{"id":1020017,"date":"2026-08-24T00:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T00:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1020017\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T00:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T00:38:15","slug":"bezalel-smotrich-strock-push-to-delay-isf-operation-until-hamas-defeated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1020017\/","title":{"rendered":"Bezalel Smotrich, Strock push to delay ISF operation until Hamas defeated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Finance Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/politics-and-diplomacy\/article-905837\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bezalel Smotrich<\/a> and National Missions Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/article-906211\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Orit Strock<\/a> have appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Monday\u2019s cabinet meeting, demanding that a decision be made to prevent the entry of foreign and multinational forces into the Gaza Strip before Hamas is fully disarmed and the enclave is fully demilitarized.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Last Friday, Strock attended a tour of the Life Support Area Endurance camp, a staging area intended to absorb ISF forces, during which, according to Strock\u2019s statement, significant preparations for the ISF\u2019s deployment were revealed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">According to data presented by the ministers, the camp has residential infrastructure for about 1,500 foreign soldiers, including 20 giant tents and about 100 temporary structures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">In addition, a fleet of military vehicles for about 1,000 soldiers is on site, and about 50 workers continue developing the base and bringing in equipment and materials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The ministers also noted that the camp, where training continues at an intensive pace, will eventually accommodate about 5,000 soldiers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">At the same time, they said, efforts are underway to locate additional locations to use as bases and storage areas. Based on the pace of work, preparations are expected to be completed within a few weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Smotrich and Strock claimed the preparations underway are for a force much larger than what was presented to the cabinet, and that its aim also appears fundamentally different from what was presented to the ministers.<\/p>\n<p>According to them, this is happening at a time when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/defense-news\/article-906346\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hamas<\/a> is not showing any willingness to disarm and demilitarize.<\/p>\n<p>In their letter to the Prime Minister, the ministers warned: &#8220;We must not reach a situation where the ISF, of such a huge scale, will be ready and willing to enter the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/article-906118\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gaza Strip<\/a>, and enormous pressure will be exerted on Israel to allow its entry, even though the demilitarization has not yet been carried out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">In light of this, Smotrich and Strock demanded that the cabinet adopt an affirmative resolution tomorrow, which will prevent the entry of the ISF and any other multinational force into the Gaza Strip before Hamas is fully disarmed and Gaza is fully demilitarized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Missions Minister Orit Strock have appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1020018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[372,26715,70,4526,4527,200176,99,50,173108],"class_list":["post-1020017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-bezalel-smotrich","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-strip","tag-hamas","tag-international-stabilization-force-isf","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-orit-strock"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117147697710328817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}