Hagari clarifies Hezbollah remarks

IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari clarified remarks he made to the media on Saturday after the Hezbollah rocket attack in Majdal Shams that killed 12 children and wounded over 40 others.

“Yesterday, during an interview I conducted from the scene of the disaster in Majdal Shams, I said: ‘No one thought that a murderous terrorist organization would fire a missile at a soccer field where boys and girls hang out.’ The wording I chose was wrong. I would like to clarify that my intention in my words was to illustrate the cruelty of the murderous terrorist organization Hezbollah,” Hagari tweeted on Sunday.

“At this time when the funerals are taking place in Majdal Shams, our hearts go out to the families and residents of Majdal Shams who lost the most precious of all.”

Earlier this month, Hagari said that though Hamas is no longer capable of executing an Oct. 7-style mass attack, the Israeli military will have to fight the terrorist group in the Gaza Strip for years to come.

“Hamas will remain with the ambition to be a terror organization,” Hagari told ABC’s Matt Gutman during a visit to Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. “Will you and me be talking five years from now about Hamas as a terror organization in Gaza? The answer is yes.”

Late last month, Hagari told Channel 13 that to truly achieve Israel’s war goal of eliminating Hamas in Gaza, an alternative must be introduced.

Hagari opined that Hamas is an “idea” rooted in the hearts of Gazans, and that as such “anyone who thinks it can be eliminated is wrong.”

What can be done, he said, is to “foster something else. Something that will make the population aware that someone else is distributing food and managing public services. Who will that be? What will it be? That’s for the politicians to decide. But to truly weaken Hamas, this is the way.”

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified that the government and army remained committed to destroying Hamas.

Following Netanyahu’s statement, the IDF issued its own clarification, emphasizing that the army is “committed to achieving the goals of the war as defined by the Cabinet” and that it has been working on this “throughout the war, day and night, and will continue to do so.”

Hagari’s comments, the military argued, “referred to the destruction of Hamas as an ideology and an idea, and this was said by him very clearly and explicitly. … any other claim is taking things out of context.”