Katz tells incoming IDF chief that security challenges mean he will not have a minute of grace

Speaking at the chief of staff handover ceremony, Defense Minister Israel Katz tells the IDF’s new commander, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, that he will not have a minute of grace.

“The security challenges around us do not leave the new chief of staff 100 minutes of grace. In fact, Eyal, you don’t have even one minute of grace,” he says.

Katz tells Zamir that outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi’s “ceiling is your floor.”

“And I am convinced that you will raise it higher and higher,” he says.

Katz also says that if Hamas does not release the remaining hostages it still holds, “we will return to fighting, and it will face the IDF with strength and methods that it did not know, until [Hamas] is totally defeated.”

“We will not allow Hamas to rule in Gaza,” Katz adds.