From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Katz: Hamas must disarm and release hostages, or ‘Gaza will be destroyed’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEmanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
As the IDF begins its major ground offensive in Gaza City, Defense Minister Israel Katz says that if Hamas does not release the hostages and disarm, the Strip will be destroyed.
“From Hamas, we need only two things, and it will not give them voluntarily: to release all the hostages and to disarm. The great force of the attack here… is directly defeating Hamas, and it also creates a larger lever for the release of the hostages,” Katz says during a visit to the headquarters of the 162nd Division, whose forces are currently operating in Gaza City.
“We want to take control of Gaza City because today it is Hamas’s main governing symbol. Today, if Gaza falls… they will fall,” he says.
Katz says the “murderous Sinwar brothers,” Yahya and Muhammad, who led the terror group in the Strip before they were killed by Israel, “ruined Gaza, and if Izz al-Din Haddad continues like this, he will destroy Gaza,” referring to Hamas’s new military leader in Gaza.
“They will pay the price and Gaza will be destroyed,” he adds.
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