IDF chief: Military achievements in Gaza are considerable but still a ‘long way to go’
Halevi says IDF launches special op ‘every week’ to try and save hostages, will work to evacuate Rafah of civilians before offensive
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces’ achievements in the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip are greater than it had expected at this stage, but are still not enough to complete the campaign’s goals, the army’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Tuesday.
“We have been fighting for about four months and there is still a way to go,” Halevi said in a press conference from the Gaza border, vowing to continue fighting until the goals are reached.
“In the past decades, there has not been an army that maneuvered in an area that is urban and dense, with high [buildings] and [tunnels] below the surface of the ground. IDF soldiers are dealing with this with great success and the military achievements are extraordinary. Unfortunately, there is also a price in casualties,” he added.
The IDF has lost 569 soldiers since the beginning of the war on October 7, when Hamas terrorists launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 253. Of the IDF’s casualties, 231 were killed in the ground invasion in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Halevi said, the war was continuing across Gaza in varying levels of intensity. Using the intelligence it gathers, the army is still fighting in the north of the Strip at locations where there is terrorist activity.
“We come back for the second and third time to targets, kill more enemies, destroy more terror infrastructures and deepen the achievement,” he said.
Responding to a question by The Times of Israel on when Palestinian civilians could return to northern Gaza, from where they were evacuated at the beginning of the ground offensive, Halevi responded that it was not yet safe enough for them to return.
He said that at the beginning of the war, there had been some 15,000 Hamas terrorists in the north and that while they and their infrastructure had been mostly cleared, Hamas was still active there “nearly every day.”
“We don’t want to create a situation in which the residents of the Gaza Strip mix with the enemy, thus risking their lives. That is why we are still isolating the north of the Strip,” he said.
He promised that residents would be allowed to return as soon as the army was sure it had eradicated terrorism in the area.
In southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, Halevi said, “We are reaching places that the enemy did not imagine we would reach, destroying all the strategic assets of Hamas in a city that was considered the terror capital of the organization.”
The chief of staff added that throughout the war, the IDF has killed 10,000 terrorists, including Hamas commanders and leaders, adding that the senior leadership still needed to be targeted.
He also said the IDF would work to evacuate civilians from south Gaza’s Rafah before it launched its offensive there.
“We know that it is more difficult for us to fight in an environment where there are over a million people and another 10,000 Hamas operatives,” he said.
He said he appreciated other countries’ advice on the challenge, but that the IDF has shown that it is capable of targeting enemy forces in such complex environments.
As part of the IDF’s activity in the south of the Strip, troops successfully rescued Louis Har and Fernando Marman on Monday, but Halevi said they did not know for certain that the daring rescue operation in southern Gaza’s Rafah would be successful.
“Every week, we carry out special operations, while risking [troops’] lives in complex conditions with great uncertainty, to try and return hostages home,” he said. “This time we were successful. There were more operations that did not succeed or failed. We will not stop trying, and we will do it with great responsibility.”
He added that the army is determined to bring home the rest of the hostages who are still held captive in Gaza.
Asked how the IDF would respond if a truce-for-hostages deal was reached, Halevi said that if the political echelon decides on an agreement, and if the understandings require halting the fighting, the IDF would “know how to return” to the military campaign to dismantle Hamas when that pause ended.
Halevi also promised to restore security and residents’ faith in the communities close to Gaza that were targeted on October 7.
He said the security situation is “far better” today than it was on the eve of Hamas’s onslaught, and that the major difference was that the enemy was significantly less powerful because the IDF was destroying its capabilities.
“We are building a far safer reality,” said Halevi. Residents of the so-called Gaza envelope area, who have been living mostly in hotels for more than four months, will be able to return with security, he promised.
