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According to Katz, the meeting presented all of the strategies employed to date to undermine Hamas’s political rule in Gaza.
By YONAH JEREMY BOB JANUARY 2, 2025 20:09
Israeli minister of Defense Israel Katz attends a plenum session on the state budget in the assembly hall of the Israeli parliament, December 16, 2024
(photo credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
One day after reports from the Jerusalem Post and Channel 12 that Hamas is making a comeback by an intense recruitment push, Defense Minister Israel Katz held a meeting with a ministerial group for talks on how best to destroy Hamas’s governing capacity in Gaza.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of National Missions Orit Struck, Minister within the Finance Ministry Zeev Elkin, and other senior officials in the defense establishment attended the meeting.
According to Katz, the meeting presented all of the strategies employed to date to undermine Hamas’s political rule in Gaza.
Further, the committee reviewed various additional moves which could be used to destroy: Hamas’s governing abilities, its infrastructure, and its ability to continue military and civilian operations.
It was unclear what power or role the committee would have given that little has been heard about its impact on the war to date and it was also unclear if and when they would propose a solution.
The problem of how to undermine Hamas politically has plagued Israel even as it mostly militarily defeated Hamas's original 24 battalions back in June 2024.
Involvement of the PA
The defense establishment, the US, and the EU have suggested replacing Hamas as a political entity with a hybrid of the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, the UAE, the US CIA, and other Western allies, while retaining some overarching security role for Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected any role for the PA and suggested that Egypt, the UAE, and other Arab states take on Gaza in a trusteeship capacity, but these countries have refused to get involved without the PA.
Israel has also played with the possibility of using the IDF or private companies to take over handing out food to Palestinian civilians in Gaza so as to wrestle control of the food supply away from Hamas.
But all of these possibilities have encountered a mix of diplomatic condemnation and legal objections given that aspects of these plans could be misconstrued as furthering an extended Israeli occupation of Gaza, which much of the world opposes. It would also be unclear what actions the IDF or such private companies would be allowed to take if they encountered theft of food or other lower grade law enforcement issues short of terrorism.
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Absent a political strategy, the Post and Channel 12 reported on Wednesday night that Hamas may have recruited sufficient new forces to replace most of its losses, even as the quality and coordination of those forces is far below what Hamas was in 2023.
For example, in 2023 it took five IDF divisions, including tens of thousands of soldiers, to tame Hamas fighters in a given neighborhood or city, whereas now it can be done by a single brigade of around 1,000 soldiers or even less.
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