Netanyahu’s rival vows to end Hamas rule within 18 months if elected

Israeli opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main rival in upcoming elections, vowed on Thursday (October 15, 2026) to end Hamas rule in Gaza if he wins office following the October 27 vote.

“Today I give a public commitment: from the moment I enter the Prime Minister’s Office, within 18 months Hamas will no longer rule the Gaza Strip,” the leader of the centre-right Yashar party said at a press conference near the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

He said he would achieve this either by implementing U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan, which provides for the gradual disarmament of Hamas and a transfer of power, or through “creative operations” by Israel’s military aimed at destroying the Palestinian movement’s military wing.

Hamas announced in July that it was disbanding its governing body to facilitate the transfer of Gaza’s administration to a nascent technocratic Palestinian committee called the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).

The NCAG, currently based in Cairo, was created following the declaration of a ceasefire last October and is overseen by Mr. Trump’s Board of Peace.

Later in July, Hamas announced it had agreed to a deal involving the handing over of its weapons to the NCAG.

But Israel has been sceptical, with Mr. Netanyahu demanding verifiable decommissioning of all weapons before any withdrawal of the military takes place.

Hamas has not gone ahead with disarmament, Israel has refused to reciprocate by starting to withdraw forces, and the NCAG is not operating inside the territory.

Israeli forces were allowed to stay in 53% of Gaza under the terms of the ceasefire, but a year later they control about 70%, according to official accounts.

‘Strategic failure’

Mr. Eisenkot’s campaign pledge is one of the strongest yet from the 66-year-old former military chief.

The close-fought election will be the first since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people.

In response to the attack, Israel launched a massive offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 74,300 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas and whose figures are generally considered reliable by the United Nations.

Mr. Eisenkot accused Mr. Netanyahu of a “strategic failure” in Gaza, where he said “Hamas is still the sovereign… armed, arming itself, and militarily active” after three years of war.

He also reiterated a pledge to establish a state commission of inquiry to identify those responsible for any security lapses leading up to October 7, a push the government has so far resisted. “There is a way to prevent the next disaster,” he said.

Current polls show that neither Mr. Netanyahu’s bloc nor that led by Mr. Eisenkot is in a position to win the 61 seats needed to control the 120-seat parliament and form a governing coalition.