Gideon Sa'ar to ABC News: We don't talk to our allies on television

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar gave an interview to ABC News today (Tuesday), where he discussed Israel's policy regarding Hamas and the Gaza Strip, as well as how Israel handles disagreements with the Trump administration.

In his talk with journalist Matt Guttman, Sa'ar said that "war is not an ideology" for Israel, and that if Israel can secure its war aims through political means, all the better, though he showed clear skepticism that this was possible.

Sa'ar said that the government's aims were:

"First of all, that we won't have any threat from Gaza Strip to Israel's security, to the security of our citizens.

"And that will not be achieved as long as the Gaza Strip won't be demilitarized totally. And we won't have there Hamas and Islamic Jihad as an armies of terror. So this is essential. We won't have no security, and we won't have stability in the region if we won't do that. So that's first thing.

"And of course, the second thing is to release all our hostages, life hostages, the dead, the remainings of the other hostages. This is crucial for us, and we will not leave Gaza without achieving all these goals. And we're negotiating, we're negotiating.

In response to a question regarding Israel's views on President Trump opening a direct channel with Hamas, bypassing Israel, to negotiate for the hostages, Sa'ar was very careful:

"We convey our thoughts about it to the American administration, and I don't think it's the right way, especially for friendly countries, allies like the U.S. and Israel, to discuss it through television. We convey our thoughts about it, and that's all I can tell you."

Guttman noted that this careful approach stood out in contrast to the open and televised clashes between Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump, which led to the US cutting off weapons support and intelligence sharing.