Uzi Dayan
Uzi DayanArutz Sheva

Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, demands to present plans for defeating Hamas if a deal for the return of the hostages is not reached before Donald Trump enters the White House. We discussed how this can be achieved after fifteen months of war with the former Deputy Chief of Staff, Major General (Res.) Uzi Dayan.

According to Dayan, such a demand made by Minister Katz, a leader in the security establishment, is akin to a demand for victory, which is essentially the army's role. He continued to say that, “the policy of targeted assassinations should continue in order to achieve this goal of eliminating the leadership of Hamas, which continues to replace its predecessors, to conquer the entire Gaza Strip, rather than focus on targeted raids and purges.

Dayan also emphasized the need to establish a civilian administration, and not to settle for military rule. Israel, he asserts, must control the provision of medicine, water, electricity, and fuel, in order to dismantle the Hamas machine, and prevent its reorganization. Furthermore, Dayan states, that these actions will bring a hostage deal close to realization.

Regarding the release of the hostages, Dayan believes that ultimately there will be no choice but to reach an agreement, stating, "I do not see how this can happen in any other way." He emphasizes the need to be cautious about defining a deal, in which we are interested in receiving everyone, and in order to obtain everyone, we must hold the civilian cards, so that we can offer them in such a deal. Once those civilian elements are in our hands, we will be ready to give a lot in exchange for all the hostages. Dayan questions whether Israel is indeed close to this.

Regarding Trump's entry into the White House, Dayan believes that he is putting primary pressure to reach a deal on Israel, as the pressure points he has on Hamas are relatively small and are focused on Qatar, while he can exert more pressure on Israel. "The main pressure is on us because he wants us to agree to a lot in exchange for no one. This is something we can check if it is going to happen, but we must be careful not to get ourselves into a situation, where we are giving everything, a military ceasefire and leaving Gaza, and in the end, do not receive everyone."

"The pressure is mainly on us because the fact is that Trump’s emissary has come here and says he wants to see a ceasefire reached by the time the president enters the White House. He has not put any pressure on Hamas. They have certain levers to pressure the enemy mediator, Qatar, and I have not seen them exert any pressure even when they can." Here Dayan mentions Israel’s need to see the Trump administration come down onto the field, on the issue of the battle against Iran.

Back to the issue of the Gaza Strip, Dayan says that Israel must "continue focusing on the military issues, occupy Gaza, go to all the deals, even if they are terrible, because we have to return our sons and daughters to their homes, and we must have civil control over Gaza, regarding food, water, fuel, electricity, and medicine. This will also dismantle the Hamas machine and bring us closer to the hostages." When asked for how long we will have civilian control over the Gaza Strip, Dayan responds, "for as long as necessary."

"Even if there are differing opinions on the issue of resettling the Gaza Strip and whether we should bring in a multinational force, whoever is given the key in the future, must receive it from the IDF and not from UNRWA, the Palestinian Authority, or the wealthy clans in Gaza. Only from the IDF," says Dayan. "The army needs to move away from the idea of controlling through raids and borders. We need to conquer Gaza. It is not a tiny area, but it is possible and we must do it."