00:00Michael, I'll turn to you first in that if they did, in fact, if they have killed Abu Obaida,
00:05which, by the way, may take months to confirm because Hamas, historically,
00:08have a history of delaying things for months and months.
00:11Is this going to hurt them in any meaningful way, do you think?
00:14I don't think it's going to have any impact.
00:16You know, Hamas has been, I'm going to use the word incorrectly here, but they've been decimated.
00:20You know, there are so few strong militant senior figures in Gaza left.
00:28The power and the decision-making rests with Israel.
00:32And we have to accept that Israel is going to continue to do what they think is best.
00:40Getting another Hamas militant operative is important to them.
00:44And they won't stop, as they've said. More will come.
00:47But I don't think that this has any bearing on anything that Hamas can do.
00:53The only control, and I think that they have now, is the control of the fallen, as well as the living hostages.
01:00After that, I think Hamas is pretty much irrelevant.
01:03So you think that if they don't have the hostages, there is no bargaining chip, there's no tool, and effectively Hamas will be defeated?
01:09100%.
01:09If Israel then go in and launch the on-ground offensive, which we know will likely result in the hostages being killed, probably immediately...
01:16That's the fear, yes.
01:17...then would you say that Hamas effectively is decimated at the end of that?
01:21So I think that we're almost... we're incorrectly treating Hamas and Israel as though they're equals and they're on the same playing field.
01:31And they're not.
01:33When was the last time Hamas launched any offensive against the IDF?
01:38It's been a long time.
01:40There is nothing within Hamas that they can do to challenge the IDF.
01:47So it doesn't matter what happens with Hamas, it doesn't matter who they kill, only insofar as Hamas looking, not looking, but...
02:00So long as Hamas continues to have the hostages, that I think is the problem for the Israelis, and it's the only source of power or strength that Hamas has left.
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