Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israeli minister: Gaza ‘must be smaller at the end of the war’

‘Whoever starts a war against Israel must lose territory,’ said Minister Gideon Sa’ar

Gaza “must be smaller at the end of the war,” Israeli Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in an interview Saturday, according to Ha’aretz.

“We must make the end of our campaign clear to everyone around us,” he told Israeli Channel 12 News. “Whoever starts a war against Israel must lose territory.”

Israel is preparing for a ground war in Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ attacks on the country a week ago.

Sa’ar is one of five opposition lawmakers sworn into Israel’s cabinet Thursday to bring those with more experience leading during wartime into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Sa’ar, a former justice and interior minister and deputy prime minister, spent most of his political career in Netanyahu’s Likud party, but in 2020 left to form his New Hope party.

Sa’ar also told the news channel that Israel is at war with Iran and that it must firstly destroy Hamas’ military capabilities. “They do have to pay the price of loss,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that there’s no “direct evidence” that Iran is behind Hamas’ attack on Israel but also noted a longstanding “complicity” between the two.

More than 1,200 Israelis were killed in the attack, according to Israeli government sources. Israeli forces have since killed more than 1,9oo Palestinians, according to Palestinian sources.

Israeli forces occupied Gaza from 1967 until 2005 and Hamas has ruled the 37-mile-long strip of land along the Mediterranean since 2007.

Portions of this article originally appeared on Haaretz.com. To get Haaretz’s Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox, click here.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.