Three Years of Gaza Conflict: Military Might Has Not Delivered Political Victory for Israel

Three years have passed since the Hamas attack that shook Israel and ignited the current war. The image of an invincible Israeli military has been shattered. In response, Israel mobilized the full weight of its military power — short of nuclear weapons — and enlisted its Western allies to launch a campaign of unprecedented lethality and destruction that has devastated the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military has targeted not only military positions and Islamist resistance fighters but has also sought to punish civilians through massacres and large-scale destruction. To date, more than 74,000 people have been killed and over 180,000 wounded, the entire population has been starved, the health system destroyed, the education system wrecked, and most of Gaza's life-sustaining infrastructure — including water treatment plants, desalination facilities and the electricity grid — has been wiped out.

If the purpose of military power is to achieve political goals, then the measure of success cannot be the number of dead or the scale of destruction. The measure must be whether the conflict ends on the desired terms.

But after three years of slaughter, Israel appears unable to convert military superiority into a political reality that reflects its declared objectives.

From the outset, the Israeli government made clear its goals: freeing the hostages, eliminating the Palestinian resistance, imposing security control over the Gaza Strip and establishing an alternative administration. Israel also implicitly signaled a desire to lay the groundwork for expelling Palestinians.

So what has Israel achieved so far?

First, all the hostages have been released. However, of the 250 people taken into Gaza, the Israeli military rescued only 8 and recovered the bodies of 12 others. They shot dead at least 3 hostages and killed an unknown number in bombing campaigns.

Most of the hostages — both living and dead — were released after intense diplomatic efforts and negotiations with Hamas. Notably, the Israeli military's point man on hostage affairs recently said the hostages could have been released a year earlier and some of those killed could have been saved. Overwhelming military power clearly failed on the hostage issue.

Second, Israel has also been unable to end the presence of the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip despite large-scale military campaigns and the assassination of numerous leaders. Hamas still controls part of the Gaza Strip even as it faces relentless Israeli bombardment and attacks by Israeli-aligned Palestinian militias. Israel is now forced to negotiate over Hamas's disarmament rather than achieving it by force.

Third, the Israeli military has occupied 60 percent of the Gaza Strip, but has stopped short of a large-scale operation to seize the rest. The reason is that it understands the political, humanitarian and military costs of such a decision would be too high.

Fourth, Israel and its main ally, the United States, have tried to establish a Board of Peace and a reconstruction plan with an alternative administration for Gaza that excludes the United Nations. That effort has largely failed. The administrative committee for Gaza has yet to enter the territory to take over governance, and the humanitarian terms of the agreement have yet to be implemented.

Finally, preparations to expel Palestinians from Gaza have made no significant progress. Israel has tried to force Palestinians off their land through repeated displacement, starvation, the destruction of homes and infrastructure, and various "voluntary evacuation" plans. The devastation has made the Gaza Strip uninhabitable, but most Palestinians remain determined to stay. Some have even returned from Egypt.

At this point, it is clear Israel faces a "day after" problem in Gaza. Its military can flatten the Gaza Strip, but it cannot build a new political reality that meets Israel's goals and aspirations.

There was hope that turning Gaza into a wasteland would drive the entire population into such despair that they would abandon their cause and their rights. That hope has been extinguished.

The continued presence of Palestinians, the unceasing resistance, and the growing international political standing of the Palestinian cause have demonstrated that Israel's brutal aggressive approach has failed.

Military power can impose a temporary reality, but it cannot create political legitimacy on its own. Worse, it can actually destroy legitimacy. And that is exactly what has happened to the Israeli government and the entire Israeli project.

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the podium before the UN General Assembly last month, representatives of a majority of UN member states walked out of the hall.

Netanyahu himself faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

And it is not only his international standing that the Gaza war has destroyed.

Israel is increasingly being shunned by the global majority. A Pew Research survey across 36 countries found that 67 percent of adults hold an unfavorable view of Israel. People in Israel's key allies increasingly see Israel negatively: the United States — 60 percent; Germany — 73 percent; Britain — 69 percent; France — 68 percent.

In Washington, the debate over US support for Israel has become so fierce that a growing number of lawmakers back bills proposing cuts to military aid or the imposition of sanctions. In European capitals, similar discussions have led to the imposition of trade restrictions on Israel's illegal settlements.

Today, Israeli leaders will address the nation, boasting of military success, praising military power and promising more retribution.

But the truth is that the Israeli military — one of the most powerful forces in the world, with modern fighter jets, sophisticated drones and AI-guided 900-ton bombs — launched a war against a weak non-state actor armed only with small weapons… and lost.

People can be killed, homes can be crushed, and territory can be controlled, but a national cause that has echoed around the world for decades cannot be erased by military force.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.