A press conference by IDF Chief Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari on Monday night was delayed by several minutes, with the setup team running off the live running feed when a siren went off due to Hamas rocket fire.
Despite that, a senior IDF official said that Hamas’s rocket-firing capabilities has been reduced to approximately 100 per day, whereas expectations had been that it could fire 10 times more than that.
However, another IDF official said on Sunday that Hamas might be holding back large amounts of its rocket arsenal purposely to maintain the ability to continue firing on Israel over an extended conflict, as it did over the 50 days of its operation in 2014.
The IDF has killed several senior Hamas officials, including the terror group’s head of intelligence in Khan Yunis. It additionally put artillery, tank, and other commanders out of commission, as well as eliminating rank-and-file terrorists in recent operations.
Likewise, a series of unclear statements by the IDF spokesman led to speculation about whether availability of water was being used as an additional “stick” to press Palestinian civilians to follow IDF instructions last week to leave northern for southern Gaza.
Biden to arrive in Israel
Asked whether the imminent arrival of US President Joe Biden to Israel will slow down the IDF’s preparation for war, Hagari said that only IDF national security considerations would impact the military’s pace.
At the same time, he said that Biden’s arrival, mid-war, would send an unmistakable message to Hezbollah and Iran to stay out of the fighting and not act rashly.
Regardless of any global pressure regarding the strength of the impending invasion, the IDF is acting “in a responsible and balanced way,” Hagari said.
Questions have piled up about an apparent delay in mounting the ground invasion since the IDF issued a general evacuation order for all of northern Gaza last Thursday. But a number of IDF officials and other sources on Monday said the invasion was still imminent, though the exact timing was complex.
Hagari slammed Hamas for stealing UNRWA medical, food, and other supplies, effectively depriving its own civilian population of humanitarian support.
Regarding Hezbollah’s continued provocations, Hagari said the IDF has “responded in every incident strongly,” although the terror regime has fired on Israel nearly every day since the war began.
Dismissing concerns that the IDF’s evacuation of villages within two kilometers of the northern border could show it is on the verge of war with Hezbollah, Hagari said that this decision was taken out of caution and not because a Hezbollah attack was likely.
If an attack were likely, he added, the IDF would have decided to evacuate a much larger area, but it did not do so.
While Shin Director Ronen Bar followed IDF Chief-of-Staff (Lt.Gen.) Herzi Halevi’s taking of responsibility last week, to date, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not done the same.
Notably, Netanyahu was not only premier on Saturday, but also for all but 18 months since 2009, during which the security concept regarding Hamas was formulated.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has not commented yet on the issue, although he only took office at the start of 2023.
In addition, Bar discussed the Shin Bet’s loss of around a dozen of its fighters in the field, something extremely rare for the elite intelligence unit. However, it is estimated that dozens more likely participated in pushing Hamas out of southern Israel side-by-side with regular IDF forces after the October 7 invasion.
The Shin Bet has been at the forefront of providing new intelligence for the war from interrogations of captured terrorists.
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