Official: IDF to launch major Gaza op if no deal signed by end of Trump’s Mideast visit
Senior defense official says Palestinian civilians to be evacuated to new Hamas-free ‘sterile zone’ in Strip’s south, where aid will be delivered under new mechanism
The Israel Defense Forces will launch a major offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip if no hostage deal is reached with the terror group by the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region next week, a senior Israeli defense official said Monday.
The warning came after the security cabinet on Sunday night approved a plan to significantly broaden the military offensive against Hamas, and as the IDF was calling up tens of thousands of reservists.
The plan provided for the “conquering of Gaza” and retaining the territory, an Israeli official said. The plan also included moving the Palestinian civilian population toward the south of the Strip, attacking Hamas, and preventing the terror group from taking control of humanitarian aid supplies.
Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates between May 13 and May 16, the White House has said.
The defense official, in a statement to reporters, said the objective of the planned offensive, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots,” was “the defeat of Hamas in Gaza and the release of all the hostages.”
The official added that plans to allow Gazans to voluntarily emigrate abroad, “especially those concentrated in the south outside of Hamas control,” were also part of the offensive’s objectives.
He said the IDF would “bolster its forces and operate with intensity to defeat Hamas and destroy its military and governmental capabilities, while creating strong pressure for the release of all hostages.”
According to the official, “a central component of the plan is the extensive evacuation of the entire Gazan population from combat zones, including from northern Gaza, to areas in southern Gaza, while creating separation between them and Hamas terrorists, to allow the IDF operational freedom of action.”
“Unlike in the past, the IDF will remain in every area that is conquered, to prevent the return of terror, and will handle every cleared area according to the Rafah model, where all threats were leveled and it became part of the security zone,” he said, referring to an Israeli-held buffer zone.
The official said the “blockade” on humanitarian aid entering would continue, and “only later, after the beginning of operational activity and a broad evacuation of the population to the south, a humanitarian plan will be implemented.”
He said the plan includes delineating an area in southern Gaza’s Rafah — south of the Israeli-held Morag Corridor — to be secured by the IDF as civilian companies hand out aid to Palestinian civilians. Those entering the “sterile zone” in Rafah will undergo a security screening by the IDF to prevent Hamas from taking aid, the official said.
The official said the IDF’s deployment before the start of the major operation “will provide a window of opportunity until the end of the US president’s visit to the region to carry out a hostage deal according to the “‘Witkoff framework,’” referring to a proposal by White House special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“In such a case, Israel will seek to retain territory that has been cleared and added to the security zone… In any temporary or permanent arrangement, Israel will not evacuate the security zone around Gaza, which is intended to protect communities and prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas,” the official said.
“If no hostage deal is carried out, Operation Gideon’s Chariots will begin with great intensity and will not stop until all its objectives are achieved,” the official warned.
Another Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Monday that Israel was trying to “leverage” Trump’s visit to the region next week, in combination with the mass call-up of reservists, to push Hamas to accept a hostage release deal.
In addition, the official said that Qatar was no longer “putting spokes in the wheels” of an Egyptian proposal for a deal. “We hope that all these factors will come together in the coming days and maybe will lead to a deal,” said the official. “We are giving this time to Hamas. We are saying, take this deal now, because if we start a war and there is a deal, it will be under far worse circumstances for you. Take the deal, because now there is an opportunity, a window,” the official said.
The deal would see Hamas release six to eight living hostages in the first stage, before the sides enter talks on ending the war. The official said “both sides would bring up their demands. We, of course, would bring up our conditions for Hamas’s surrender. Exile, release of the hostages, and everything that goes along with that.”
“If we come to an agreement — that is, if Hamas agrees to the Israeli conditions, because that is the only way we will reach an agreement — then the rest of the hostages would be released and the war would end,” they said.
There are currently no plans or preparations for Trump to arrive in Israel next week, said the official: “But Trump being Trump, he could get up one morning and decide that he is coming.”
The US “is coordinated with us” on the expansion of the Gaza operation, said the official. “They are also working for the destruction and defeat of Hamas. They wanted to see this happen already.”
In a press statement from the border with the Gaza Strip later on Monday, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said that despite the military’s recent achievements and pressure on Hamas, the terror group remains “unwilling” to agree to a hostage deal.
“We have an organized plan. We are moving ahead to a new and intensified phase, Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” he said. “The goal of the operation is the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas’s rule. These two goals are combined with each other.”
He said the offensive “will include a wide-scale attack and the movement of the majority of the Strip’s population to protect them in an area sterile of Hamas. And continued airstrikes, elimination of terrorists, and dismantling of infrastructure.”
In addition to approving the IDF’s offensive for Gaza, the security cabinet authorized a proposal to renew aid deliveries while overhauling the mechanism to minimize the diversion of the goods by Hamas to benefit its operatives. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was the only one who voted against the proposal, which was to be implemented when the situation in Gaza necessitated it.
The aid proposal, first reported by The Times of Israel on Friday, would entail the IDF transitioning away from wholesale distribution and warehousing of aid and instead have international organizations and private security contractors hand out boxes of food to individual Gazan families.
According to Israeli and Arab officials familiar with the matter, the IDF would not be directly involved in the distribution of aid, amid pushback from Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, but troops would be tasked with providing an outer layer of security for the private contractors and international organizations handing out the assistance. Israel believes this method will make it harder for Hamas to divert aid to its fighters, the officials said.
More than 52,500 Palestinians have been killed since the war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
The figures cannot be independently verified, and do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
The Hamas-led attack saw thousands of terrorists storm southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, of whom 58 remain in Gaza, including at least 35 who are thought to be dead, in addition to the remains of a soldier who was killed in the Strip in 2014.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 414.
The Times of Israel Community.