Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday presented a plan for the defeat of Hamas, saying that Israel “can and must” achieve total victory by the end of 2025.
“The State of Israel does not have the privilege of ending the campaign in Gaza without a victory. There is only one option—decisive victory,” Smotrich, who is also chairman of the Religious Zionism Party, said during a press conference.
Israel must embark on this campaign and “bring it to an end. To destroy the total evil that inflicted the horrors of Oct. 7 upon us,” said Smotrich, referring to the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
He went on to confront those who “irresponsibly call to surrender” to Hamas and those who doubt that victory is possible. “I state unequivocally: It is possible to win, and it can be done quickly,” he said.
The plan calls to issue an ultimatum to Hamas.
The Islamist organization must surrender, releasing all hostages in a single phase; lay down its weapons and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure; banish its leaders and operatives from the Gaza Strip; and allow free passage for civilians wishing to leave the enclave.
Israel, in this scenario, will annex the security buffer zone established along the Gaza Strip border by the Israel Defense Forces and ensure security within the enclave with its own troops.
If Hamas rejects these conditions, the IDF will launch an intensive ground operation and impose a siege on Gaza City and the central camps. Hamas will be severed from the civilian population; Israel will manage the humanitarian aid, block supplies from reaching Hamas and relocate civilians from areas designated as war zones and apply sovereignty over the Strip in gradual steps while also implementing U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to voluntarily relocate Gazans to other countries.
Israel owes the defeat of Hamas “to the fallen and their families, to the hostages and their families, to the brave IDF reservists, to the residents of the south, for the security of Israel, for the future of our children, for justice, for the Jewish people worldwide, and for the security of the entire Western world,” said Smotrich.
On Aug. 10, JNS reported that the Religious Zionism Party, increasingly exasperated with the conduct of the war, is considering bringing down the Netanyahu government.
The party’s deliberations came after the Security Cabinet in the early hours of Thursday, Aug. 9, approved by a “decisive majority” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to take control of Gaza City.
“The decision on Thursday was, in the party’s view, a severe mistake and a retreat from the government’s determination to truly achieve victory and defeat Hamas,” one source said. “If this decision is not changed, we are headed toward dissolving the government and going to elections.”
In Religious Zionism’s view, of Netanyahu’s determination to conquer all of the Gaza Strip and crush the Hamas terrorist group once and for all.
Although the prime minister continues to declare that Israel intends to conquer all of Gaza, including in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Aug. 7, shortly before he entered the Security Cabinet meeting to seek approval for the decision, Smotrich, who attended the meeting, said the decision was not all it appeared to be.
Instead of an operation to seize control of Gaza (roughly 25% of the Strip remains unconquered) and ensure victory, it is merely an attempt to pressure Hamas to return to the negotiating table over the release of the remaining 50 hostages, of whom 20 are estimated to still be alive, he said.
“The prime minister and the Cabinet succumbed to weakness, and let emotion win over common sense,” Smotrich said in a video post on X.
