Amid the commotion surrounding the hostage deal with Hamas brokered in Qatar, it's worth pausing to ask: where were Hamas and its "axis of resistance" before October 7, 2023, and where are they today? This is the standard measure of defeat and victory.
In the week preceding October 7, 2023, Hamas reigned unchallenged over the Gaza Strip. It enjoyed hefty dollar transfers from Iran, Qatar and Israel. It had completed the excavation of a military tunnel network equipped with communication, water, sewage and air systems.
Hamas stockpiled vast quantities of weapons — albeit unsophisticated yet dangerous ones — and trained thousands of young soldiers for a violent offensive against Israel, organizing them into quasi-military battalions and brigades ready for orders.
Regionally, Hamas leaders in Gaza believed they could rely on practical support and active involvement in a war against Israel from Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Crops and extremist factions in Syria. Confident in their immunity from Israeli retaliation, which had ceased targeted assassinations and operations in Gaza, Hamas stood tall at the height of its power and influence, euphoric.
And today? Hamas' military capabilities have been reduced by 80% and its supply lines for weaponry have dried up completely. Its political and military leadership has been systematically eliminated. Approximately 15,000 of its terrorists — mostly with only basic combat training — have been killed, with new recruits drawn from a desperate, starving Gazan population.
The underground tunnel network has been destroyed, command and control centers obliterated and training and concealment facilities erased. Israel has dismantled the "axis of resistance," or "axis of evil"—Hezbollah has conceded, Syria has turned and Iran has learned to restrain itself. There’s no one to fight alongside Hamas and even Hamas terrorists are no longer fighting.
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Critics of the Doha agreement argue that Hamas will still "control Gaza." But what exactly will it control? The Gaza Strip it inherits is a wasteland, with catastrophic destruction (estimated reconstruction costs exceed $40 billion), makeshift cemeteries and a population surviving on handouts, living in some of the world's lowest conditions.
There is no trade, agriculture, craftsmanship, education or future. A million residents have been displaced from their homes and live in tents. Two-thirds of the buildings in northern Gaza are uninhabitable and conditions in central and southern Gaza are only marginally better. The civilian governing apparatus, funded by the Palestinian Authority but managed by Hamas, has vanished entirely.
It's also worth recalling that all outgoing U.S. administration officials, including the president, secretary of state and National Security Council spokesperson, place sole blame on Hamas' leadership for thwarting a similar hostage agreement in the spring and summer of last year.
Before his demise, Yahya Sinwar justified his reckless actions — the command to invade Israeli border communities and the brutal massacre of civilians — as an attempt to thwart normalization between Israel and additional Arab states. Even in this, he failed. Normalization with Saudi Arabia and Qatar has regained prominence on the diplomatic agenda.

In conclusion, let me quote the leading liberal weekly The Economist: since the Six-Day War, Israel has not inflicted a defeat as profound and devastating as the one Hamas and the "axis of resistance" suffered in 2024.
Now, with Hamas down and out, the time has come to renew dialogue with the Palestinian Authority — the only recognized sovereign of the Gaza Strip — and to initiate talks on a peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians. This, and this alone, will mark Hamas' ultimate governmental and ideological defeat.