War to continue ‘many more months,’ reality before Oct. 7 won’t return, IDF Chief Halevi says

The war against the Hamas terror organization in the Gaza Strip will take many more months, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Col. Herzi Halevi told the press after a tour inside the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

“I just left the Gaza Strip, I met the fighters in the north of the Strip. I received a close impression of the way the forces fight, operate, and achieve the goals we set for them. The IDF is close to completing the dismantling of the Hamas battalions in the northern Gaza Strip,” Halevi said during his overview of the war effort.

However, the army chief cautioned that the war “takes place in complex territory – that’s why the war will continue for many more months.”

“There are no magic solutions, no shortcuts in the thorough dismantling of a terrorist organization, but stubborn and determined fighting. And we are very, very determined,” Halevi said, warning that Israel would reach the Hamas leadership “whether it takes a week or whether it takes months.”

The IDF has eliminated many terrorists and taken hundreds as prisoners while dismantling their underground infrastructure, Halevi said while warning that many terrorists disguising themselves as civilians are still in the area.

“Now, we are concentrating our efforts in the south of the Gaza Strip - Khan Younis, the central camps and beyond. And we will continue to both preserve and deepen the achievement in the north of the Gaza Strip,” the army chief said.

Halevi vowed that the security reality before Oct. 7, with large parts of the Israeli population living under concrete threats by well-armed terror groups, is a thing of the past and that the failures of that day won’t repeat themselves.

Responding to claims from abroad that the IDF is too indiscriminate in its airstrikes, as well as criticism inside Israel that the mounting death toll of Israeli soldiers is due to a lack of air support, Halevi stressed: “The Air Force continues to attack non-stop. A building falls when it is an enemy target or when it poses a danger to our forces. The IDF is focused and precise in its actions.”

The IDF chief added that Israeli ground troops are accompanied by heavy fire from air, sea and land and receive the cover they need to fulfill their mission, which “brings a unique added value, the destruction of infrastructure, which cannot be done from the air.”

Halevi closed by reiterating that the return of Israeli hostages still being held captive inside the Gaza Strip remains a top priority for the army.

“Some of our best sons and daughters fell in the battle for the security of the country. We will guarantee that their fall was not in vain,” Halevi said.