The future of Gaza must not be framed as a question of governance alone, nor reduced to an endless debate about post-war reconstruction. At its core, this is a battle between liberation and enslavement, between those who seek a future beyond war and those who thrive on the perpetual suffering of their own people.
The destruction of Hamas’s military capabilities is a necessary but insufficient condition for peace. Hamas is not merely an armed group – it is an ideological regime, one that has transformed Gaza into a war economy, a launchpad for jihad, and a psychological prison where an entire population has been conditioned to believe that death is preferable to compromise. It is not occupation that defines life in Gaza but subjugation – by Hamas itself.
For decades, the world has been sold a narrative in which Gaza is cast as an occupied territory, its suffering solely attributed to Israel. This is a grotesque inversion of reality. The true occupier of Gaza is Hamas – a theocratic mafia that has ruled not by consent but by force.
It has crushed political rivals, murdered dissenters, and imposed its Islamist vision with an iron grip. Since its violent coup in 2007, Hamas has held Gazans hostage, their lives dictated by a regime that has no interest in state-building, only in perpetuating conflict as a means of maintaining power.
Western policymakers, journalists, and international institutions have indulged the absurd fiction that Hamas is a legitimate national liberation movement. It is not. A political movement can negotiate. A death cult cannot.
Hamas is an organization whose founding charter explicitly calls for genocide, and whose leadership openly declares its commitment to annihilation rather than coexistence. It does not seek a Palestinian state alongside Israel; it seeks Israel’s destruction as a precursor to Islamic conquest.
IT IS TIME to ask a different question: what does liberation look like for the people of Gaza? The world’s fixation with Israel’s role in the conflict has obscured the most important reality: the primary victims of Hamas’s rule are the Palestinians themselves.
De-Hamasification
The removal of Hamas from power cannot be treated as a military objective alone. It is not enough to destroy its tunnels, assassinate its leaders, or dismantle its rocket capabilities. If Hamas is to be permanently erased, then its ideological and economic stranglehold over Gaza must also be dismantled.
A post-war Gaza that is truly free must begin with a total de-Hamasification of its institutions. This is not an abstract concept – it is a historical necessity. After World War II, Germany was not merely defeated militarily; Nazism was systematically uprooted. The same must happen in Gaza.
The first step is education reform. Hamas has turned Gaza’s schools into factories of extremism, where children are not taught mathematics or science but martyrdom and hatred. The international community has for years poured billions into Palestinian education, yet it has done so with no oversight, allowing Hamas to weaponize schools as recruitment centers for its next generation of jihadists.
No international aid should be sent to Gaza unless it is conditional on the total eradication of Hamas propaganda from its educational system.
Beyond education, Hamas’s patronage networks must be shattered. Hamas operates like a cartel, controlling employment, aid distribution, and public services in Gaza. If you are not loyal, you are cut off. If Hamas is to be permanently removed, international reconstruction efforts must bypass its institutions entirely, channeling resources instead to independent local councils, vetted technocrats, and economic initiatives that do not serve as vehicles for Hamas’s resurgence.
Hamas’s power is not just derived from ideology or violence – it is deeply rooted in economic control. By monopolizing trade, taxation, and employment, Hamas ensures that its survival is inextricably linked to the material survival of Gazans themselves. This must end.
Gaza’s economic future must be torn from Hamas’s grasp and reintegrated into a broader regional framework. For too long, Hamas has fostered economic isolation as a propaganda tool, blaming Israel for the suffering of a population it has deliberately impoverished.
But Gaza does not have to remain a prison state – it can be rebuilt through economic partnerships with moderate Arab nations, creating pathways for trade, investment, and employment that bypass Hamas entirely.
A crucial step in this transformation will be the creation of industrial free zones under international oversight, ensuring that job opportunities are not contingent on loyalty to Hamas and that economic growth is tied to productivity rather than political allegiance. If Gazans can work, earn, and thrive outside Hamas’s networks, then the foundation of Hamas’s rule will begin to crumble.
HAMAS’S GREATEST weapon is not its arsenal – it is its ability to control the narrative, both within Gaza and abroad. It has convinced Gazans that their suffering is caused not by Hamas’s corruption, but by Israel’s existence. It has convinced the international community that Hamas is a victim rather than a perpetrator of violence. This illusion must be shattered.
The first step in breaking Hamas’s grip is exposing its failure as a governing force. Hamas has stolen international aid, diverted humanitarian resources into terror tunnels, and built palaces for its leaders while Gazans live in squalor. The more the people of Gaza see that Hamas’s leadership lives in luxury while they starve, the more Hamas’s moral authority erodes.
Equally important is amplifying the voices of defectors and dissidents. Hamas has ruled through fear, executing those who dare to question its rule. But even the most totalitarian regimes have cracks. Former Hamas operatives and Gazan civilians who oppose Hamas must be given a global platform to speak out. The more these voices are heard, the more Hamas’s aura of invulnerability weakens.
The destruction of Hamas is not a question of political preference – it is a moral necessity. Hamas is not just a terrorist organization; it is a cancer within Palestinian society, one that has robbed its own people of their future while masquerading as their champion.
A post-war Gaza must not be allowed to descend into yet another Islamist dictatorship. Nor should it be handed over to another corrupt and inept Palestinian Authority. Instead, the only path forward is a decentralized governance model, where power is distributed among independent Gazan leaders, local councils, and international oversight mechanisms that prevent a Hamas resurgence.
The choice facing the world is stark: a Gaza free from Hamas, or a Gaza condemned to endless bloodshed. There is no middle ground. Hamas cannot be managed, reformed, or contained. It must be destroyed – completely, irreversibly, and without the possibility of resurrection.
If the world truly wants peace, it must abandon the failed strategies of appeasement and half-measures. The real battle for Gaza is not just against rockets and tunnels, but against the ideological machinery that has enslaved its people. Only when Hamas is gone in every sense – militarily, politically, and ideologically – can Gaza begin to reclaim its future.
That is the only path to true liberation.
The writer is executive director of the Forum for Foreign Relations.