Thursday Briefing: U.S. Assesses Israel’s War in Gaza

Mediators, Israeli negotiators and officials from around the world are expected to meet in Qatar today for a high-stakes push to end the war in Gaza.

Ahead of the meeting, U.S. officials have said that Israel has achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza. Their latest assessment is that continuing to bomb the enclave was only putting more civilian lives at risk, and that the possibility of further weakening Hamas had diminished.

In many respects, Israel’s military operation has done far more damage against Hamas than U.S. officials predicted when the war began in October. Israeli forces can now move freely throughout Gaza, the officials said, and Israel has destroyed or seized crucial supply routes from Egypt into Gaza.

About 14,000 combatants in Gaza have been killed or captured, the Israeli military said last month. The military also said that it had eliminated half the leadership of the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, including some of the top leaders.

But current and former U.S. and Israeli officials have said that one of Israel’s biggest remaining goals — the return of the hostages — can’t be achieved with force.

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