Hamas working to a long-planned strategy

The announcement by Hamas leaders that they will not release any more hostages until Israel stops fighting is all part of a carefully worked-out strategy. The kidnap of Israelis on October 7 was all about giving Hamas leverage on the assumption that Israel would go to war following that terrible day of killings and rapes. Now after two months of Israeli bombardment, it is clear the Hamas leaders decided it was time to move to the next stage in their plan: obstruct all attempts to release more hostages to place maximum pressure on Israel to stop the war. From their underground bunkers they will have been monitoring the worldwide outcry against the killing of so many Palestinian civilians and judged that it would meet their objectives by calling a halt to any more hostage releases. The Hamas strategy places the Tel Aviv government in a hugely challenging dilemma. With more and more protests emerging in Israel over the hostage crisis, Binyamin Netanyahu cannot for ever say that the war has to go on and that is the overriding priority. That is his position at the moment and many Israelis agree with him. But if this goes on for months and there are no more hostage releases, that priority may have to change. This, again, is the Hamas strategy. It could decide whether the Israeli objective of annihilating Hamas is beyond reach.