Israel-Hamas war: In his first public statement since Saturday’s brutal assault by Hamas militants, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. General Herzi Halevi on Thursday admitted failures that allowed the Gazan Islamic militant group’s infiltration into Israeli territory.
Halevi said that time will come and a thorough investigation will be conducted to find out how did Hamas manage to invade Israel on such a large scale.
“The IDF is responsible for the security of the country and its citizens, and on Saturday morning in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, we did not handle it. We will learn, we will investigate, but now is the time for war,” Halevi told reporters in south Israel.
The IDF chief asserted that Israel will do everything possible to bring back the hostages taken by Hamas militants.
“We will do everything to return the hostages back home,” he said.
“We are five days after a murderous, brutal and surprising incident. The slaughter by the murderous Hamas terrorists, the human animals, of our children, our wives and our people, is animalistic, it is inhumane. The IDF is fighting merciless terrorists who have committed unimaginable acts.
“Yahya Sinwar, the ruler of the Gaza Strip, decided on this horrible attack, and therefore he and the entire system under him are dead men. We will attack them, we will dismantle them, dismantle their system,” he added.
Giving details about the targets Israeli fighter jets have struck since Saturday, the IDF chief echoed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said that Gaza will not look the same and every Hamas militant will be killed.
“We are killing many terrorists, many commanders, destroying terror infrastructure that supported this terrible, brutal crime… Gaza will not look the same,” he added.