The Islamic terrorist group Hamas has ruled the statelet of Gaza with an iron hand ever since they were elected to run the place in 2006. During their time in office, Hamas have ruthlessly rooted out all opposition to their rule and have never held another legitimate election. Hamas have murdered those who oppose them and have imposed harsh and brutal punishments on those who have disobeyed them or whose conduct has been seen as disloyalty by Hamas.

The fear of Hamas felt by ordinary Gazans has played a large part in securing the rule of this savage terrorist group. But now there are signs of this fear dissipating and one of the more significant signs is the number of Hamas operatives and those who might be connected to them, such as UN staff, surrendering to Israeli Defence Force troops.

Once surrendered those who have turned themselves in to the Israeli military will be interrogated by Israeli security forces to find out who they’ve captured and what role, if any, they played for Hamas or within Gazan society. I dare say that some, whom the Israelis have intelligence on and are suspected of involvement in the 7/10 Pogrom, will face trial and if convicted then they can expect long terms of imprisonment or maybe execution. I suspect that many others who were just bit players in Hamas’s Gazan society will end up being released. This is very similar to the situation which played out in Germany following their defeat in World War II. Back then the Allies who were in control of Germany, sorted through the captured Germans to find out which ones were the monsters of Nazism and deserved prosecution and punishment and which ones were carrying much lesser guilt who could be reformed and released.

The analogy with post-WWII Germany works up until a point. That point being the acts of surrender themselves. Germany did of course have its fanatics who fought to their deaths, but there were many other Germans who saw no shame in surrender and no desire to fight for an ideology and a government that had ruined Germany. The situation in Gaza is different. The Middle East and in particular it’s Muslim populations have a very pronounced shame and honour culture. For the Islamic extremists of Hamas and those who followed them, the act of surrender itself is shameful and not compatible with their interpretation of Islam. For them killing Jews and becoming ‘martyrs’ in the fight against Jews is an act of faith, instilled into at least one entire generation of Gazans by brainwashing by the Gazan education authorities.

It’s impossible for me to overemphasise what impact the images and accounts of the surrender of Hamas terrorists and those ideologically adjacent to them will have on the Middle East region and beyond. The minds of Islamists and their fellow travellers will be blown away by the news of the surrenders. Their mindset which is based around Islamic cultural and religious superiority will have taken a massive blow. Hamas fighters being seen to be brought low by Islam’s eternal theological foe, the Jews, will be a massive incongruence for the Islamic supremacist mindset.

These initial surrenders could be pointing to a swifter victory for the Israelis than many of us had prayed and hoped for. Once the walls against surrender, both the theological ones and the ones built by Hamas with fear, start to crumble I believe that there will be more surrenders of lower level and maybe less brainwashed Hamas operatives. It is of course still highly likely that the Israeli Defence Forces will have a lot of hard fighting ahead of them if they are to reach arrest or neutralise Hamas high ups that are still in Gaza. It’s also likely that these Hamas leaders will have surrounded themselves with human shields to deter the Israelis and sadly many of these civilians who have been forcibly used as human shields will end up dead. However, it could also be true that with Hamas’s authority crumbling this sort of human shield activity may be less than it could be.

The surrenders of Hamas and Hamas aligned operatives is a very good thing to see. It’s good to see because it shows that Hamas’s hold over Gazans may be reducing and it causes massive discomfort amongst Islamic extremists elsewhere in the Middle East. The war which was started by Hamas might soon be over, although I expect to see some more of the blowback that the West has experienced since Israel fought back against Hamas, in the form of increased Islamic terrorism and an uptick in the level of whining by Muslim groups about the ‘Islamophobia’ that the behaviour of some Muslims themselves has created.

If Hamas can be removed in its entirety from Gaza and there is a proper and effective attempt to de-radicalise the brainwashed population of Gaza then I hope that what emerges as regards governance for the Gaza strip is good for both the Israelis and the Gazans. The world may not end up with the Singapore on the Med that they could have had in 2005 had the Gazans made different choices, but a Gaza without Hamas would be a very good foundation for the Gazans, with help of course, to rebuild from.