What are Israel’s real goals?

Since 7 October 2023, Israel has declared a state of war, launching extensive military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. Officially, the objective is to dismantle Hamas's military capabilities and secure the release of hostages. 

However, beneath these immediate goals lies a deeper longterm strategy aimed at either ethnically cleansing Gaza or committing genocide against its people, ultimately ensuring that from the river to the sea, Israel remains the sole entity with a majority Jewish population.

In fact, the current Israeli atrocities in the name of military operations must be understood against the backdrop of a long-standing pattern of dispossession faced by Palestinians since the establishment of Israel in 1948. Over the years, Israel's wars have expanded their territories — occupation of Sinai peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and most of the Syrian Golan Heights in 1967, securing Gaza Strip in 1982's Camp David Treaty, and increasing encroachment on the West Bank. 

Over the last one year, the IDF has made Gaza virtually unlivable for Palestinians. According to most experts, it would take between 15 to 20 years just to remove the rubble left by the destruction caused by Israel's incessant bombing. 

Many Palestinians have died directly from Israel's assault while hundreds of thousands more will die in coming days as result of injuries, malnutrition and other forms of deprivation. Those still surviving once Israel is done, will have little choice but to leave the place. 

It would appear that Israel's original aim was to push Gazans to the South so they are eventually forced to enter Egypt through the Rafah Border Crossing. Those plans however were sidelined when it became clear that Egypt could not be coerced into opening their borders. Now, their plans seem to be all about directly and indirectly cutting down Gaza's population.  

And such atrocities are not limited to Gaza alone. Israel is also viewing the occupied West Bank as a crucial front in its military and other strategic operations. 

Reports indicate that Israeli forces have significantly intensified their offensive in the West Bank over the past year, including drone strikes and ground assaults aimed at dismantling militant networks, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people.

Also since October last year, 86 new movement obstacles have been established in the region, which have severely limited access to essential services and agricultural lands for Palestinians. In July 2024, Israel approved the largest land seizure in the West Bank since the Oslo Accords, appropriating approximately 12.7 square kilometres of land. 

It would appear all this is a part of a larger strategy to reduce the Palestinian population to the point where even if some Palestinians survive these incessant Israeli onslaughts, there is not enough of them left to ever challenge the jewish majority in a future Israeli state that runs the gamut of the land from the 'river to the sea'. 

Israeli officials have frequently stated that after the current conflict concludes, they would prefer to see local administrators in Gaza who are not associated with either Hamas or the PA. They propose that the future governance structure in Gaza should involve local power brokers or clans, while Israel would maintain significant security control.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have openly talked about settling Israeli civilians down in Gaza to rule the land. 

Ben-Gvir has repeatedly called for the ethnic cleansing of the civilian population of Gaza, saying, "All those who endanger our citizens by getting near the border must be shot. This is what they do in any normal state." 

So, with all things considered, Israel's endgame seems clear: maintaining a long-term military presence in both Gaza and the West Bank, even after "defeating Hamas," to literally see the Palestinians "end" as a whole.