In Gaza, one of the most serious humanitarian crises of our time has been unfolding for months. The numbers speak for themselves, but they are not enough to describe the depth of the pain, the destruction of entire communities, the hunger, the thirst, the invisible wounds left in the bodies and minds of millions of people. The responsibilities are multiple: on the one hand the war crimes of the Israeli army, on the other those of Hamas, which has long since chosen to turn the civilian population into a human shield, a propaganda weapon, a desperate trench.

Siege is an archaic and terrible form of warfare. It was so back in antiquity, when cities were surrounded and starved. It is so today, when military technology and global communication amplify both the effectiveness of siege and its symbolic scope. But the real question is not just how cruel this war is: it is how it can end.

It will not end with a handshake

It will not end with a gentleman’s agreement. It will not end with a celebratory photo. And it will certainly not end with Israel surrendering its existential security, which was brutally threatened on 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched a large-scale terrorist attack, killing civilians, taking hostages, triggering the military response that then devastated Gaza.

Israel’s security is not a political whim, nor a rhetorical pretext. It is an elementary right, recognised to every state. And that right is today eroded not only by the violent actions of Hamas, but also by the growing climate of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in many parts of the world, often disguised as solidarity with the Palestinians. As if war crimes on one side could justify those on the other. As if the desperation of Gaza should erase the terror experienced by Israel.

The surrender of Hamas as an act of salvation

This is why the war can only end with the surrender of Hamas. This is not an unconditional surrender celebrated with fanfares and flags, but a concrete, political surrender, functional to the cessation of hostilities. Hamas has neither the military means nor the political legitimacy to sustain a conflict that, day after day, is fought above all on the skin of Palestinians. Its continuation of the war is a condemnation inflicted on its own people, not a form of legitimate resistance.

It is important to remember that this position is not isolated. Some of the main Arab countries – Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia – have explicitly called for an end to hostilities, implicitly (and in some cases explicitly) putting an end to Hamas’s armed power as a necessary condition for embarking on a political path.

No indulgence towards Israel

Supporting the surrender of Hamas is not the same as absolving Israel. The Israeli army has committed serious violations, and some actions carried out in the Gaza Strip – bombing of densely populated areas, obstruction of humanitarian aid, disproportionate use of force – deserve international investigation and, where necessary, sanctions. Equally unacceptable are the extremist fringes of Israeli politics that dream of apermanent annexation of Gaza, perhaps on the wave of the Trump-style populist and muscular model.

Europe cannot accept this drift. But neither can it pretend that Hamas is a credible political interlocutor. Those who continue to call for a ‘ceasefire’ that puts the aggressor and the aggressed, the terrorist and the defender, on an equal footing, are denying reality and harming the Palestinians themselves.

After the war: a recognised Palestine, a legitimate state

Real peace will come after the war, not in place of it. And it can only be built on the mutual recognition between Palestine and Israel, on a new and real basis. But for this recognition to be possible, it must no longer be a paramilitary, fundamentalist and corrupt organisation representing the Palestinian cause, but a legitimate, peaceful and responsible government.

It does not need to be a perfectly democratic government – the illusion of immediate liberal democracy is misleading – but it does need to be a government that respects the rule of law, that is capable of guaranteeing the security of its people, citizens and minorities. A government that knows how to dialogue with the outside world, that protects schools instead of using them as missile depots, that builds hospitals instead of digging war tunnels.

Against the crazy rhetoric of certain European leftists

Whoever supports Hamas today in the name of anti-imperialism, or whoever relativises its responsibilities for ideological reasons, betrays the Palestinian cause and contributes to prolonging the agony of the people of Gaza. A certain European left, blinded by an ideological schematism that always sees states and democracies as the guilty parties, has lost its sense of reality.

The Middle East needs lucidity, not slogans. It needs a new order, not new revolutions. And it needs above all a Europe capable of telling the truth, even when it is uncomfortable. If things were put in this order, and not in the illusory and regressive one of certain public opinion, the Middle East – and with it millions of women, men and children – could finally see a future.