From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 23, 2025
Sa’ar: Israel committed to ceasefire, will respond ‘forcefully’ to any Hamas attacks
Nava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says that Israel is committed to helping Washington’s ceasefire plan in Gaza succeed, while demanding that Hamas return the remaining deceased hostages and, in the plan’s second phase, fully disarm.
Speaking at a Jerusalem press conference alongside his Albanian counterpart, Elisa Spiropali, Sa’ar thanks US Vice President JD Vance “for his important visit to Israel” this week, adding that Israel looks forward to hosting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is set to arrive later today.
“We spoke about [US President Donald] Trump’s [ceasefire] plan. Israel is committed to working towards the success of President Trump’s plan. There are difficulties, but we are doing, and we will do, everything we can to work towards its success,” he says.
He stresses that “Hamas must uphold the agreement. We know it can easily return most of the remaining 13 dead hostages,” accusing the terror group of “slowly trickling the return in order to delay the second phase of laying down its arms.”
“Hamas and Islamic Jihad must lay down their arms. Gaza must be demilitarized… This is at the heart of the Trump plan,” he continues. “We will not compromise on it. Attacks by Hamas on our forces will not be tolerated. They will be answered forcefully.”
Sa’ar also criticizes “the hypocrisy of the international community,” saying that “the silence is deafening” in reaction to “mass public executions” of Palestinians by Hamas in Gaza since the ceasefire began.
He also bashes the International Court of Justice for its ruling yesterday calling on Israel to work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which Israel claims has been thoroughly infiltrated by Hamas, accusing the court of “trying to force Israel to accept measures that would endanger our security.”
“UNRWA still employs over 1,400 Hamas terrorists to this day,” Sa’ar claims, adding that Israel “will not agree to cooperate” with the agency.
He thanks Spiropali for her visit to Israel, adding that the two ministers signed joint MOUs “on training young diplomats and cooperating on public diplomacy.”
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