On Oct. 7, Hamas militants surprised Israel and slaughtered 1,200 people while taking more than 200 as prisoners. It was an impressive tactical success for the group. But as Israeli forces steadily increase their hold on Gaza, leaving much of it in ruins and killing around 19,000 Palestinians, what can Hamas claim it has achieved?

It is helpful to think about what Hamas has accomplished, and where it has failed, by examining three different dimensions: Hamas’s struggle against Israel, the intra-Palestinian arena, and the group’s international position.

--SSP Alum Daniel Byman in Foreign Policy