Israel’s Humiliated Critics

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead. So, too, are his fellow Hamas terrorists Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa, and Saleh al-Arouri. Thousands more Hamas combatants have been neutralized or captured by the Israel Defense Forces on the Gaza Strip’s battlefields. The insurgent network that hatched and executed the barbarism loosed against Israelis and Jews on October 7, 2023, is scattered, disorganized, and struggling to regroup. But the Israeli military has not let up on the pressure its soldiers are applying to Hamas forces wherever they attempt to reconstitute themselves.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered amnesty to the remnants of Hamas and other Islamist terror groups in the Strip that surrender and facilitate the release of the remaining 10/7 hostages still in Hamas’s custody. That would bring “the end of the war closer,” he said. The conditions that will bring about an end to the hostilities in Gaza, therefore, can only be realized if Hamas recognizes its defeat. And if that defeat is not yet clear to its remaining members, it will have to be made clearer still.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead. So, too, are his fellow Hamas terrorists Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa, and Saleh al-Arouri. Thousands more Hamas combatants have been neutralized or captured by the Israel Defense Forces on the Gaza Strip’s battlefields. The insurgent network that hatched and executed the barbarism loosed against Israelis and Jews on October 7, 2023, is scattered, disorganized, and struggling to regroup. But the Israeli military has not let up on the pressure its soldiers are applying to Hamas forces wherever they attempt to reconstitute themselves.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered amnesty to the remnants of Hamas and other Islamist terror groups in the Strip that surrender and facilitate the release of the remaining 10/7 hostages still in Hamas’s custody. That would bring “the end of the war closer,” he said. The conditions that will bring about an end to the hostilities in Gaza, therefore, can only be realized if Hamas recognizes its defeat. And if that defeat is not yet clear to its remaining members, it will have to be made clearer still.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.