IDF commander: If fuel for Gaza hospitals runs out, we will ensure they get more

Taking questions from the press, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi acknowledges the loss of life of IDF soldiers, and says “nothing is 100%” in battle, “but in the last week, while we have been active [on the ground] in Gaza, the IDF, even if [an incident] began badly, has held the upper hand. Every day, many dozens of Hamas operatives are being killed.”

He says this conflict “is broader than Israel-Hamas. There are global aspects. We warmly appreciate the presence of the United States army here with us, in deep cooperation, also boosting our capacity to defend the State of Israel according to our security policy.”

He says IDF forces are not only surrounding Gaza City but are also “inside significant areas inside Gaza City… inside central Hamas facilities, destroying targets underground and above ground, killing Hamas terrorists and activists.”

In response to a question about fuel supplies to Gaza, Halevi says fuel will be allowed in for use in hospitals if and when they run out.

“We have not brought fuel in to this point,” he says. “We check the situation in the Strip every day. For over a week, they tell us that the fuel in the hospitals will run out, and it hasn’t. We’ll see when the day comes [that it runs out. When that day comes], fuel will be transferred, with oversight, to the hospitals, and we will do everything to ensure that it doesn’t reach Hamas infrastructure and won’t serve [Hamas’s] war aims.”

In a final comment, he says that for the sake of Israeli security, regional stability and the good of the residents of Gaza, “it will not be right for Hamas to remain in control of Gaza. Who will be there? We’ll leave that for other discussions.”