Starve Hamas fighters out of their Gaza tunnels, says IDF general
Former commander says militants hiding in Israeli-controlled areas should face starvation, suffocation or explosive attacks unless they surrender, as peace negotiations hang in the balance.
Hamas fighters who remain in a tunnel network in parts of Gaza controlled by the Israeli military should face starvation, suffocation or explosive attacks unless they surrender, a former senior Israel Defence Forces commander has said.
Some 100 fighters are currently in hiding and refusing to give themselves up in areas west of the so-called yellow line, which marks the boundary of Israeli military control under the terms of the ceasefire deal brokered by President Trump.
The renegades have presented an obstacle in negotiations to progress to a second phase of the truce, under which Hamas would be disarmed and control of the strip passed to an international “board of peace”, with international troops providing security.
Erez Winner, a retired brigadier general who was in charge of the IDF’s southern command during the October 7 attacks in 2023 and for a decade before, said the militants could surrender and be exiled, in accordance with the terms of the agreement signed last month, but he added that he would prefer to see them be detained or die.
“We know this area, we have the ability to cut [the tunnels off] slowly, slowly, either by penetrating cement or other elements inside, or exploding it part by part,” Winner, 57, said, after briefing Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of the general staff, and Israel Katz, the defence minister, on his strategy this week.
“It will be a rather long operation but since they are captured deep in the areas that are under Israeli hold, it’s possible it’s only a matter of working slowly and not as fast as possible, not endangering IDF troops,” he said.
“What will force them out of the tunnels, like we saw last week with the four or five terrorists who did come out, is when the food and water that they stole from their own people will be finished - the hunger will push them out.”
The UN security council is due to vote today (Monday) on a US-led motion to endorse the Trump-backed deal, including the idea of a technocratic administration to run Gaza and an international peacekeeping force to provide security for an initial two years. Since the last 20 surviving hostages and most of the 28 who had died were released from Gaza in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and 330 bodies, officials have been attempting to confirm the second phase of the truce.
Winner said American officials were concerned with bigger questions than the fate of the Hamas fighters holed up in the south of the strip.
“Their desire to continue with that agreement, that has much bigger, much bigger goals than just Gaza,” he said. “They want to continue and they see that 100 or so terrorists in Rafah, they say it is an obstacle that should be ... sidestepped and passed over.”
After the ceasefire began last month, Hamas swiftly re-established its hold over areas from which Israel withdrew, killing dozens of Palestinians it accused of collaboration, theft or other crimes.
The Trump administration is reported to have a plan to divide Gaza into a “green zone” under Israeli and international military control and a “red zone”, which in the short term would be left in ruins.
In the green zone, Israel “could enter an international force that will deal with the population, that will start the reconstruction and will start to build the new Gaza”, Winner said, but the red zone would be where it could resume its military campaign and finally eliminate Hamas. “In the red area, where Hamas is now, there will be no reconstruction,” he said. “And I believe that sooner or later, Israel will have to do the job and demolish Hamas and make sure that as an organisation and as a regime, they won’t exist in Gaza.”
Trump’s 20-point plan envisages that a reformed Palestinian Authority could eventually regain political power in Gaza and therefore create the conditions “for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.
Before the security council vote that could effectively make Trump’s plan international law, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said his opposition to a Palestinian state was unwavering.
“Our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory west of the Jordan [River], this opposition is existing, valid and has not changed one bit,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting yesterday (Sunday).
PM Netanyahu at the Government Meeting: "Our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory has not changed. Gaza will be demilitarized, and Hamas will be disarmed, the easy way or the hard way. I do not need affirmations, tweets, or lectures."https://t.co/7tK5qKGPDI
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 16, 2025
While Indonesia has formally said it would send troops and is now expected to form the bulk of the proposed International Stabilisation Force, Jordan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, who had been expected to take a leading role, ruled out sending troops into Gaza. Most Arab and Muslim states have hinged their involvement in Gaza on the creation of a Palestinian state, an idea that Israel flatly rejects.
Just before the weekend, the US and key regional allies including Qatar, Egypt, the UAE, Indonesia and Pakistan issued a joint statement on the resolution, saying it presented a “viable path toward peace and stability, not only between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but for the entire region”.
Countries including China, which has veto power on the security council, are understood to be seeking clearer language in the resolution in support of Palestinian statehood and defining a role for the Palestinian Authority before they will endorse it.
THE TIMES
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