How Many Terrorists To Target? Between 1,500 and 1.5 Million

The current estimated population of Gaza is about 2.25 million people, all Arab. Of that number, 1.8 million (80%) are wards of UNRWA, with a fraction being over 75 years old whom can claim to be refugees or internally displaced people, if one considers that Palestine included Gaza in 1948.

Approximately 25,000 belong to Hamas and thousands of others belong to other terrorist groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The newest anti-Zionist terrorist groups to emerge over the past two years have been in Area A of the West Bank, controlled by the Palestinian Authority. They include Lion’s Den, Jenin Brigades and Tulkarm Brigades. They have been getting most of the attention of the Israeli Defense Forces as intelligence showed that they were planning and committing attacks. It’s possible that they were diversions to draw the IDF attention away from the terrorist groups in Gaza as they prepared for a major invasion.

As the IDF prepares to pursue ‘maximum justice‘ for Hamas for the heinous October 7 slaughter of civilians going about their everyday lives, the Israeli government needs to assess how far to pursue such ends to make sure that no such attack emerges from Gaza again.

To take out every member of Hamas would mean killing 25,000 terrorists, a huge figure. But they are only part of the area’s terrorist infrastructure. There may be as many as 10,000 other terrorists belonging to the other groups.

While Hamas gets funding and support from Iran, Turkey, Qatar and Sudan, it also has broad local support. An estimated 1.5 million people (67% of the population) in Gaza support the group and its goal of killing Jews inside of Israel according to recent Palestinian polls.

While it is abhorrent to realize that so many Palestinian Arabs actively support terrorism, can the Israeli government really consider wiping out 1.5 million people who want to kill Jews next door? If it would entertain such idea, the approach of sending in ground troops into Gaza where many soldiers will be killed would be insane. It would be easier to pound the region into submission from the air.

Israel makes efforts to minimize the loss of life of Arab civilians during such conflicts based on inside intelligence about where terrorists are located. However, based on the colossal failure of Israeli intelligence to foresee the October 7 massacre, it is doubtful that Israel’s operatives can be relied upon to pinpoint the terrorists.

Which leaves the question of what constitutes “crushing” Hamas so that the group essentially ceases to operate? All 25,000 terrorists in the group? 35,000 including the other terrorist groups? 1.5 million people?

It is likely that the Israeli government is trying to figure this out while it begins to hit the known Hamas locations in the war’s early days. Unfortunately, many Arab civilians have been killed – some who are part of the 1.5 million terrorist supporters and some of the 750,000 civil Arabs who are willing to live in peace with their Jewish neighbors.

One approach to minimize a horrible death toll would be for Hamas leadership and the 1,500 October 7 butchers to hand themselves over to Israel to spare fellow Arabs. I’m sure if they would agree, future bloodshed could be averted.

Assuming that Hamas remains consistent that they are in a war of liberation and will continue to fight and try to kill as many Israeli as possible, it is likely that the entire Hamas leadership and at least half of the group will need to be eliminated to end the jihadi dream of destroying Israel, roughly 12,500 people. When considering the number of civilians that will likely be killed alongside the terrorists, the total Arab dead may be 20,000 before the Palestinians relent and surrender to calm.

Before the “fog of war” sets in during battle, commanders set out their mission with some particular metrics. Hamas’s goal was to slaughter as many Jews as possible as deep into Israel as they could reach. They succeeded beyond their dreams.

Now is the time for Israel to map out its goals, before the cacophony of resolutions derail it from its aims.