Eisenkot says he would use Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan or “creative operations” to remove Hamas, and accuses Netanyahu of a “strategic failure” in the war.
ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER (Israel): Israeli opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main rival in upcoming elections, vowed Thursday to defeat Hamas in Gaza if he becomes prime minister following the October 27 vote.
“Today I give a public commitment: from the moment I enter the Prime Minister’s Office, within 18 months Hamas will no longer rule the Gaza Strip,” the leader of the centre-right Yashar party said at a press conference near the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
He said he would achieve this either by implementing US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan for Gaza, which provides for the gradual disarmament of Hamas and a transfer of power, or through “creative operations” by Israel’s military aimed at destroying the Palestinian movement’s military wing.
The campaign pledge is one of the strongest yet from Eisenkot, a 66-year-old former military chief.
The close-fought election will be the first since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people.
In response, Israel launched a massive offensive in Gaza that has since killed more than 74,300 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas and whose figures are generally considered reliable by the United Nations.
Eisenkot on Thursday accused Netanyahu of a “strategic failure” in Gaza, where he said “Hamas is still the sovereign… armed, arming itself, and militarily active” after three years of war.
He also reiterated a pledge to establish a state commission of inquiry to identify those responsible for any security lapses leading up to October 7, a push the government has so far resisted.
“There is a way to prevent the next disaster,” he said.
Eisenkot, like other opposition politicians, regularly accuses Netanyahu of bearing personal responsibility for the October 7 attack, notably by ignoring warnings from his security services and the United Arab Emirates, according to media reports.
Netanyahu has categorically rejected the accusations and maintains that security officials did not wake him on the morning of the attack.
Current polls show that neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor that led by Eisenkot are in a position to win the 61 seats needed to control the 120-seat parliament and form a governing coalition.