At a memorial ceremony Tuesday for the fallen of the Yom Kippur War at the State Memorial Hall on Mount Herzl, Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a series of sharp warnings to Hamas and its supporters, including Iran and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Katz said that the lessons of the October 7th massacre and the Yom Kippur War had led the IDF to establish security zones beyond Israel’s borders in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. He said Israel would maintain those positions until the objectives of the war are achieved.
Regarding the Gaza Strip, Katz said Israel would not withdraw from the Yellow Line to new deployment positions as long as Hamas has not been eliminated and Gaza has not been demilitarized of weapons and tunnels.
Katz also issued an unusually direct warning over the possibility of another Israeli hostage being abducted. “If a soldier or a single Israeli civilian is captured, all of Gaza City, including its homes and terror towers, will be emptied southward from its more than one million residents," Katz said. He added that the city would then be treated in the same manner as Rafah and Beit Hanoun.
“This is the language that terror organizations understand: eviction of the population, destruction of infrastructure, and seizure of territory," he said.
Katz also addressed Iran, saying that Israel had already carried out two major campaigns against the country that, in his assessment, removed the threat of nuclear annihilation. He warned that Israel would launch a third strike if necessary.
“The job is not yet done, and if we need to, we will strike a third time as well until the terror regime is toppled and removed," Katz said.