Netanyahu: If Hamas Not Destroyed, Next October 7 Is ‘Only A Question of Time’

Monday, 21 April 2025 | Amidst internal and external pressure to end the war in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night warned that leaving Hamas in Gaza will eventually lead to the next terror massacre. And he is determined to prevent that from happening.

“If we do not complete the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the next October 7 and the next abductions are only a question of time. Hamas says that they will do it. They intend to do it and they are working on it,” said Netanyahu in comments translated into English in an Israeli press release. “Leaving the Hamas regime in place in Gaza would be a huge defeat for Israel and a huge victory for Iran.”

Israel’s tragic complexity inherent in the Gaza conflict is Hamas’s use of Israeli hostages as leverage to end the war. The terror group has reportedly refused interim solutions that would see some of the hostages who were kidnapped on October 7, 2023, freed in exchange for short-term calm and the release of Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons.

Netanyahu noted in his comments that just this weekend the terror group rulers of Gaza rejected an offer to release half of the remaining 24 living Israeli hostages and bodies of “many” of the remaining 35 deceased hostages. Instead, the Israeli leader said that Hamas demands a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as well as the rebuilding of Gaza with a sizable amount of funding that “will allow it to rearm and prepare attacks on us again.” 

The Times of Israel reported on Sunday that Hamas has offered a long-term truce of 5–15 years with an independent non-political Palestinian government leading Gaza instead of Hamas, and some in Hamas indicating the terror group’s weapons would allegedly be held in secured storage during the truce. The report said that Israel rejected the offer as inadequate.

In Netanyahu’s comments on Saturday night, he indicated Israel’s grave concerns about Hamas’s insistence on ending the war while retaining power. He noted that a complete withdrawal from Gaza would also pull out IDF troops from the Philadelphia corridor region bordering Egypt that Hamas uses to smuggle in weapons, as well as the security buffer zone lining the Gaza Strip that helps protect nearby Israeli communities.

“The significance of a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is that within a short time, Hamas would rehabilitate its terrorist army and it would be able to again perpetrate mass abductions and an additional massacre of Israeli citizens,” said Netanyahu. “My obligation as prime minister is to prevent this—and I will prevent this.”

The Israeli leader argued that allowing Hamas to survive the consequences of the October 7 massacre, in which around 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage, would have a devastating long-term impact on Israel—and beyond.

 “An end to the war on these conditions of surrender would send a message to all enemies of Israel that by taking Israelis hostage it is possible to bring the State of Israel to its knees and defeat it,” said Netanyahu.  

“It would also be the lethal message that terrorism pays, which would harm the security of the entire free world.”

Despite the negotiations stalemate, Netanyahu said he believes “it is possible to return our hostages without surrendering to Hamas’s diktat. This is how I have acted until now.” He pointed to a warning early in the conflict from a very senior security establishment official that none of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas might be freed, noting that instead 147 living hostages and dozens of deceased have since been recovered.

“We will increase the pressure on Hamas until we achieve all of the objectives of the war. I again reiterate: We will not give up on even one hostage, living or deceased. We are determined to return them all home,” said Netanyahu.

“…Together we will stand. Together we will fight and with G-d’s help, together we will win.”