IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has told leaders of Israeli communities in the Gaza periphery that he will “not let this war drag on indefinitely,” Channel 12 reported Friday, citing conversations behind closed doors.
The report said Zamir added that “when the time comes and we achieve our military objectives, I will say, ‘Hamas has been defeated’ — and that moment will come.”
As the IDF continues to prepare to escalate its offensive in Gaza should talks on a hostage and ceasefire with Hamas fail, Zamir was quoted as saying, “When we finish the job, I promise the residents of the envelope — there will not be another October 7th here. They will not be able to raid our communities again.”
Zamir was also quoted as saying the terror group could be decisively defeated “within a few months.”
“Just as we defeated the Rafah Brigade, we will defeat Beit Hanoun, Khan Younis, and Jabalia,” he said.
Five IDF divisions are operating in the Strip as part of Israel’s renewed offensive there, which aims to occupy 75 percent of the enclave within two months.
Ground forces have killed terror operatives and destroyed weapons and other terror infrastructure, but the renewed offensive has yet to kick into high gear as Jerusalem continues to await Hamas’s response to the latest US proposal for a hostage release and ceasefire. Terror groups still hold 58 Israeli hostages in Gaza, including at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
The IDF said Friday that troops had seized and destroyed over 800 weapons and explosive devices that were found during operations in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks. Dozens of tunnel shafts were also found and demolished, the army added.
US President Donald Trump said Friday that “we’re very close” to reaching a Gaza deal between Israel and Hamas. “We’ll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow, and we have a chance of that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
However, Hamas said it was still reviewing the proposal from the US, and that it did not fulfill its demands.
According to Hamas’s health ministry, more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Strip since the terror group stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
The Hamas death tolls cannot be independently verified and do not distinguish between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
The IDF has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and accuses Hamas of using Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed body that aims to sideline Hamas in the distribution of aid, said Thursday that it had opened up a third aid distribution site, located in central Gaza’s Bureij, adjacent to the IDF’s Netzarim corridor.
An additional site in Rafah is slated to open in the coming days, according to the agency, which has faced criticism due to the lack of access for tens of thousands of residents still located in north Gaza. The agency also said it plans to open additional sites, including in the northern Strip, in the coming weeks.
Israeli defense officials said Friday they believe Hamas is losing control of Palestinian civilians in the Strip, as the new aid distribution system ramps up its activities in an effort to prevent the terror group from controlling the aid and the Gazan population.
“The barrier of fear from Hamas has been broken. Hamas repeatedly tried to break the population and resist the distribution plan to preserve its ability to control food and, consequently, the residents of the Gaza Strip,” a defense official told reporters.
“The residents of the Strip voted with their feet against Hamas and flocked en masse to the distribution centers, thereby breaking an initial barrier of public fear from Hamas, which undermines its governing component needed to preserve its ruling capabilities,” the official said.
According to the official, the new aid distribution system is intended first to cut Hamas off from the aid — as it is no longer involved in the distribution process — and secondly to cut the population off from Hamas, potentially collapsing the terror group’s civil rule in the Strip, which is one of Israel’s war goals.
The official slammed “many elements within Hamas and UN organizations that defame and hope for the failure of the aid distribution plan via the distribution centers.”
“These elements have united and share a common narrative and goal: preserving Hamas’s governmental and economic ability to take control of the aid intended for the population,” the official said.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.