DM Katz instructs IDF to draw up plan for 'complete defeat of Hamas' if hostages not released by Trump’s inauguration

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday directed Israeli military leaders to prepare a plan for the complete defeat of Hamas in Gaza if the remaining Israeli hostages are not released by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

Katz said, “If the hostage deal is not implemented by the time President Trump takes office, a complete defeat must be made of Hamas in Gaza.” 

He asked the military to complete the plan as soon as possible, adding that “it is forbidden to be dragged into a war of attrition against Hamas in Gaza, while the abductees remain in the tunnels, endangering their lives and suffering severely.” 

Katz separated the defeat of Hamas from the issue of a “day after” plan.

“The issue of a political solution to Gaza is irrelevant to the issue of the plan and the activity required now, because no Arab [state] or other party will take responsibility for managing civilian life in Gaza as long as Hamas is not completely crushed.” 

The foreign minister instructed Israeli Defense Forces to “specify the issues that might make it difficult to carry out the plan, including the humanitarian issue and other issues, and leave it to the political echelon to make the necessary decisions.” 

He said that “the issue of releasing the hostages has been the top priority of the defense establishment since he took office and that everything must be done to bring them home.” 

The announcement appears to be an attempt to further pressure Hamas to agree to compromises in the current negotiations after Trump recently reiterated his threat that there would be “all hell to pay” if Hamas didn’t release the hostages by the time he enters office in just eight days.

This past week, IDF soldiers discovered the bodies of Yousef and Hamza Ziyadne, a father and son from an unrecognized Bedouin village in Israel’s southern Negev Desert, in a tunnel in Rafah. The two were kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, while working at a kibbutz near the Gaza border. 

The recovery of their bodies brings the total number of hostage remains returned to Israel from Gaza to 40, while 34 of the remaining hostages in Gaza are considered dead by the Israeli government. 

Despite Western pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been resistant to allowing the Palestinian Authority to have any role in the governance of Gaza following the end of the conflict.