A senior Israeli general, Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, who was formerly deputy commander of the IDF’s Gaza division, has just given an interview to the newspaper The Algemeiner. General Aviv believes that only Israel has both the ability and the will to disarm Hamas in Gaza. He argues this will require the IDF to take over all of Gaza, which means returning to the area between the Yellow Line and the Mediterranean that the IDF withdrew from just a few months ago.
More of his views can be found here: “‘No Way’ to Disarm Hamas Without Israel Taking All of Gaza, Former General Says,” by Debbie Weiss, Algemeiner, February 23, 2026:
"Israel will need to take over all of Gaza to meet its war objectives, a senior reserve Israeli general said, as the United States moves ahead with plans to assemble a multinational stabilization force that is not expected to deploy in Hamas-controlled areas.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, a former deputy commander of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)’s Gaza Division, said the military aims of the war — including the disarmament of Hamas — cannot be achieved without moving into the remaining parts of the enclave still held by the Palestinian terrorist group.
“There is no way to reach the goals of war without conquering Gaza,” Avivi told The Algemeiner.
“Ninety-nine point nine percent, the IDF is going to be the [party] that will dismantle Hamas,” Avivi said, noting that the Trump administration’s International Stabilization Force is expected to deploy only in Israeli-held areas and avoid confronting Hamas directly.
A decisive campaign could be completed in a month or two, Avivi said, because the constraints that slowed earlier phases of the war — most notably the presence of Israeli hostages in Hamas-held areas — no longer apply. The IDF could expand from its current 53 percent control of Gaza to 75 percent in “as little as a week,” he said.
No longer will the IDF have to hold back in its operations in Gaza out of concern for the lives of the hostages.
With the Israeli security cabinet focused on Iran, no final decision has been taken yet on the next phase in Gaza, Avivi said. The government is likely to give Hamas “a month or two” to see if a confrontation with Iran materializes before moving to conclude the campaign in Gaza….
The IDF is waiting to see if it will need to defend itself against an Iranian attack, as well as carry out an offensive campaign to destroy Iran’s store of ballistic missiles, before it takes on the task of disarming Hamas in Gaza. The IDF can only do such much at one time.
According to US and Israeli officials, the stabilization force is expected to begin deploying in southern Gaza, starting in Rafah, and expand gradually as conditions allow. The force is intended to help establish governance and security conditions in cleared areas, rather than conduct combat operations or forcibly disarm armed groups.
Its commander, US Army Major General Jasper Jeffers, has said five countries — Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Albania — have committed personnel so far, with longer-term planning envisioning a significantly larger deployment of up to 20,000 troops and police focused on policing, security coordination and aid facilitation.
Neither the American forces, nor any of the soldiers from the five Muslim states who have agreed to send troops to the stabilization force, are prepared to fight Hamas to disarm it.
Only Israel is willing to take on that arduous task. The Americans are sounding more and more as if they would be willing to have Hamas troops keep small arms; Israel insists that Hamas must turn over all weapons, for terrorists infiltrating across the Yellow Line into the IDF-held 53% part of Gaza, or worse still, infiltrating into Israel proper, can use even small arms. In addition, if Hamas were to be allowed to keep its small arms, it could still threaten the family- and clan-based enemies of Hamas in Gaza, such as the Abu Shebab.
The Guardian reported last week that US contracting documents describe plans for a 350-acre military base in Gaza designed to support 5,000 people that will include watchtowers, bunkers, and training facilities. A US official declined to discuss the contract and reiterated that Washington does not plan to deploy US combat troops to the enclave.
That makes it crystal clear: Washington has no plan to deploy combat troops to Gaza. Any hope that the US would itself disarm Hamas has disappeared. Either Israel does it, or it doesn’t get done.
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