Everyone argued about hostages or war - now it turns out the solution was elsewhere | Lt. Col. (res.) Amit Yagur
Lt. Col. (res.) Amit Yagur argues that the "both-and" approach—combining military pressure with efforts to free hostages—has proven correct three years after October 7. According to him, this strategy enabled the return of all hostages, the dismantling of Hamas as a military framework, and settling accounts with the perpetrators of the massacre, while maintaining operational freedom of action.
Lt. Col. (res.) Amit Yagur argues in his article that the "both-and" approach—combining sustained military pressure with efforts to free hostages—has proven correct three years after the October 7 massacre. According to him, the security-strategic debate oscillated between two polar approaches: a hostage deal at any cost versus indiscriminate military victory. Yagur claims that the integrated approach allowed Israel to maintain operational grip and freedom of action, while returning all remaining hostages from Gaza, dismantling Hamas as a military framework, and operationally settling accounts with the perpetrators of the massacre. He notes that the recent wave of assassinations (July-September 2026) creates a "double decapitation syndrome," where every Hamas commander who fills the vacuum is eliminated within a short time. Yagur references criticism by American diplomat Brett McGurk of the binary approach, and argues that the national challenge now is to separate Hamas from the Gazan population in order to bring about its governmental dismantling.