Azar Gat, Ezer Weizman Chair for National Security at Tel Aviv University, speaks to Calev Ben-Dor about the war in Gaza. Gat argues that failing to fully defeat Hamas would constitute an existential threat to Israel: not in the sense that Hamas alone can destroy Israel, but in the impact that Israel’s inability to defeat those responsible for 7 October would have on the psychological security of Israelis. He asserts that while it is not possible to remove Hamas as an idea, or even as a guerrilla movement, it can – and has largely already been – successfully defeated as a governing entity.