Hamas is under “great pressure” with the terror organization having lost most of its assets and control of Gaza, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir declared during a Sunday tour of the Strip.
“We are intensifying our activity according to a structured plan,” he told soldiers currently fighting in the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza.
Zamir added that “Hamas is under tremendous pressure; it has lost most of its assets and its command-and-control structure. We will use all our tools to bring the hostages home, to defeat Hamas and to dismantle its rule.”
“This is not an endless war; we will shorten it as we achieve its goals,” he went on to say. “We aim to win and will do so with determination, thoroughness and while maintaining the safety of our forces.”
Zamir noted that the troops had just crushed Hamas’s Rafah Brigade in the southernmost part of the Strip. “Now is your time to defeat the Khan Yunis Brigade,” he stated, urging them to “not forget for a moment” what happened almost 600 days ago when Hamas breached the border.
“From here ... those murderers left, raided [Kibbutz] Nir Oz, committed atrocities, murdered and kidnapped babies and children, women and the elderly,” said Zamir. “We are defending ourselves, and to defend ourselves, we are attacking. That is a central lesson of Oct. 7.”
“You are doing exceptional and extremely important work here—you have my full backing,” the Israeli military chief concluded.
“Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” launched on May 16, is a large-scale IDF campaign against the remaining Hamas and Islamic Jihad strongholds.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday reiterated that the ground offensive in Gaza is aimed at establishing complete and lasting Israeli security control throughout the entire Strip.
He further stated that the war would continue until Hamas is disarmed and its leadership is either killed or exiled.
Israeli security forces killed a member of Hamas’s naval commando unit who infiltrated the Jewish state through the Kerem Shalom Crossing and participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, the IDF said on Sunday evening.
Hamas operative Ahmad Osama Hassan al-Lahwani was killed in a joint counter-terrorism operation by the IDF’s Southern Command, Military Intelligence Directorate, Air Force and Navy, and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), according to the army statement.
Navy forces “continue to operate in defensive and offensive missions from the sea across all arenas,” including as part of “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” against Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli military emphasized.
The IDF conducted extensive operations across Gaza over the weekend, the military said on Saturday, killing terrorists and dismantling booby-trapped structures, underground and surface infrastructure, and anti-tank missile posts used by Palestinian terrorists.
Simultaneously, the Israeli Air Force attacked more than 100 targets throughout the enclave, hitting terror operatives, Hamas “military” compounds and tunnel networks.
