How The War Ends Pt 1 Hamas

So Many Fronts

Israel originally started fighting with just Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but quickly Hezbollah began attacking from the north. That started with what is now a 7 front war which Israel must win for its survival. In this short series I’ll detail how I think Israel will defeat the four major ones of Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. While it may be difficult for some to see, all four of them are actually seen in Bible prophecy and yes, America appears to play a part in all of those fronts. As always, your mileage may vary. We’ll start with the terrorists who started this war and that would be Hamas who attacked Israel on October 7th of 2023. It seems like it happened so long ago and so much happened since then. I personally thought that Israel would defeat them in 6 weeks or so. Now as we’re approaching 600 days of the war my estimation was wildly off. But when I committed to doing a daily update on the conflict I meant it. So here we are on update 573 and it seems like the fighting isn’t close to ending. However, as I’ll point out many times, this could all come to a head extremely quickly. But I’ll get to that a little later. Now let’s assess the current state of Hamas,

Desperate And On Fumes

Way back in 2023 Hamas was fully armed using a vast tunnel system that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) is still destroying. They had an army estimated at up to 40,000 and were proficient in guerilla combat. Their leadership tree was experienced and led by terrorists who had a long history fighting against Israel. Of course they had a build up of military equipment that they frequently used against Israel firing rockets at various cities. These attacks only drew responses meant to keep Hamas in check but not eliminate them. This containment approach ended with their barbaric attack where they brutally killed 1,200 people including babies both born and in the womb and taking 250 hostages which they are still using as bargaining chips to survive. That was then. Now their entire pre-war leaders are all dead and they are left with recruiting teens to rebuild their forces. These new soldiers are literally easy pickings for the IDF and only a step above of martyrs. Their munitions have been spent and they rarely attack directly choosing to do hit and runs and to quickly go back underground lest the IDF rout them. In short they are reduced to a shell of what they once were and with a few weeks of intense fighting they will only have just the remaining hostages to keep the IDF from neutralizing what little they have left.

Outlandish Demands

As Hamas learned from the head of the snake, Iran, taking hostages is the source of the last vestige of hope they have. And to be fair they are getting more and more aggressive in what they want for the last 24 or so living hostages left as we read in an article from The Times Of Israel:

An Israeli official said Monday that there is “no chance” Israel would accept the five-year truce proposal with the Hamas terror group that is currently being discussed by Arab mediators.

“There is no chance that we will agree to a hudna with Hamas that just allows it to rearm, recover and to continue its war against Israel,” the official said, referring to a statement from a Hamas official that the group is willing release of all remaining hostages in exchange for a five-year cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip. “Hudna” is an Arabic term denoting a prolonged period of strategic calm that falls between a ceasefire and a peace treaty. The term has been used to describe periods of calm between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in the past few decades.

Left out of the report is that a hudna can be broken at anytime if it helps Hamas and it’s just fine to do it. But this latest proposal is a strong indication that Hamas is running out of options. Absent the leverage of these hostages the terrorist group has nothing to stop Israel from completing it’s goal of destroying Hamas and never letting them have a foothold in Israel. As the article states, Israel isn’t accepting any deal that lets these terrorists survive. So what is left for Hamas?

Getting The Hostages Back

Israel is known to do what they call redeem those taken captive. They have shown that to be highly important on many occasions in the past going all the way back to Abraham in the book of Genesis when he rescued his nephew Lot:

Abram recovered all the goods that had been taken, and he brought back his nephew Lot with his possessions and all the women and other captives. (Gen 14:16, NLT)

We saw it again with King David in 1 Samuel 30:16-20

In an article concerning the Jewish drive to return any hostages we read this:

Consequently, and possibly also due to our past, as a nation redeemed from captivity and slavery in Egypt, freeing captives from their captors has become a supreme moral value in Judaism. Something that must be done.

Maimonides says this of the imperative to free captives:

“And you have no greater commandment than the redemption of captives, for the captive is to be classified among those who hunger as well as those who thirst, those who are naked and those who stand on the brink of death.” (Hilchot Matnot Aniyim, 8:10-11)

That precedent lives today and explains why of all the war goals, getting those hostages back is driving both the way the war on Hamas is waged and how Hamas is prolonging the battle. So in my prediction on how the war against Hamas will end, rescuing the remaining captives is extremely important. The question is how will it happen. According to some reports, the IDF knows where they are being held and avoiding fighting in those areas. I see Israel with perhaps the help of US special forces going in and getting the remaining hostages back. There is a small chance that a ceasefire deal could be made to get perhaps half of them back but trust me that Hamas won’t ever willing release all of them unless they have an ironclad deal that guarantees they survive and lead Gaza again. And that is something Israel will not do. Which leads me to the next prediction which is how Hamas is taken out once the hostages are rescued.

It's The Military Stupid

All war long Israel keeps telling us that their air force is only using a fraction of what they can do. And I believe them. If the hostages are brought back safely expect hellfire to rain down on Hamas and any other terrorists organization in Gaza. Of course the IDF will first relocate all the remaining Gazans to other parts of the region and perhaps the world. These plans were put into motion after US President Trump floated his plans for the rebuilding of Gaza. And the citizens of Gaza along with Hamas are seen in a prophetic passage in the book of Zephaniah 2:4-9 that shows the Israel will do exactly what I’m saying now. Here is how author Joel Rosenburg explains how things could go:

The question for me right now is: Is it possible that Donald Trump is, in effect, setting into motion Zephaniah 2? Will Gaza be abandoned? Will the people of Gaza leave and never return? And will Gaza be rebuilt—not handed back over to the Palestinians but instead given to Judah, to Israel? It's possible. I'm not saying that's what’s going to happen—I don’t know what’s going to happen. But let’s take a deeper look. If Gaza is under judgment and facing total destruction, could God's judgment include saying that the people of Gaza have forfeited any right or opportunity to continue living there? Could they be moved out, and Zephaniah 2 come into play?

He then actually breaks down the verses in Zephaniah 2:1-7 starting with verse 1:

"Gather yourselves together, you shameful nation, before the decree takes effect, and that day passes like windblown chaff, before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord's wrath comes upon you."

Rosenberg highlights three places the word “before” shows up in these verses all in verse 2:

The Hebrew prophet is emphasizing that before the great day of the Lord—before the end times fully come into fruition—something is going to happen.

The prophet offers the Gazans a chance to repent in the next verse as Rosenberg notes:

"Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what He commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger."

The Lord is saying: Seek Me. Repent. Turn to the Lord.

Gaza Will Be Abandoned

In Zephaniah 2:4 Gaza is mentioned specifically, and yes it is the exact area we know today:

Now, verse 4 is the key: "Gaza will be abandoned."

America isn’t even mentioned in the Bible, but Gaza is. In this end-times prophecy, it says Gaza will be abandoned.

The next verses give more specifics:

Verse 5: "Woe to you who live by the sea, the word of the Lord is against you, Canaan, land of the Philistines. I will destroy you, and none will be left."

Verse 7: "That land will belong to the remnant of the people of Judah."

He reminds us that it will Israel that will get the land back:

What land? The land of Gaza. It will belong to the remnant of the people of Judah. And at the end of the passage, it says:

"The Lord their God will care for them and restore their fortunes."

Does that mean the Palestinians of Gaza? No, it means the people of Judah. The land of Gaza will be returned to the Jewish people—the people who practice Judaism, the nation of Israel.

That seems pretty clear that the Gazans are not going to have the land back. No two state solution. These people will not have it back because of how they treated Israel.

Is God Using Trump?

Rosenberg sums things up and starts by noting what many of us probably were thinking up until now and that is these verses aren’t for the situation in Israel right now. But now it could be:

Zephaniah 2 is not a text that most people have studied carefully, but I think we need to look at it in its full context. The prophet tells us that:

The people of Gaza are going to be judged in the last days. Gaza will be abandoned by its residents. Gaza will be handed back over and returned to Judah. If you go back to Joshua or Judges in the Old Testament, it's clear that Gaza is part of the land grant that God gave to Judah. We don’t talk about this much, it doesn’t get preached much, but it’s true.

As I’ve told you before in other teachings, the Great Day of the Lord is the Tribulation. Rosenberg agrees:

And in Zephaniah 2, God is saying that He is giving the land back to Judah before the Great Day of the Lord. Before, before, before—the tribulation.

But enough of the teasing. Is Trump's grand plans for Gaza God’s way of fulfilling these prophetic words given to the prophet Zephaniah? Rosenberg isn’t totally sure, but he as do I can’t ignore the apparent connections:

Does this mean it’s going to happen now, under Donald Trump? I don’t know. I’m not saying it will. But the events of the last few weeks have been stunning. The controversy that President Trump has set into motion is a real one. People are asking: What’s going to happen to Gaza? What Trump is saying—whether he fully means it or not—I don’t know. But what he’s saying is actually consistent with Zephaniah 2. I think this is something important for you to be aware of. I encourage you to study it for yourself.

There could be a twist or turn in this, but Hamas isn’t going to survive nor will the Gazans have any control of the area when it is all said and done.