US Defense Department officials have warned that Israel's indiscriminate killings in Gaza will fuel armed resistance by Palestinians for generations to come. This coincided with Israeli Defense Ministry officials concluding that even if Israel was able to dismantle Hamas in Gaza, this political movement popular among Palestinians “will continue to exist.”

Israeli Channel 12 reported that even if the Israeli army eliminated Hamas in Gaza, the movement would continue to fight Israel as a “terrorist and guerrilla group,” while Israeli defense officials concluded in their report that “real support remains” for Hamas among the Palestinians.

The Israeli attacks on Gaza led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including more than 12,000 children. Israel's genocide against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip has created a state of protest around the world. Ilana Dayan, an investigative journalist for Channel 12, stated that "the bottom line" is that "Hamas will survive this [Israeli army] campaign as a guerrilla group." .

In November, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Brown warned Israel that its indiscriminate attacks on Gaza would push Palestinians to join Hamas. When reporters asked him whether the high rate of civilian casualties would create more Hamas fighters, Brown said: "Yes, that's largely true. And I think that's something we should pay attention to."

He added: "That's why when we talk about time - the faster you can get to a point where hostilities stop, the less conflict there will be for a civilian population that turns into someone who now wants to be the next member of Hamas."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has always said that the primary goal of Israeli military operations in Gaza is to eliminate the Hamas movement. Dayan explained that “there will not be an absolute victory” that Netanyahu predicted and demanded.

The Israeli army report said that part of the obstacle to eliminating Hamas is that Tel Aviv lacks a plan for the day after the end of the conflict. President Joe Biden has tried to focus on this issue: what will happen after the conflict, including the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu may not be able to present a general post-war plan due to disagreements regarding the demands of some of his most important supporters. While Biden wants to rebuild Gaza for the Palestinians, members of Netanyahu's government are planning ethnic cleansing in Gaza and settlement by Israelis in the Strip.

It is noteworthy that Israel has failed, up to this point, to achieve its four declared goals of eradicating the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, assassination of its leadership; liberating Israeli prisoners and changing the regime in Gaza, while Al-Qassam fighters, the military wing of the Hamas movement, continue to inflict painful blows on the Israeli army, far exceeding the combined Israeli casualties in all of Israel’s previous wars, according to experts.