Israel army chief vows to demilitarise Gaza despite ceasefire

A ceasefire in October 2025 has reduced but not halted the violence in Gaza. Israeli operations have killed 1,288 people since the ceasefire came into effect, according to Gaza's health ministry. (File/AFP)

• The comments, made during a visit by Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir to the Gaza Strip, follow intermittent Israeli strikes there in recent days

JERUSALEM: Israel’s army chief on Tuesday vowed to push on with demilitarising Gaza and disarming Hamas, despite efforts by the United States to advance the ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
The comments, made during a visit by Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir to the Gaza Strip, follow intermittent Israeli strikes there in recent days, which the military says were targeting militants.
“In Gaza, we are not giving up on the overarching objective — demilitarising the Gaza Strip and disarming Hamas, using all necessary means,” Zamir said, according to a military statement.
The Israeli military has said that it will keep pursuing alleged perpetrators of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
“We continue to act systematically to strike Hamas and its leaders wherever they are, including through ongoing activities to prevent it from rebuilding,” he added.
“The pursuit of the terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre continues — everyone who took part in the massacre will live on the run until they are eliminated,” Zamir said, calling it a “long-term mission to which... the entire IDF are committed.”
Despite a US-backed ceasefire which came into effect in October 2025, bloodshed has continued in the war-shattered territory.
On Monday, Gazan authorities said at least five people were killed by Israeli fire, including two children.
“There will be no containment of threats. We will not allow the enemy to rebuild itself, we will not allow terrorist infrastructure to become entrenched, and we will act at every opportunity to eliminate threats while they are still taking shape,” Zamir was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
The United States has sought to advance the fragile Gaza ceasefire plan in recent weeks.
Hamas has endorsed a roadmap published by President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” under which the militant group would hand over its weapons to a nascent Palestinian technocratic committee.
But Israel has refused to start withdrawing its forces until Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is fully disarmed.
According to Israeli media reports, the Israeli army has curbed its operations in the Gaza Strip in recent days under US pressure, and has only been carrying out strikes to remove imminent threats to its troops, or to eliminate those who participated in the October 7, 2023 attack.
The devastating war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Militants also took 251 hostages to Gaza.
Israel responded with a massive offensive in Gaza that has killed at least 73,431 people, according to the Palestinian territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.