Defense Minister Yoav Gallant made a declaration on Friday alongside US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the IDF Central Head Quarters in Tel Aviv.

"Let me remind you all who the enemy is. Our neighbor is Hamas, the ISIS of Gaza, an organization enjoying the Iranian payroll. I can not let the world forget the brutal attacks Hamas terrorists conducted against Israeli children, Israeli women, Israeli elderly, and entire families. Murder, rape, kidnapping, this is what we face in this war," the Defense Minister opened in English.

"This is a war on the existence of Israel as a prosperous state, as a democratic state, as the homeland of the Jewish people. This is a war on freedom and on our common values, and we are on the front line. We will keep fighting, and we will win this war. We will prevail," he added.

Gallant then added in Hebrew: "The war will be long, the war will be tough, and there will be a price, but we will win. We have already rehabilitated locations that were burned, and they will flourish."

"In recent days, the direction has changed, and the ones who attacked are now being attacked by us. From heroic battles in which IDF soldiers attacked those who planned to get much further, we moved to attacking the Gaza Strip. The results will make clear to the world our determination and how we face those who want to murder our children, women, and elderly, and unfortunately, were successful.

"The fortitude that is in the DNA of every Jew is the result of thousands of years of fighting for survival, with one result that never changes. Our enemies want to destroy us time after time, and in the end, we survive and triumph, and they disappear. This is what will happen this time to Hamas."