Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

I'm Stephen Sack, host of the BBC's Hard Talk podcast,

with in-depth hard-hitting interviews with newsmaking personalities.

This special year ending edition of hard talk is our chance to look back on some of the most

telling and compelling encounters of 2023.

How will this past year be remembered?

Well, a grim new phase in an intractable conflict will loom large.

On October the 7th, Hamas, the Islamist group which controls Gaza and is prescribed as a terrorist

organization in the UK and US launched a murderous attack on southern Israel.

1200 Israelis were killed.

Israel's response was a ferocious assault on Gaza, now in its third month, which has

inflicted tens of thousands of Palestinian casualties.

Danny Danone is a former Israeli ambassador at the UN and a close ally of

Prime Minister Netanyahu.

We try to minimize civilian casualties, we will work very hard to do it. We cannot guarantee 100% safety for

the people in Gaza who will be around Hamas militants. And that's why I keep saying move out from those neighborhoods because we are

coming to hand down Hamas and we will do whatever is necessary. From the air, from

the sea, from the land, we will get to those people and we will kill them.

Is Israel's stated objective the complete destruction of Hamas achievable?

The Palestinian Authority headquartered in the West Bank

is no friend of Hamas, but the PA's London representative who Sam Zomlatte told

me Israel's strategy is doomed.

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