The world watches Israel-Hamas conflict while a similar case from past gives important hints. Sri Lankas fight with Tamil Tigers (about 15 years ago) shows how to beat such groups
The Tigers were super-strong: they killed many top people including Sri Lankas president but the government beat them anyway. Now Israel wants to do same with Hamas‚ but its not that simple
Two things matter most in such fights. First - how fast you can remove bad-guys leaders. When Sri Lanka fought Tigers they got almost all bosses including their main guy Velupillai Prabhakaran; only some money-collectors stayed alive outside country. Since then Tigers did almost nothing (just two small things in last 14 years)
Getting rid of leaders works when you do it faster than group can train new ones: its hard to find smart battle-ready commanders. Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders are now targets but replacing them isnt easy - you need skills experience and brain-power which takes many years to get
- Military commanders in battle zones are most important
- Outside leaders dont matter much if local chiefs are gone
- Smart planning beats just having reasons to fight
The second big thing is about regular people getting hurt. Hamas (like Tigers before) puts its fighters near normal folks on purpose; they want Israel to hit civilians. When Sri Lanka fought Tigers many regular people died too which made other countries very mad at them
International media shows lots of pictures from Gaza (where over 40k people died) but doesnt talk much about Hamas hiding in schools and hospitals. Sri Lankas government didnt stop fighting even when other countries got angry - they just kept going till they won
Its like chess game where both sides try to look good while fighting bad: Hamas wants to make Israel look evil while Israel tries to show its doing right thing. Time will tell whose story wins in peoples minds