Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant held a situational assessment on Wednesday, together with IDF Gaza Division Commander Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld and division staff officers.
During the situational assessment, the Minister was briefed on the forces of the Division's activities, their preparations for the continuation of the fighting, and the initial findings regarding the building collapse which claimed the lives of 21 reservists.
Later, Gallant spoke with reserve soldiers from the 969th Battalion of the Northern Brigade and the new armored unit, "Phoenix," who noted to the Minister that they are ready to continue reserve duty as long as they are needed until they reach the goals.
"I don't need to tell any of you what it means to lose a friend on the battlefield, and a group like this, high-quality people, from every corner of the country, who fall in battle," Gallant told the soldiers.
He added: "This battle is a battle of national determination, it's not just who wins at a certain point, but rather the common will, that is national determination. We are being tested here both on military strength - security strength, but no less than this, on the moral might of the State of Israel. When I say moral strength I mean to say, what right do you have to stop when there are 136 hostages in Gaza? And you know that when you continue the operation, you reach a point where the pressure on Hamas will bring it to its limit and it will do something, as it has in the past, and we see these signs continuing to show."
He mentioned the discourse surrounding the proposed hostage deals. "I have been hearing now different announcements from various Hamas officials who are starting to talk about different hostage deals, as a result of their negotiations with Egypt and Qatar and so on. Now something interesting happened here, Hamas's most extreme negotiators are those who are the furthest away from the Gaza Strip, those who fly in fancy jets, sit in luxury hotels, and go from one end to the other. Those who are suffering in Gaza and are constantly under the treads of your tanks are not such heroes. I hear what they say, most of them want to stop.
"All those who meet IDF soldiers understand that what happened in Beit Hanoun, Shati, Beit Lahiya, Jabaliya, and Shuja'iyya will happen in Rafah as well, and nothing can stop it, it's not like they'll stop us. There is no Hezbollah and no Iranians, they won't separate us from the USA, and they will not dismantle the Israeli public and split the nation which is united around the will to win the war. What's left is: will the IDF decide to execute or not decide to execute? When it decides, their fate will be like that of the others."
According to him, "Hamas is in great distress, it doesn't have enough ammunition, men, there are no reserves, it can't investigate, tend to its wounded, rule - all of these things are in big trouble. It is built on only one thing - that it will harm as many soldiers as possible and break the public's determination. You need to increase the harm to it, as well as minimize our casualties, and also to explain that we will continue as needed. In the end, we will accomplish this mission. We will dismantle Hamas and bring back the hostages."
