Over the last five months, Israeli forces and Hamas fighters have been engaged in ongoing conflict in Gaza, with neither side showing signs of relenting..
With the war being the longest in Israel's and Palestine's history, Israeli officials are torn between destroying Hamas and risking the safety of the hostages that remain in Hamas captivity and striking a deal with the group to have the hostages released and risk another attack similar to October 7.
Either outcome would result in Israel having to deal with the consequences of the choice the country's leaders would decide to make.
Either would also likely seal an ignominious end for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long political career, and either might be seen as acceptable by Hamas, which valued death in the hands of the Jews as martyrdom, the Associated Press said in its exclusive report.
Netanyahu publicly denied that there was such a dilemma and continued to vow to destroy Hamas and recover all the hostages, either through rescue missions or ceasefire agreements, saying victory could come "in a matter of weeks."
On the other hand, Hamas appeared to take their time to reach a truce ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is set to begin next week or to delay an expected Israeli operation in Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza that borders Egypt.
Hostages as Bargaining Chips
Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar, the alleged mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack against Israel, has reason to believe that as long as he holds the hostages, he can eventually end the war on his terms.
There were reported speculations that Sinwar used his fluency in Hebrew and mastery of Israeli society to identify the weakness of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), learning that Israel could not tolerate its people, especially its soldiers, being held captive - and would go to extraordinary lengths to repatriate them.
Sinwar himself was among over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for a single captive soldier in 2011.
For him, the Oct. 7 attack was an unfortunate sideshow to the main operation of taking Israelis captive and bringing them down to Hamas's tunnels beneath Gaza and using them as human shields and bargaining chips.
"The objectives are quite contradictory," Haaretz's veteran military correspondent Amos Harel said. "Of course, you can say it will take a year to defeat Hamas, and we're moving ahead on that, but the problem is that nobody can ensure that the hostages will remain alive."
Harel explained that even if Israel somehow killed Sinwar and other top leaders, others would move up the ranks and replace them, as has happened in the past.
"Israel will have a really hard time winning this," he added.
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