{"id":294433,"date":"2026-02-16T18:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/294433\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T18:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:28:10","slug":"top-netanyahu-aide-hamas-will-have-60-days-to-disarm-or-idf-will-complete-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/294433\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Netanyahu aide: Hamas will have 60 days to disarm or IDF will &#8216;complete&#8217; mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Israel plans to afford Hamas a 60-day period to disarm, and if it does not, the Israeli military will go back to war in the Gaza Strip, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs made the statement a day after the premier asserted that the terror group must give up its small arms as part of the disarmament process, including its AK-47 rifles \u2014 after some reports that the terror group might be allowed to hold onto its rifles for now.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in Jerusalem to the Besheva Group conference, Fuchs said that the Trump Administration had asked for a 60-day period, and \u201cwe are respecting that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fuchs clarified that he is unsure when the 60-day period starts, but it may begin with Thursday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/saar-to-represent-israel-at-inaugural-board-of-peace-meeting-after-pm-declines-to-attend\/?utm_source=article_hpsidebar&amp;utm_medium=desktop_site&amp;utm_campaign=anti-hamas-militia-says-it-is-destroying-terror-groups-tunnels-in-gaza\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Board of Peace conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>During that time, Hamas \u201cwill have to give up all of its weapons,\u201d including rifles, he said, asserting that the terror group\u2019s AK-47s \u201cwill be taken from them entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel&#8217;s Daily Edition<br \/>\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">terms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will evaluate it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it works, great. If not, then the IDF will have to complete the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that it was a \u201creasonable estimate\u201d that before Israel\u2019s next election \u2014 which is currently set for October but could be moved up to June \u2014 either Hamas will have given up its weapons or the IDF will be in the midst of an intensive new military campaign in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/static-cdn.toi-media.com\/www\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_3258.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3755580\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_3258-640x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tCabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs speaks at the Besheva conference in Jerusalem on February 16, 2026 (Screencapture\/YouTube)<\/p>\n<p>Fuchs said there were many Gaza tunnels that also needed to be destroyed as part of the process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, whoever plows the fields in Be\u2019eri sees the sea,\u201d he says of the Gaza border kibbutz invaded and brutalized by Hamas on October 7, 2023. \u201cThere is barely a building left standing in the Gaza Strip, but the work is not yet completed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A day earlier, Netanyahu <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/liveblog_entry\/netanyahu-says-hamas-disarmament-must-include-60k-rifles-thats-what-they-used-on-oct-7\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> that disarmament means Hamas \u201cmust give up its weapons, not [just] its main weapons,\u201d asserting that \u201cthe one that does the most damage is called an AK-47.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what they used in the massacre of October 7,\u201d the prime minister said, adding that the group still holds some 60,000 rifles in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/static-cdn.toi-media.com\/www\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AFP__20190123__1CJ3FF__v7__HighRes__PalestinianIsraelGazaConflictUnrest.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3755764\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AFP__20190123__1CJ3FF__v7__HighRes__PalestinianIsraelGazaConflictUnrest-640x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tFILE: Masked Hamas gunmen attend the funeral of Mahmoud al-Nabaheen, 24, in the Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, on January 23, 2019. (MAHMUD HAMS \/ AFP)<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/02\/10\/world\/middleeast\/hamas-weapons-draft-plan.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">report<\/a> in The New York Times last week said Hamas would be allowed to keep \u201csome small arms,\u201d at least initially, while surrendering all weapons that are \u201ccapable of striking Israel,\u201d according to a draft plan drawn up by officials involved in the US-led Board of Peace.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, a team including US envoys Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace\u2019s Gaza envoy, plans on sharing the document in question with Hamas in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>IDF: Troops kill 6 terrorists from Rafah tunnels<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, inside Gaza, the IDF on Sunday said it had killed six more Hamas terror operatives who have been holed up for months in a tunnel in southern Gaza\u2019s Rafah, on the Israeli side of the ceasefire line.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of Hamas operatives <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/idf-vows-to-hunt-down-dozens-of-hamas-fighters-still-holed-up-in-rafah\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trapped<\/a> on the Israeli side of the so-called \u201cYellow Line\u201d diving Gaza in accordance with the October 2025 ceasefire agreement were believed by the military to have been there since the collapse of a previous truce in the Strip in early 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The IDF has reported killing or capturing some 50 of them in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/static-cdn.toi-media.com\/www\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DSC03580.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3696244\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/DSC03580-640x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tIDF troops are seen as airstrikes are carried out in southern Gaza\u2019s Rafah, November 23, 2025. (Emanuel Fabian\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n<p>According to the military, troops of the 7th Armored Brigade carried out several \u201csignificant actions\u201d in the tunnels in the eastern Rafah area in the past week, \u201cin order to eliminate additional terrorists residing there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A week ago, the IDF said troops exchanged fire with several gunmen who emerged from a tunnel in the area.<\/p>\n<p>In an update, the military said that on Sunday, during scans of the area, it was confirmed that three gunmen were killed in that exchange of fire, and the bodies of six more were located after they were \u201celiminated as part of the operations carried out along the tunnel route.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The IDF said it is continuing to operate in the area \u201cto eliminate the terrorists in the tunnel routes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/static-cdn.toi-media.com\/www\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AFP__20260215__97MY3LA__v1__HighRes__PalestinianGazaIsraelConflictReligionRamadan.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3755783\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AFP__20260215__97MY3LA__v1__HighRes__PalestinianGazaIsraelConflictReligionRamadan-640x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tYoung displaced Palestinians play on the ruins of destroyed buildings, carrying Ramadan lanterns used as decorations, in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on February 15, 2026. (Eyad Baba \/ AFP)<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere in the Strip, the IDF said late Sunday night that it struck terror operatives who engaged in \u201csuspicious activity on the ground\u201d and approached troops in the northern Gaza Strip earlier in the day.<\/p>\n<p>According to the IDF, troops of the Gaza Division\u2019s Northern Brigade identified the operatives on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line. The army said that in addition to \u201ccarrying out suspicious activity on the ground,\u201d the operatives approached the soldiers \u201cin a manner that posed an immediate threat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After they were identified, the Israeli Air Force struck and \u201celiminated two of the terrorists to remove the threat,\u201d the IDF said. It did not specify what happened to the others.<\/p>\n<p>Since the start of the ceasefire in October, the IDF has said it has killed dozens of terror operatives and other \u201csuspects\u201d who have crossed the Yellow Line and approached troops. 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Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel plans to afford Hamas a 60-day period to disarm, and if it does not, the Israeli military&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-294433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}