Welcome to the President's Inbox, a CFR podcast about the foreign policy challenges facing the United States.

I'm Jim Lindsay, Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

This week's topic is The War in Gaza.

With me to discuss where the situation in Gaza stands, six months after Hamas's brutal attack on Israel is Stephen Cook.

Stephen is the E&I, Enrico Matai, Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies here at the Council.

He is also a colonist at Foreign Policy Magazine.

He recently wrote for CFR.org a piece entitled Five Months of War Where Israel, Hamas, and the U.S. stand.

He is also the author of the forthcoming book, The End of Ambition,

America's Past, Present, and Future in the Middle

East. Stephen, thank you for coming back on the president's inbox. Thanks for having me, Jim.

Stephen, I want to begin with the state of fighting between Israel and Hamas. This coming Sunday,

mark six months since Hamas's surprise attack on Israel.

The Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowed to eliminate Hamas.

Is Israel succeeding in that goal?

Well, it's actually hard to tell.

According to the Israelis, they are succeeding, but I will point out that as we speak, the IDF is saying that it has wrapped up a major operation at Al-Shifa Hospital in which it had killed 200 terrorists and arrested another 500.

That sounds very impressive, but this is the Israeli's second major operation at El Shifa Hospital.

They had done this back in November and had moved on to other parts of the Gaza Strip to clear it of Hamas fighters.

So I think the fact that the Israelis had to go back to Shifa Hospital and that they have

continued to engage in combat in the northern Gaza Strip speaks to how difficult an operation

that has been for the IDF in order to clear Hamas.

The conversation in Washington and Jerusalem has been focused on Ruffa,

...