Ezra Klein has emerged as a prominent Jewish journalist with the New York Times, spending months in Gaza to examine the toll of Hamas’s assault—roughly 1,200 lives lost—and Israel’s retaliation, which has produced a much higher death toll. His reporting draws on dozens of interviews with scholars and analysts, distilling the patterns he observed in a closing briefing on the security framework that shapes the region. He argues that the security approach used by the Hebrew Government in recent years has failed to deliver lasting safety.
“Israel possessed ample intelligence to avert a Hamas attack: detailed plans, notes from observers who track training, and the kind of granular data that should have fed preventive action. Yet those warnings were not acted on. What followed wasn’t exotic technology but straightforward weapons—parachutes, vehicles, and rifles—found in a tunnel-based network,” Klein observes. “The aim wasn’t to wipe out Hamas’s capabilities in one sweep, but to blunt the momentum. The casualty toll in Gaza risks fueling further radicalism and a long cycle of revenge. Think of the children orphaned today who could be drawn into directing that vendetta.”
New research reinforces this interpretation. The Gaza conflict has spurred support for Hamas within Palestine, especially in the West Bank, the other major territory alongside Jerusalem in the broader occupied landscape. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas faces a rapid erosion of trust with the Israeli government; public sentiment among Palestinians has shifted, and a sizable majority supports resistance by any means. Many observers note a rising demand for self-defense as a political choice.
“No lasting security will emerge while the core issue remains—the occupation, land denial, and the denial of Palestinians’ fundamental rights and human dignity,” one scholar told this publication. Atalia Omer, a Middle East conflict specialist from the University of Notre Dame in the United States, adds: “Hamas transcends its armed wing. It represents a broader aspiration for liberation. Even if one faction wanes, another may arise. The yearning for freedom is deeply rooted, a lesson many have drawn from past campaigns framed as a global war on terror.”
Israel’s Gaza strategy
The Israeli government has not fully disclosed the strategic rationale behind what U.S. President Joe Biden has labeled as “indiscriminate bombings” in Gaza. The campaign has rendered the northern area largely uninhabitable, while a large share of critical infrastructure, including bread factories and several hospitals, has suffered damage or destruction.
Efforts have also focused on undermining the tunnel network and the storage sites Hamas uses to stage attacks and launch rockets into Israeli cities.
A proposed “buffer zone” along the Palestinian side of the border aims to prevent future incursions. Reuters reports that information about this plan has been shared with several Arab partners, though the specifics remain closely held by officials.
In public remarks, a security adviser to the Israeli government stressed clarity about the buffer zone: there will be no return to a situation where Hamas operatives can approach the boundary, cross it, and threaten civilians again.
Israel has pursued a high-tech separation barrier around Gaza, featuring advanced control systems and surveillance, including cameras and intelligent systems. Yet such defenses faced challenges from improvised drones equipped with explosives used by Hamas. Historical figures note that in 2018, thousands of Palestinian protesters gathered at the separation fence, with injuries numbering in the tens of thousands and fatalities totaling a few dozen on that day alone.
New security dilemma
Israel’s approach to the Palestinian territories has been steady for decades: a policy of occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where hundreds of settlements have been established and more than 700,000 residents live. Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, yet the territory remains tightly controlled on multiple fronts, with land, sea, and air barriers in place.
Since then, the region has endured several major confrontations. Commentators describe a strategy that allowed external funding and Gazan labor connectivity with Israel to shape the political economy of the conflict. As street battles and clashes persisted, observers say the dynamic has shifted toward a newer, more complex dilemma. Analysts note that many international governments advocate a two-state solution grounded in longstanding frameworks such as the Oslo Accords and UN resolutions. This position is echoed by officials in Madrid, including Pedro Sánchez and José Manuel Albares, who have reiterated support for a viable Palestinian state with functioning security institutions.