Chief-of-staff: Yellow Line is the new Gazan border

Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir vows Hamas will not rebuild as Netanyahu questions the abilities of an international force.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israel’s chief of staff signaled the army’s emerging “day after” strategy for Gaza on Sunday, calling the current cease-fire line the Strip’s new border with Israel.

“We will not allow Hamas to reestablish itself,” Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said during a tour of the northern Gaza Strip, where division commanders presented their latest operational assessments.

“We control large parts of the Gaza Strip and stand along the lines of control,” he continued. “The Yellow Line is a new border line, a forward defensive line for the settlements and a line of attack.”

Under the U.S.-brokered plan to permanently end the War of Revival, the IDF withdrew in October to the Yellow Line as Hamas began releasing the hostages held by its operatives and other terror groups.

The withdrawal left Israel in control of roughly 53% of Gaza, creating a badly needed security buffer between Hamas-controlled areas and the Israeli communities of the Gaza envelope.

Israel is expected to pull back slightly further during Stage 2 of the plan, when an international stabilization force is meant to oversee Hamas’ disarmament and the destruction of its military infrastructure.

Stage 1 remains incomplete, as the body of the last hostage — police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili — has not yet been returned.

Hamas has said it may only “freeze” or “store” its weapons, and would hand them over only to a recognized Palestinian state. It also rejects the deployment of foreign forces inside Gaza, saying they may operate only at the border to oversee the cease-fire and “prevent violations.”

Channel 12 analyst Amit Segal said Zamir had made Israel’s position unmistakably clear.

“The chief of staff has presented a very clear position – that this is the only way to protect the residents of the [Gaza] envelope and the residents of the State of Israel for the next few years or decades, and Israel will not withdraw from the Yellow Line,” he said.

Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a gathering of Israeli ambassadors that while he had told the Americans to “go ahead” with the idea of an international force, he doubted any such mission could actually disarm Hamas.

“We know that there are certain missions that this force could do,” he said. “There are certain things they can’t do — maybe the main task they can’t do — but we will see.”

If the force does not materialize, or proves unable to do the job, Israel could and would do it – “the easy way, or the hard way,” he said. “But in the end it will be done.”

At a press conference after meeting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Netanyahu added that he will discuss Stage 2 with Trump during his visit to the White House later this month — his sixth trip to Washington this year.