Likud Minister: Hamas Deterred Despite Katz Abduction Warning

Likud minister Miki Zohar on Tuesday offered a starkly different assessment from Defense Minister Israel Katz regarding the threat of Israeli abductions along the Yellow Line in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking with Yaron Villensky, Zohar struck a reassuring tone: "Residents of the border communities are in the safest situation ever, the chance of abduction barely exists, Hamas is deterred."

His remarks came shortly after Katz delivered a speech at the Yom Kippur War memorial ceremony, where he issued a stark warning to Hamas and its backers about Israel's response should any Israeli soldier or civilian be kidnapped.

"We will not withdraw from the Yellow Line in Gaza to new deployment lines inside Gaza as long as Hamas has not been removed and Gaza has not been disarmed of weapons and tunnels," Katz declared.

The defense minister continued with an explicit threat: "In light of various intentions and intelligence, I am warning from here the terror organization and its supporters, from Iran to Erdoğan: if one soldier or Israeli civilian is abducted, all of Gaza City, with its buildings and terror towers, will be evacuated southward of its million residents, as we did in Chariots of Gideon II, and will be dealt with in the same way that Rafah and Beit Hanoun and 70% of Gaza's territory were dealt with, until his return."

Katz made clear that Israel would continue operating through population evacuation, infrastructure destruction, and territorial control. "This is the language that the jihadist terror organizations in Gaza and Lebanon understand, and this is the language we speak: evacuating the population, destroying the infrastructure, and taking the territory," he said.