IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari on Sunday morning said that “the IDF is ready to crush Hamas’ rule” as it prepares for likely the largest land invasion of Gaza since the 2005 withdrawal.
Hagari warned Israeli citizens not to become complacent, noting that Hamas still “has significant capabilities” even after eight days of overwhelming IDF airstrikes.
It was unclear why Hamas has held off from its two main sources of attacks on Israel since Sunday, but one possibility might be that it expected an imminent IDF counter-invasion after an IDF deadline for evacuating civilians from Gaza passed late Saturday.
Assassination of Hamas leaders
Next, Hagari noted that the IDF had recently assassinated Bilal al Qadr, who was the Khan Younis commander of Hamas’ October 7 invasion forces.
This followed the assassination over the weekend by the IDF of another Hamas terrorist who was referred to as the overall mastermind of the Hamas invasion.
In addition, the IDF killed a senior official in Islamic Jihad’s rocket firing apparatus.
Once again, Hagari complained that Hamas is systematically preventing many Palestinian civilians from leaving the North, from which the IDF warned them to leave over the weekend.
He said he hoped more Palestinian civilians would join the hundreds of thousands already moving south of Nahal Aza, but that Hamas was trying to prop up its failing rule and to use the civilians as human shields.
Further, he said that the US had sent a second naval strike force, the Dwight D. Eisenhower group, to the region to back Israel versus any adventurism from Iran or Hezbollah, along with the Gaerald Force naval strike group which was already sent to the region several days ago.
Moreover, he said that some parts of the country might start to gradually return to physical school from remote learning, depending on ongoing security developments.
He said the North was still a dangerous front, but that the IDF was responding to all provocations to keep it off the major war playing field.
Likewise, he said IDF efforts in the West Bank had kept the area relatively quiet, though IDF raids for terror arrests and extra guard troops are working hard all of the time.
Hagari put the IDF’s total dead updated as 286, and total missing or kidnapped at 126.
He declined to say how many of the more than 300,000 reservists were posted in the South for the invasion versus on other borders, saying strategic ambiguity was important to “confuse the enemy.”
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