Former senior IDF officer Brig. Gen. (res.) Erez Winner, who led the Southern Command’s operational team for 12 years, spoke with Reshet Bet on Sunday morning about what has prevented Hamas’ defeat and the return of all the hostages.

Winner said that he had written a plan to defeat Hamas back in January 2014, but “the understanding was that Gaza is a secondary arena. The understanding was that if you break it, you pay for it. That is, if you take the responsibility from Hamas, anyone who comes after it will probably be worse, so let’s leave Hamas alone.”

“You probably remember the expressions ‘weakened,’ ‘deterred,’ ‘Gaza is a secondary arena,’ and ‘we must not allow it to grab the attention and resources of the State of Israel.'”

“At certain times over the years, I thought that we had to conquer the entire Strip and take down Hamas. But I understood that the State chose differently because it prioritized other arenas. I understood the logic of the decisions of those years, but we still should have acted differently.”

Winner noted that he participated in hundreds of discussions at various levels. “It was clear that this was the decision: Gaza is a secondary arena and we need to push it aside as much as possible.”

Regarding the post-October 7 war in Gaza, Winner asserted that former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi made a grave error by refusing to impose temporary military rule over Gaza.

“The big mistake, which is what led us to prolong the war, is the issue of not applying military rule,” he said. “In other words, our lack of control over civilian aid. We were forced to bring aid into the Strip in excessive quantities at the request of our American friends and others, and we allowed Hamas to maintain control with the help of the aid – the right hand struck Hamas, and the left hand fed and provided for it.”

Winner explained: “The plan was a fundamental change in civilian aid. It’s vital that the IDF has full control over what reaches Gaza. Hamas would then lose its power, Gazan civilians will lose their fear, and local elements would rise up. If we combine the voluntary immigration plan of our friend Trump, which I think has a realistic possibility of being implemented, together with action against Hamas outside Israel – Hamas could be defeated in less than three months.”

Winner added that the “noise” protesters made around the issue of the hostages deterred the release of the hostages. According to him, what led to the release of the hostages was military pressure.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)