WhatsappIDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir delivered a blunt message to Israel’s enemies on Tuesday night, vowing that the military will not allow Hamas, Hezbollah, or any other hostile actor to rebuild their military capabilities under the cover of ceasefire arrangements.
Speaking at a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony in northern Israel, Zamir confirmed that an Israeli airstrike the previous day killed Raad Saad, a senior Hamas official who headed the terror group’s weapons manufacturing headquarters. Saad was not a marginal figure, Zamir stressed, but a central architect of Hamas’s long-term military strategy.
“Yesterday we eliminated Raad Saad, one of the senior figures of the military wing of the Hamas terror organization, who led and carried out terror activities for more than thirty years and was one of the architects of the October 7 attack,” Zamir said.
According to the IDF chief, Saad played a key role in Hamas’s post-war recovery efforts—activity Israel views as an intolerable red line. “His involvement in Hamas’s attempts to restore and rebuild [its forces] constituted a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement,” Zamir stated.
The message was unmistakable: ceasefires do not grant immunity to terrorists quietly rearming for the next massacre.
Zamir underscored that Saad’s killing was not an isolated incident, but part of a broader and consistent Israeli strategy. “Within a short period,” he noted, Israel eliminated both Hezbollah’s military chief—killed on November 23—and Hamas’s head of weapons production.
For Jerusalem, the sequencing matters. Israel is signaling that it is not merely reacting tactically, but systematically dismantling the command-and-production layers that enable terror groups to regenerate after battlefield losses.
“We will not allow the enemy to build up its capabilities and will respond to any violation of the agreement,” Zamir declared. “Our policy is clear, on all fronts, and here in Lebanon as well, we will continue to act and thwart threats as they emerge.”
The timing of Zamir’s remarks—during Hanukkah, a holiday symbolizing resistance and survival—was not accidental. The subtext was aimed as much at Israel’s adversaries as at international mediators: Israel will not outsource its security or tolerate diplomatic fictions that allow terror organizations to regroup.
For Hamas and Hezbollah, the warning is clear. The era of rebuilding in the shadows is over—and Israel is watching.
