Too many taking sides in this conflict miss the true nature of Hamas – and Netanyahu | Jonathan Freedland

Both those calling for a ceasefire and those opposing it are making assumptions that don't stack up

Know thine enemy - and know thine ally, too. Too many of those pushing for one outcome or another in the war between Israel and Hamas misjudge the parties involved. They make mistaken assumptions about one side or the other - or both - that lead them to draw flawed, even dangerous, conclusions. There is no monopoly on these mistaken assumptions. They can be made by those calling on western leaders to demand an immediate ceasefire - and by the very western leaders they seek to persuade.

Start with those who look at the havoc wreaked in Gaza - at the many thousands killed, at the pile of rubble that was once the largest Palestinian city in the world - and decide that, whatever horrors Hamas committed on 7 October, surely it has now sustained enough of a blow; given all that Gaza has suffered, surely now Hamas will be deterred from future attacks. Such thinking fundamentally misunderstands the nature of that organisation. Because Hamas is a different kind of enemy, one that does not fit the usual theories of war. Put simply, it does not mind if its own people die.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist