Israel will eliminate Hamas and militants, if they are able, regardless of how many they kill, even the entire 2 million.
'Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” famously features an eccentric character called the Hatter, who’s referred to in the story as “mad” and became popularly known as the Mad Hatter. However, the phrase “mad as a hatter,” used to describe someone who’s crazy or prone to unpredictable behavior, didn’t originate with Carroll. Instead, the expression is linked to the hat-making industry and mercury poisoning. In the 18th and 19th centuries, industrial workers used a toxic substance, mercury nitrate, as part of the process of turning the fur of small animals, such as rabbits, into felt for hats. Workplace safety standards often were lax and prolonged exposure to mercury caused employees to develop a variety of physical and mental ailments, including tremors (dubbed “hatter’s shakes”), speech problems, emotional instability and hallucinations.'
Where did the phrase “mad as a hatter” come from? - History.com
Using mercury for hat making, or lead in pipes, causes strange behaviour from people. If you remove these agents then no new cases arise, although those already affected by them may be permanently scarred.
The standard international argument is that the situation that Gazans find themselves in - ghettoized - creates pockets of people like Hamas and the other militant groups who pursue atrocity to satisfy their psychological distress. Ameliorate this situation and these groups will gradually extinguish.
The problem is what is the best course of action to do this - there are a lot of children in Gaza, will the strategy chosen by the Israeli government dissuade them or encourage them to follow the example of Hamas?
Is, in fact, what both Hamas and security state in Israel are doing is the social reproduction of an environment where the people in control of these communities maintain their power over their communities by acts of mutual atrocity? Are they really in league with each other?
All this is masked by the sort of atmosphere in group affiliation found during wartime. Remember Cheney et al?