With the intention of destroying what Israeli authorities have described as the final important Hamas bastion, Israeli soldiers are moving closer to the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

In the meantime, formerly cleared territory in the north are seeing a resurgence of intense fighting against the militant group. A realistic plan for Gaza after the battle is necessary for any Israeli victory of Rafah, according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s statement on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. He declared, “No matter what they do in Rafah, there will still be a lot of armed Hamas.”

There are few indications of a Palestinian state that is functional on the ground. The West Bank and East Jerusalem—which is considered to be the location of a future Palestinian capital—remain under de facto Israeli military occupation. These areas have been divided by the state’s security requirements and the separatist demands of an ever-growing group of Jewish settlers.

Gaza is a combat zone that is littered with debris and abandoned, where more than 34,900 Palestinians are buried as a result of Israel’s continuous offensive against the Islamist organization Hamas.

Who will lead Gaza when hostilities end is unclear, as is the best way to rebuild and govern such a devastated area. The Palestinian Authority in its current configuration will find it difficult to maintain coherence given the fragmented and weak state of the Palestinian national movement.

Even while Hamas is seemingly neutralized, it is still battling Israel in parts of Gaza and is far from defeated.

The right-wing camp led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his more moderate opponents are among the dominant elements in Israel that have no interest in discussing Palestinian independence or self-determination at all.

That was mostly true before to October 7, when Hamas masterminded the bloodiest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust, and it became even more so following that day.

The call for a Palestinian state is growing louder even outside the Holy Land. Reviving the “two-state solution” is seen by the US and Israel’s Arab neighbors as essential to any postwar peace. Furthermore, even though this scenario doesn’t actually occur in fact, an increasing number of countries are moving to support it in theory.

Jerusalem — Sunday saw Israeli forces launch a second offensive against Hamas in the north and continue their approach on the southern city of Rafah, sparking a desperate rush among Gaza’s tired civilian population.

Almost a week after Israel had taken control of and closed the border crossing with Egypt, humanitarian organizations issued warnings that nowhere was safe and that life-saving supplies were almost at risk.

After months of fruitless cease-fire negotiations, Washington, Israel’s most steadfast ally, may decide to halt offensive weapon shipments in response to the growing evacuations in Rafah, where Israel had ordered over a million Palestinians to seek safety from fighting early in the conflict.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “we cannot, will not support an operation in Rafah, a major military operation, in the absence of a credible plan to protect civilians, and they [Israel] still haven’t delivered.”