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Palestinians walk through the devastation caused by the Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

Mahmoud Issa/AFP

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Mahmoud Issa/AFP

Palestinians walk through the devastation caused by the Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

Mahmoud Issa/AFP

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1. Netanyahu's ultimate goal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had one stated goal since Israel began its military campaign in Gaza six months ago: achieving complete “victory” over and eliminating Hamas. Last February, Netanyahu framed victory as the key to peace and security in Israel.

But some experts – such as Ambassador Dennis Ross, the former US envoy to the Middle East – have warned that completely eliminating Hamas, or any terrorist group, is difficult.

33,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, including 13,000 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Some geopolitics, such as H. A. Heller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, believe that if this number continues to grow, the likelihood that groups like Hamas will become more extreme will also increase.

2. How ideologies find ways to live.

Ross cites the US military's response to ISIS in the 2000s as an example of how difficult it is to defeat an idea. He told NPR that the United States was able to defeat the group militarily, but you can't get rid of the belief.

“We still have 3,000 soldiers in Iraq for one reason, which is to prevent ISIS from coming back. We have 900 soldiers in Syria to prevent ISIS from coming back. The fact is that there are pockets of ISIS today, because ISIS as an idea has not yet emerged.” It was eliminated,” he said.

3. The impact of the Israeli campaign on its security.

Heller does not believe that the Israeli military campaign is close to achieving its goal.

He said: “I don't think it's possible to destroy Hamas. I think that at best, you can radically weaken its military capacity. I'm not sure that's really what they've been able to do over the past six months.” NPR.

Heller adds that the current situation between Israel and Hamas may lead to fueling extremism.

“With the number of civilian deaths where it is now, I think Hamas would already have a lot of people who would be willing to recruit to defend themselves against further Israeli attacks,” he said.

He added, “None of this aims to stop the escalation of what is happening. On the contrary, it is escalation after escalation.”

• To hear more about how this affects the perception of Israel and the United States in the international community, listen to the full transcript Consider this Podcast episode.

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This episode is produced by Junaki Mehta and Avery Keatley. Edited by Courtney Durning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigün.