hamas’s government went underground. The Associated Press reported January 21 that thousands of uniformed Hamas police officers have reappeared on the streets, “making their presence known even in the most heavily destroyed areas.” “The police have been here the whole time, but they were not wearing their uniforms,” one Gazan man told AP. “They were among the displaced people in the tents. That’s why there were no thefts.”

Was It Worth It?

Israel might be planning to end the ceasefire and reengage in Gaza soon. But ceasefire or no ceasefire, the truth is plain: After over a year of warfare, Hamas is alive and well. There is no total victory.

Gaza is not Russia or North Korea. It occupies roughly 225 square miles—about a third the size of London, England. Hamas has no tanks, no aircraft, no warships. Israel, meanwhile, has one of the world’s most sophisticated militaries. Global FirePower ranks Israel as the world’s 15th-most powerful military for 2025—the second-most powerful in the Middle East after Turkey.

Israel had over a year to show Hamas how powerful the idf is. The bombed-out husks of buildings throughout Gaza demonstrate the power of some of Israel’s weapons. The sacrifices of Israel’s servicemen and women have been extremely valiant.

But Hamas is still standing. It is still running Gaza. Even with the idf stationed within Gaza, Hamas is confident enough to openly parade its soldiers again. If January 19 marks the end of round one of fighting, then Hamas has won it. And it is ready for round two.

This is the antithesis of total victory.

Why Israel Didn’t Win

There are strategic reasons why Israel’s war went this direction. Israel’s campaign was not a typical ground invasion. For months, there has been, for the most part, no new territory for Israel to invade. It didn’t take long for Israel’s soldiers to go through all of Gaza. Unlike Russia in Ukraine, Israel issued no occupation authority. Instead, the idf camped out at Gaza’s borders, made periodic raids, and then retreated.

“When generals don’t have a strategy, they come up with an overarching strategy of attrition, which doctrinally, is achieved by raids,” Ran Baratz, an instructor of military doctrine at the idf’s National Defense College, told Jewish News Syndicate. He continued: “They have different names for raids. In Vietnam, it was called ‘search and destroy.’ But it was the same idea. You raid a place, you kill the enemy combatants, with some collateral damage, and you pull back. You could see that in the Second Lebanon War, and you can see that today. If they had a good operational plan, they wouldn’t be speaking about raids.”

International pressure also played a part in Israel’s campaign. With the whole world’s cameras waiting to catch Israel committing “war crimes,” the idf had to be extremely selective with some of its operations.

But for Israel’s army to fail to defeat Hamas is still astounding.

This is a historical anomaly. The Jewish state is the same nation that produced a shepherd boy who felled a Philistine giant. It is the same nation that under King Hezekiah refused to surrender to the Assyrian Empire. It is the same nation that under the Maccabees uprooted the evil King Antiochus. It is the same nation that survived the Arab world’s attempt to snuff it out in 1948. It is the same nation that took over Gaza, the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights in six days.

There are plenty of physical factors for why Israel has struggled in Gaza. But this heritage points to the fundamental cause of Israel’s failure.

The Faith of Israel

When David challenged Goliath, he didn’t credit his slingshot. He credited the God of Israel (1 Samuel 17:45-46). God wiped out Assyria’s armies because of Hezekiah’s prayer of repentance (Isaiah 37). In Daniel 11, God promised to bless Antiochus’s defeat. And although the State of Israel may not have invoked God’s name in 1948 or 1967, those victories were still miraculous.

But today—like with Samson living in sin with Delilah—the State of Israel is not a paragon of biblical virtue.

Israel calls Tel Aviv, where an estimated 1 in 4 residents is homosexual, the “gay capital of the Middle East.” idf soldiers displayed symbols of sexual perversion even as they fought in Gaza. Abortion, a modern version of child sacrifice, is common: Approximately 1 in 600 Israeli babies is murdered in the womb. People who defy God’s loving, beneficial laws (e.g. Leviticus 18:22; Exodus 21:22-23) suffer for it.

The Nova Music Festival, where Hamas murdered and abducted so many on October 7, was a psychedelic trance event celebrating drug use and fornication. As Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry emphasized, it took place on the weekly Sabbath and an annual holy day.

The Jewish nation was born and sustained by godly miracles,” Mr. Flurry writes in Jerusalem in Prophecy.But it still refuses to trust God!” He summarizes Israel’s attitude to its peace process: They “are looking to men for peace and not to the great God of Mount Sinai. Their history with God is virtually meaningless!” He wrote that in the context of the land-for-peace approach to the Palestinian question, but it also applies to Israel’s disobedience of God’s laws.

In Leviticus 26, God pronounced a series of blessings and curses for His people based on their obedience. If the people of Israel would obey God, He promised: “And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword” (verses 6-8).

Israel has not experienced this kind of success in Gaza. It had some great successes against Hamas and Hezbollah, but God is not blessing them like He did with David and ancient Israel’s other enemies. This is an ominous warning.

Instead He is cursing Israel for disobedience: “[Y]e shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. … And I will break the pride of your power …” (verses 17, 19).

“Through weakness and a lack of faith in God, the Jews have created their own wound!” Mr. Flurry continues. Further on, he writes: “They have more than enough power to protect themselves. But they lack the will to use it! That is because God has broken their will—and that includes America’s and Britain’s.”

After being blinded and thrown into slavery, it appears Samson had some measure of repentance. He at least learned humility and acknowledged the source of his strength. As the Philistines held a feast, they ordered Samson to be brought out for entertainment. Samson found himself between the two pillars supporting the building’s roof.

“And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life” (Judges 16:28-30).

God had a purpose for calling Samson. Before his birth, God told his mother that Samson would start Israel’s liberation from the Philistines (Judges 13:5). Even after sore trial, God allowed Samson to fulfill his commission—at the cost of his own life.

The ceasefire may not be the end of the story. Like with Samson’s last stand, Israel may have victory over Gaza yet. But it will come at a tremendous cost. The war already has exacted a high price. And until Israel learns the lesson Samson learned—that God was the source of his strength and that strength was conditional to keeping God’s covenant—harder correction is coming.

To learn more, request a free copy of Jerusalem in Prophecy.