Later Yehezkeli clarified that Hamas is still functioning and that the end of the fighting is very far away: "Hamas exists, in the south of the Gaza Strip certainly and also in the north, the story is not over yet, it has more depths. There is still a lot of work, the story is not finished, and we are 40 percent of the way. You see Iran's game, drones from Syria, the Houthis, they do their harassment. Those who live in the north and cannot return to the settlements and anyone who is there say that there is a war and it is not possible to move on the border. The story is decided by how you started after October 7. We didn't really use all the levers. We came with a seemingly brutal force, and slowly Sinwar realized that he would stop it in time. We refer to Hamas as an organization that took over Gaza. If there were a million and a half hostages, they would stage a coup."
Regarding the deal for the abductees that was blocked, Yehezkeli said: "With great regret I had to be in favor of the deal because my heart says that the abductees should be returned, but it is a bad deal, I would have expected that after 3-4 weeks of military pressure Sinwar would be in a different place. The military pressure made a deal that is better for Hamas. If the direction is to go and do more in the south of the Strip than they did in the north, the discussion is not whether the break is good or not but what is the direction of progress. You will not be able to remove the Hamas element from the residents of Gaza. This is the catch. As much as we destroy Gaza, we must reach a situation where a gun is pointed at all the residents of the Gaza Strip. Everything will depend on how we leave Gaza, we are in the course of a struggle for our existence."
