15. Wouldn’t the war end tomorrow if Hamas surrendered and returned the hostages?
No. As Israel has repeatedly taught Palestinians and its other adversaries over the years, surrender is not a means to peace but rather, further colonial violence. This has been made clear most recently in the case of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, which Israel has now violated at least 564 times at the time of writing (January 21, 2025).1 These violations have caused at least 37 deaths and 45 injuries.
Furthermore, this argument obfuscates the larger picture surrounding Israel’s genocidal aggression against Gaza: the eliminatory violence continues across all of Palestine, not just in Gaza. The October 7 operation by Hamas and the larger coalition of armed Palestinian resistance movements in Gaza was launched in large part to secure the release of thousands of Palestinians from the depths of Israeli prisons2, where they face torture, extrajudicial killings, military courts designed to entrap them with a 99% conviction rate, and administrative detention which allows them to be held indefinitely without accusation, charge, or trial.3 This is just one facet of violence that is not only ongoing and will continue after any potential “surrender” — but has only become more violent in the last fifteen months.
Meanwhile, zionist violence has also escalated across the West Bank, with home demolitions and settlement activity at an all-time high.4 Palestinian citizens of Israel also face increased abductions, arrest, and surveillance lest they express any solidarity with the larger struggle against Israeli settler-colonialism and domination.5
The struggle for a liberated Palestine will continue regardless.