Zamir tells troops that returning all the hostages is ‘supreme task’ of IDF

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir meets with (L-R) former hostage soldier Naama Levy, her brother Amit, and May Mayer, the cousin of hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, April 11, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir meets with (L-R) former hostage soldier Naama Levy, her brother Amit, and May Mayer, the cousin of hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, April 11, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir spent his Passover Seder with the Nahal Brigade’s reconnaissance unit at the Mevo Dotan post in the West Bank, where he told troops that returning all the hostages is the military’s “supreme task.”

“We remember our hostages well, 59 hostages, who are still in Gaza. Bringing them back is our supreme task, and everything we are doing in Gaza is to release the hostages and defeat Hamas,” Zamir says, according to remarks published by the IDF.

Zamir brought along with him the “Freedom Haggadah” — produced by the Hostage Families Forum — presented to him by former hostage soldier Naama Levy on Friday.

Northern Command chief, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin spent his Seder night with the Kfir Brigade’s Duchifat Battalion at the Dovev post in northern Israel and with residents of Kibbutz Sasa; Southern Command chief, Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor was with the Givati Brigade in Rafah; and Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth was with the Nahal Brigade’s 50th Battalion in the Hebron area.

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