(March 6, 2025 / JNS) Israel is primed to renew military action against Hamas in Gaza “within weeks,” and any eleventh-hour agreement between the sides due to pressure over an imminent attack would only delay a return to combat, a veteran Israeli intelligence and security expert said on Wednesday.

The remarks by Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, the newly installed head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), mirror similar assessments by other former Israeli generals about the expected resumption of the 15-month war against Hamas, which was paused on Jan. 19 with a ceasefire and a phased hostages-for-terrorists exchange agreement.

“The most likely scenario is that we will resume fighting against Hamas in the coming weeks,” Kuperwasser, a former head of the research division in the IDF Intelligence Directorate, told JNS in an interview at his office in the Israeli capital.