A top aide to Prime Minister Netanyahu has suggested that the war in Gaza could restart if Hamas fails to give up its weapons.
Speaking at the Besheva Group conference in Jerusalem, Yossi Fuchs, the cabinet secretary, said that the terror group would be given 60 days to disarm voluntarily.
This, he said, had been requested by Washington and "we are respecting that".
However, he pointed to statements by senior Hamas leaders in recent months, insisting that the organisation will not lay down arms willingly.
"[Hamas] will have to give up all of its weapons. If it works, great. If not, then the IDF will have to complete the mission," Fuchs added.
He also emphasised the importance of dismantling Hamas' infrastructure, particularly its network of tunnels.
While Fuchs said progress was steady on that front, he recognised that more needed to be done, including dealing with the tunnels "on our side as well".
He went on: "Today, whoever ploughs the fields in Be’eri [a kibbutz in southern Israel attacked during October 7] sees the sea. There is barely a building left standing in the Gaza Strip, but the work is not yet completed."
Asked about a timeline, he suggested that a "reasonable estimate" was for disarmament to be completed before June, ahead of Knesset elections that must be held by October 27.
His comments came shortly before a report in The Times, citing Israeli security officials, suggested that Hamas is collecting personal firearms from Gazan civilians to boost its stockpile of light weaponry.
This is, the officials added, being carried out under the orders of Iz al-Din al-Haddad, the leader of Hamas’ armed units in Gaza.
Haddad has long been understood to favour a more hardline stance against Israel than the group’s Qatar-based political leaders, and is seen as far less willing to compromise to achieve peace or comply with the existing ceasefire framework.
Commenting on the report, Ofer Guterman of the Institute for National Security Studies told the paper the terror group was likely building a “proxy” weapons cache in order to provide a “semblance of disarmament, while the major armed factions themselves do not dismantle their arsenal”.
"The group is determined to avoid disarmament while simultaneously ensuring they are not perceived as the party responsible for the failure of the Trump plan,” he added.
“Hamas views the disarmament process as gradual, prioritising heavier systems first, while attempting to cement a narrative that light arms are essential for self-defence.”
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