The death of three Israeli hostages last Friday is one of the greatest military tragedies in the history of Israel. But in a curious twist, that event may have helped Israel break the will of Hamas to fight on.

I had said for a while that there would come a point when Israel would have to decide to risk the lives of the hostages for the sake of the goal of destroying Hamas. Until it did, Hamas would be in control.

It made no sense to me that Israel would negotiate with Hamas while trying to destroy it, even for the lives of its own citizens. Actually, to be precise: it made no sense for Hamas to be negotiating with Israel.

Hamas appears to have come to the same conclusion. It broke off hostage talks that were being revived around the time the 3 hostages were killed. Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire, not just a pause.

A Hamas spokesman (the same one who promised more Oct. 7 attacks) explained the group's reasoning to Al Jazeera, basically saying that even a long pause lasting weeks would not be good enough, because Israel would simply keep fighting afterwards.

In fact, he said, there would be no reason for Israel to stop fighting after Hamas had given back the hostages, because the hostages were the only cards Hamas had left to play. He is right, and what it clear from his remarks is that Hamas believes Israel really is trying to win.

Or: Hamas believes Israel is prepared to lose some hostages to win.

That is a psychological victory for Israel. Hamas may yet negotiate, but when it does, it will be negotiating for things like safe passage out of Gaza, or asylum in Qatar, not for a permanent ceasefire.

I would much rather have seen Israel rescue the hostages. But it is possible that Hamas, seeing that Israel was prepared -- like Keanu Reeves in "Speed" -- to shoot hostages, believes it is going to lose.