The Israel Defense Forces is working to implement the ceasefire and hostage release deal with the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip, but will not hesitate to return to battle, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told troops during a visit to the coastal enclave on Wednesday.
“We are a military that is very proud to implement the [government’s] policy, to implement the decision to return the hostages, and we will be just as proud to return and fight,” Halevi declared during a visit to the Netzarim Corridor that divides the Strip between north and south.
“Look, you have to constantly assume that someone might attempt to do something offensive here. I don’t know if that’s likely—it’s unlikely. You have to make that a working assumption and constantly search for it,” he warned the troops.
“Gather intelligence, see what is happening around you, secure yourself,” he said. “Every day that passes with quiet, we increase the chances of returning more hostages, and I trust you because you truly fought with talent, with heroism and you will know how to make every decision in the best way,” he added.
According to Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden have provided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a missive confirming that Israel “will be able to return to the war on day 43" if talks fail during the 42-day first phase of the agreement, which began on Jan. 19.
This guarantee was also given to Netanyahu during phone calls with Trump and American government officials, Smotrich told JNS during a faction meeting at the Knesset on Jan. 21, adding, “These two things together create an American guarantee allowing us to return to war.”
Smotrich had previously demanded that Netanyahu commit to resuming the war following the deal’s first phase, during which Hamas committed to releasing only 33 of the hostages.
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, whom Trump has credited with getting the deal over the finish line, refused to confirm the existence of formal guarantees in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News after the inauguration on Jan. 20.
On Thursday, three Israeli and five Thai hostages captured by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre are expected to be freed as part of the U.S.- and Qatar-brokered ceasefire.
The three Israeli hostages are Arbel Yehud, 29, a civilian, Agam Berger, 20, an IDF soldier and a male hostage, Gadi Mozes, 80. Mozes was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz with his wife, Margalit, who was one of the first hostages freed, on Nov. 24, 2023.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Jan. 20 he’s not confident that the ceasefire will hold through all three phases.
“It’s not our war. It is their war. I am not confident. But I think they’re very weakened on the other side,” he said of Hamas in response to a question in the Oval Office while signing orders in the first hours of his presidency.
