Don’t expect Hamas to surrender any time soon

The recent Hamas-Israel ceasefire continues on, but from a purely military perspective, Israel dominates the Gaza landscape. One might have even imagined the ceasefire was the first step in a Hamas surrender.

Surrender is one of the most essential rules in international humanitarian law. It is the way we limit destruction in the culture of war. In international law, an individual combatant may surrender. Under that circumstance, they are considered out of the fight — and in that circumstance, it is unlawful to attack or harm them.

Surrender is the bright line separating war from peace. Surrender stops the fight, and opposing sides are protected from further harm once it is in place. When a surrender is offered, the opposing side is legally obligated to honor the surrender, and the surrendered person or force cannot be attacked. Feigning surrender is forbidden; an attacking force can legally press that attack again if such perfidy is discovered.

Surrender can be indicated by raising a white flag, throwing away weapons or raising one’s hands. On April 9, 1865, for example, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, ending the Civil War for Lee and his army. In what became known as World War I, guns suddenly fell silent at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. On that day, Germany surrendered to Allied forces in a railway carriage in Compiègne, France. And on May 7, 1945, the European portion of World War II ended with Germany surrendering to the Allies. In the aftermath of the German surrender, the Marshall Plan oversaw an extraordinary rebuilding of a decimated Europe.

Yet Hamas and the people of Gaza exhibit no posture of surrender.

On the contrary, we are witness to men in uniforms carrying weapons, some of which are Israeli-made. It is an impressive display of war cosplay. Costumed Hamas members are not professional soldiers in a professional army. But they are capable of controlling frightened, sickly and malnourished hostages, and in continuing to do do, they are very much not out of combat.

Sometimes, a fight goes to the last combatant, because either the superior side will not accept a surrender or the losing side refuses to accept defeat. Fictionalized accounts of bravery in the face of overwhelming opposition provide a cultural salve to discouraged people. The men who fought and died at the Alamo did so because they had no choice. The ultimate Spartan loss to the Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE, mythologized as an act of extraordinary bravery, is increasingly used to justify extreme and violent ideologies.

Looking back to October 2024, members of the Israeli Defense Force killed Yahya Sinwar, the political leader of Hamas and presumed architect of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. In the moments up to his death, there was debate about whether he was hors de combat because of his wounds. Drone footage shows a visibly injured Sinwar throwing a stick at the drone. What is evident from the footage is that Sinwar was neither captured nor signaling a genuine intent to surrender at the time. He was still in the fight.

Until Hamas surrenders, it may truthfully claim it has not lost this war against Israel. Not losing, however, is not the same as winning. In 280 and 279 BCE, King Pyrrhus of Epirus won battles against the Romans but lost so many men that he was forced to retreat. This calamitous war calculation is now known as a Pyrrhic victory — a victory so costly it is essentially a defeat. It may be the only victory Hamas can get.

Joel Zivot, MD, MA, JM, is associate professor of Anesthesiology and Surgery, Emory School of Medicine; former adjunct professor at the Emory School of Law; and senior fellow in the Emory Center for Ethics.

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