House Republicans who traveled to Israel last month told JI last week that, based on their conversations with Israeli leaders and others, they believe Israel is likely to return to combat operations in Gaza.

Reps. Randy Weber (R-TX), Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) and Mike Flood (R-NE) traveled for a week to Israel during the President’s Day congressional recess as part of a delegation led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and organized by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation. The full group included nearly a dozen lawmakers.

“I think they’re getting in a position where they’re fixing to go back in,” Weber told Jewish Insider on Capitol Hill last week, describing the handover of the murdered Bibas children, Ariel and Kfir, as a moment of clarity.

“We felt from the IDF — they felt that there was progress being made, but I think they’ve come to a realization, and I don’t want to put words in [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu’s mouth … [Hamas] are killers, these are ruthless people that have to be stamped out,” Weber added. “Israel needs to kill every single Hamas terrorist there is. It’s just that simple.”

He acknowledged, however, that the Israeli leadership faces countervailing pressures from a range of political actors in Israel.

The cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas was not extended over the weekend, leading Israel to halt aid flows into Gaza. 

Flood said that “a lot of [Israel’s] strategy as it relates to Hamas is tied to the ongoing hostage negotiations. And I also think there’s a general feeling that this cease-fire is short lived.”

He said that everyone in Israel is focused on the hostages, adding, “that’s a very delicate balance, obviously, between the return of the hostages and the future security of the region.”

Luttrell said that when the remaining hostages are returned, he expects Israel to go “full tilt, try to erase Hamas completely and Hezbollah completely.”

“They are ready to do that, and want to, in my opinion — and this is just Morgan saying that,” he said, adding that the hostages and the tunnels system under Gaza complicate the calculus for Israel, which “can’t do anything until the hostages return.”

The administration had been pushing for Israel and Hamas to agree to the next phase of the three-stage hostage deal, under which Israel would be required to remove its forces from Gaza, or to extend the first phase. At its end point, the deal aims to end the war between Israel and Hamas.

Weber, who said he has been a dues-paying member of AIPAC since before joining Congress, has been to Israel seven times, while this was Luttrell’s first visit — though he noted he spent significant time in the Middle East as a Navy SEAL — and Flood’s first time as well. Weber last visited in March 2024.

The trip included meetings with Netanyahu, members of the opposition, IDF leaders and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, as well as visits to the Old City of Jerusalem and the City of David, holy sites, the Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance center, the site of the Nova music festival massacre, kibbutzim attacked by Hamas, the Gaza border, the northern border with Lebanon, Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, Rafael Industries and an Iron Dome emplacement.

Luttrell said he was “frustrated” that he and the Israeli soldiers could see Hezbollah fighters positioned and watching them over the border in Lebanon, but that the Israelis were unable to eliminate the Hezbollah fighters due to the ongoing cease-fire that has allowed civilians to return to their homes.

Flood said of the visit, “it’s one thing to watch it on television. It’s another thing to understand how profoundly impactful and altering the Oct. 7 massacre was” by seeing it in person on the streets of the kibbutzim, and meeting with a farmer in the north whose house was destroyed by Hezbollah.

“They’re civilians trying to figure out how they’re going to reopen that community and the loss of any sense of safety,” Flood said. “We … could feel and understand much better the resolve of the Israeli people, the horror that they have endured and the very positive changes that have taken place with the near-eradication of Hamas and Hezbollah.”

He added that he was impressed by Israel’s resilient spirit and high birth rate even as it faces major ongoing security challenges and the Israeli society’s commitment to service. 

Flood said that the Israeli officials conveyed that their “very short-term” focus is the hostages and that their second priority, in the medium term, is to finish rooting out Hezbollah. He added that Syria is “the most confounding challenge that they have in the mid-range” because of ongoing questions over how the new Syrian government will move forward and what role Turkey will play. He said Iran is the major long-term question.

Addressing Iran’s nuclear program, Weber said he did not see any alternative except “you just have to kill them,” unless the Iranian people rise up and overthrow the Islamic Republic regime.

“The only thing I can see is [Israel] has got to go in there,” Weber said. “They’ve got to take out the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and they’ve got to take out the leadership.”

Flood said that the IRGC “needs to be ended in its entirety,” adding that the U.S.’ current focus should be on depriving the regime of its finances through sanctions.

“From my standpoint, if I heard that Israel bombed Iran tomorrow, I would be completely fine with it,” Flood continued. “That’s a terrorist nation-state that is wholly focused on destroying Israel. I don’t think they’ve ever been weaker — but I’m not in a position to make that call.”

He said it would be “easy for me to support” an Israeli strike if Israel determines it needs to do so.

Flood said that his focus for the trip and in meetings was on normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, telling JI he sees Israel as in a commanding position to reshape the Middle East in a positive way.

In their meeting with the Emirati Ambassador to Israel Mohamed Al Khaja, the lawmakers said they spoke to him about the UAE’s continued willingness to work through the Abraham Accords and to work on the post-Gaza reconstruction.

Luttrell said that the UAE officials seemed to be waiting for the U.S. to take the lead in offering a plan for Gaza and the future of the region before they articulate their approach.

Weber said he’d opened the meeting by urging the UAE to restart a military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen.

Flood said that the UAE ambassador had told him that he believed Israel was not effectively using its soft power and communicating to the world its diverse and inclusive society.

The ambassador also said, according to Flood, that a high point of his tenure has been the increased trade and relations between Israel and the UAE, including that Israelis feel safe visiting the UAE.

Lawmakers said that President Donald Trump’s proposal to depopulate Gaza and take American control of the territory was not a central topic of focus during the visit.

Flood said that there are still “so many unknowns that we didn’t go too deep into it,” although he said that, observing Gaza City from the Israeli side of the border, the strip did appear “almost uninhabitable.”

“Israel needs partners in the Middle East that want to help solve this problem,” Flood continued.

“It kind of lived in the atmosphere,” Luttrell said of the Trump plan. “We talked about it. The best way to fix it, the best thing to do — I don’t think we’re there yet … I can tell you as a member of Congress, I’m sitting here waiting for whatever you need,” he said referring to Israel and Trump.