Halevi says IDF will know how to ‘return and fight’ even after ceasefire; IDF creating all the pressure needed for deal

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says the military will be able to return to fighting in the Gaza Strip after a truce with Hamas, regardless of the details of such an agreement.

He also says the IDF has maintained the necessary military on pressure on Hamas in recent months to help secure a new deal for the release of hostages.

“An agreement for the return of the hostages is an urgent moral imperative to save lives. The IDF is creating all the pressure required to create the best conditions for such an agreement, and this is how we have acted since the end of the previous agreement. The IDF will know how to abide by any agreement that is approved by the political echelon, and even after a ceasefire, to return and fight with great intensity,” Halevi says in a press conference.

“The IDF will not stop working to free the hostages, those for whom time passes with great difficulty, and we will not give up on continuing to attack Hamas until this goal is achieved, and of course we will not give up on achieving security for the citizens of the State of Israel,” Halevi adds.

At a press conference last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged that, “For months there was no progress [toward a hostage deal] because the military pressure was not strong enough,” and that this only changed when he insisted that the IDF go into Rafah.