Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar speaks at the Jerusalem Post conference on May 19, 2025. (Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
(JTA) — A senior member of Israel’s ruling party said Israel would annex parts of Gaza unless Hamas ceded power there and released the Israeli hostages it is holding.
Culture Minister Miki Zohar, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, made the comments onstage at the Jerusalem Post conference in New York City on Monday. The comments come as Israel has embarked on a broad offensive in Gaza that aims to conquer and occupy the territory — an escalation of its 19-month military campaign there after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
“We are going to change the game,” Zohar said. “Israeli is going to annex land and to create a buffer zone, and we’re not going anywhere until all of our hostages are coming back home.”
Zohar is the latest member of Israel’s cabinet to discuss Israel taking over parts of Gaza. Far-right ministers, including Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, have called on Israel to occupy the territory and establish settlements there, and some Israelis have shown an eagerness to move into Gaza if they are permitted to do so.
Zohar is not a member of Israel’s security cabinet, the high-level group that votes on the course of the war. He portrayed the campaign as a means to pressure Hamas to surrender. Polls show that a sizable majority of Israelis support a deal that ends the war and releases the hostages.
“If we annex land, we’re going to stay there, we’re not going to leave, and if we stay there Hamas cannot come back,” Zohar said. “So Hamas needs to understand. if you want us out of Gaza, bring out all of the hostages back home and leave Gaza for good. These are the two things that will end the war.”
Zohar said he believed the Trump administration was receptive to that strategy. In recent days, the White House has negotiated the release of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, and Trump has called for the release of the rest of the hostages and an end to the war.
“They know about it and I think they respect that position of Israel,” Zohar said of the administration. “We trust Donald Trump, we trust him, and we know that President Trump will always support Israel.”
But Zohar indicated that international pressure did affect Israel’s decisions on one area of the war: the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel said it would begin allowing some aid into Gaza on Monday after two months of blocking it, something Zohar said was necessary for Israel to be able to keep fighting. Netanyahu suggsated on Monday that international pressure played a role in the decision to allow aid in.
“First of all, we still have hostages there — they are in a very, very bad situation and Hamas doesn’t care about them… We think that they need to come back before we can give humanitarian support,” Zohar said.
He added, “We don’t want hunger in Gaza because hunger in Gaza could end the war, because if people will start dying there from hunger, it will be a big problem to Israel to continue the war and to finish the job.”
