Gaza isn’t a country and Hamas isn’t a government.
Its like the US taking Fallujah. It may be a tough fight, and many of the locals don’t like you, but its not that difficult for a large professional army to do.
The question facing Israel is how to set up long-term governance of Gaza, which they control and how to make a peace that will keep the locals quiescent
I doubt Northern Gaza will be habitable without infrastructure, housing and their rat tunnels. Israel has created a large buffer.
Call Gaza what you want, a chunk of land works for me. Hamas was elected by the people living in the chunk of land called Gaza. Are the terrorists? Yes. But it is important to play along that it is some form of government because that makes the people who elected Hamas culpable and responsible for 10/7.
As for the long term control of Gaza, I have my opinion which probably is not even popular on FR. Israel should control Gaza and the people there must find a new home when they are evicted. I suggest the go to Iran. No matter what, a terrorist organization can never take root in Gaza again. If the current people in Gaza are not their and they are replaced by Israelis it’s a safe bet that terrorists will not reconstitute. By the way, the same should occur in the West Bank.