11-08-2025
Netanyahu's unclear occupation strategy risks leaving Israel trapped in Gaza, former NSC head says
Former NSC head Giora Eiland warns that confusion between Netanyahu and the IDF on Gaza strategy is weakening Israel's position and endangering outcomes.
Confusion stemming from the government's lack of a coherent military strategy forthe Gaza Strip is undermining Israel's position and endangering the hostages, former head of the National Security Council (NSC), Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland told 103FM on Sunday.
Eiland, who served as head of the NSC during the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, said the cabinet's latest decision on the territory was unprecedented in its ambiguity.
'This is the first time, not only during this war, that a decision has been made, and I don't know what it is, so I don't have a complete opinion about it,' he said. 'Unlike all previous matters, this is something that, in my opinion, even those who made the decision have no idea what they actually decided. It truly reflects the great confusion that Israel is in.'
He noted that before the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu had spoken of a full occupation of Gaza aimed at 'absolute victory.' However, he said, Netanyahu later retreated under pressure from the IDF and other ministers, leaving Israel 'in a very strange situation where it's not clear what the decision is.' He also criticized Netanyahu's recent comments in English about besieging Gaza City, calling them disconnected from operational reality. 'I doubt anyone in the IDF General Staff would be able to turn them into any kind of coherent plan – good or bad,' he said.
According to Eiland, mediators are working on a new deal to end the war in exchange for the return of all hostages. 'I hope the mediators are doing this after receiving some kind of green light from Israel,' he said. 'In the current situation, this is the most reasonable way out for Israel from the deadlock we are in.'
Assessing the chances of such a deal, Eiland was blunt. 'It was already small six months ago,' he said. 'We wasted half a year, not only in terms of another six months of miserable people in Gaza's tunnels and other costs, but also in January–February when Trump stormed into the White House and made various threats, such as that the Gazans' fate would be in Jordan or Egypt. That put the Arab states under pressure. There was a huge opportunity for Israel – not only to go for a different deal that would end the war, but also to do so from a position of strength. Netanyahu, as usual, didn't want to. So now he might end up accepting what he absolutely refused to even consider before.'
Eiland: Israel should have implemented "General's Plan" earlier on in Gaza war
Eiland contrasted the government's approach with his own 'generals' plan,' which he said was ignored. At the start of the war, he argued, the cabinet adopted three flawed assumptions: that only military pressure would bring back the hostages and ensure victory; that victory could be achieved through high-intensity fighting; and that the population could be separated from Hamas. 'All three of these assumptions were wrong from the beginning,' he said.
By late November 2023, Eiland noted, Israel had taken control of the Netzarim Corridor, effectively annexing the entire northern Gaza Strip – a third of its territory. He said this was the moment to tell the 300,000 residents there to move south, allow them to leave safely, and then cut off supplies.
The approach, borrowed from the US Pentagon's siege manual, would have minimized both military and civilian casualties by enabling the population to evacuate. 'If that had happened, the northern area would be in our hands, but without a civilian population,' he said.
Instead, Eiland argued, the IDF tried to fight inside a hostile civilian population, a strategy he said has failed. His plan, he added, would then have allowed Israel to tell Hamas: 'If you don't release all the hostages, you will permanently lose a third of the Strip's territory.'
Looking ahead, Eiland said the best outcome would be for Israel to acknowledge that while it has severely damaged Hamas militarily, it has not met all its objectives. 'If Netanyahu had the mental strength to declare: 'Israel is ready to end the war, withdraw all IDF forces, and we have no further conditions except one – the immediate return of the hostages,' and Hamas accepted – great, we'd end the war,' he said. 'If Hamas said no, then at least we could tell the international community: What do you want from us – to accept the loss of the hostages in Gaza?'
