Journalist Shlomi Eldar has plans to release a new book titled Hamas - From a Social Movement to War Crimes, a follow-up to his 2012 book Getting to Know Hamas. in preparation for the release, Eldar recently spoke with Nissim Mishal and Maya Ziv-Wolf on 103FM radio about the significant changes in the terrorist organization over the years.

"Hamas is a completely different movement since Yahya Sinwar was released from prison in the Shalit deal. It didn't take him long to completely transform Hamas. Hamas knows they are challenging Israel and carrying out attacks in a way that doesn't endanger their survival. On October 7, I was as surprised as everyone. This was the general perception in Israel among the political echelon, the military echelon, and even those who studied Hamas," Eldar began his remarks.

"In Getting to Know Hamas, I wrote a sentence that has stayed with me: 'Israel built Hamas not through its actions but through its failures.' When I studied Hamas after October 7, even when I saw a sort of military coup that Sinwar was making in Hamas, it wasn't clear to me how much Netanyahu's conception was political. We need to talk about Israel's and Netanyahu's behavior," Eldar added.

"Sinwar's behavior has been clear since the first day of the war. Hamas committed war crimes in Israel. What interest does Sinwar have in reaching a hostage deal and stopping the war? His current interest is to keep Hamas alive. He will agree to release the hostages, but only in a deal that stops the war. Netanyahu says we will agree to a deal and then eliminate Hamas. Who would accept that? In my opinion, the war will continue," Eldar continued.

"On October 16, I wrote an article in Haaretz saying that Netanyahu is more interested in eliminating Hamas than in releasing the hostages. Unfortunately, I was not wrong. It pains me to see the struggle Netanyahu is waging against the IDF, including the IDF spokesperson," Eldar concluded.