Sa’ar claims Israel’s military campaign and the failed Doha strike created conditions for Gaza deal

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says that Israel’s “maximal military pressure” on Hamas — including last month’s failed strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha — helped US President Donald Trump build the leverage needed to gain approval for a deal to bring home the remaining hostages from Gaza.

“Without [Israel’s] maximal military pressure, and without the maximal diplomatic pressure that President Trump built, the deal probably would not have come about,” Sa’ar tells the Kan public broadcaster.

Trump, he says, “built a coalition of Arab and Muslim states that completed the diplomatic pressure and effectively left Hamas with nowhere to go.”

When the interviewer adds that the strike in Doha also likely contributed to that effort, Sa’ar replies, “It helped create that same pressure,” without elaborating.

The strike, which failed to kill any of its targets, briefly derailed negotiations entirely, with Doha refusing to serve as a mediator until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to his Qatari counterpart in a phone call from the White House late last month.

“Everyone said, ‘We could have reached this agreement earlier’ — that’s not true,” Sa’ar insists. “For two years, Hamas stuck to a single principle: ‘I’m willing to return the hostages only if you withdraw from the entire Strip.’ But Israel’s continued military pressure ultimately proved it had a breaking point — and that’s a very important lesson. There’s no enemy without a breaking point.”

Addressing whether Israel believes Hamas will uphold the second phase of the agreement, which requires the group to disarm and Gaza to be demilitarized, Sa’ar says Israel has “a very strong guarantor — an American plan with international consensus.”

“We want the plan to succeed,” he adds, while emphasizing that “there are conditions built into it,” and that Israel expects all parties to fully uphold the agreement.