NEW YORK, August 15. /TASS/. The US believes that the Israeli military has achieved all it can militarily in Gaza and now, diplomacy is the only way to resolve the crisis, the New York Times writes, citing sources.

According to the newspaper, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has achieved more than Washington expected. "Israeli forces can now move freely throughout Gaza;" the military has "eliminated half the leadership of the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas," and "destroyed or seized crucial supply routes from Egypt into Gaza." However, US administration officials are confident that "diplomacy is the only way that Israel can achieve possibly its biggest goal - getting its hostages back."

Senior US officials pointed out that although "the Israeli military had severely set back Hamas but would never be able to completely eliminate the group." Continued bombings will only increase risks to civilians in Gaza but will not help bring Israeli hostages back home, the paper notes.

Hamas tunnels in Gaza

The New York Times adds that while Israel has tried to damage Hamas’s underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip, it has failed to destroy them. "Some of the larger tunnel complexes, which Hamas has used as command posts, have been rendered inoperable. But the network has proved much larger than Israel anticipated, and it remains an effective way for Hamas to hide its leaders and move around fighters," the newspaper notes, adding that "many of the hostages are hidden in the tunnel network."

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7, 2023, after militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border communities and taking people hostage. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on targets in the Strip, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria.