The return of the 101 hostages still being held by Hamas has become the “most important mission” for Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated on Wednesday during a visit to the site where Hamas senior leader Yahya Sinwar was killed two weeks ago.
The IDF will continue to put “as much pressure on Hamas as possible in order to create the conditions necessary to ensure the return of the hostages,” Gallant told troops, according to a readout from his office.
“The political echelon must do what is necessary to bring about a deal. You must apply military pressure and do what is necessary to create the conditions required for us to carry out an agreement. This is our most important mission in Gaza at this time,” said the defense minister.
“Do what is necessary, and we will bring about an agreement because you created the conditions for us to carry it out, and I hope that we will do it,” he added, stressing that “routine tasks” remain, including the defense of the border and maintaining the IDF’s freedom of operation.
“In any place where Hamas rears its head, it meets the IDF—whether in Rafah, Khan Yunis or Jabalia—wherever Hamas rises, it is taken down,” Gallant said, telling soldiers that their actions “led to the conditions that ultimately caused Sinwar to make a mistake” that led to his death.
The Israeli government’s stated war aims for the Gaza Strip include the destruction of Hamas as a military and governing force, ensuring that it can no longer threaten the Jewish state, and securing the return of all hostages taken by Hamas during its border infiltration and massacre in southern Irsael on Oct. 7, 2023.
The 101 captives—alive and dead—have been held in the Strip after almost 400 days. On-and-off talks have continued for months with the United States, Egypt and Qatar acting as mediators.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a statement on Oct. 17 that while Sinwar’s death did not mark an end to the war, “it’s the beginning of the end.” Netanyahu and Gallant have promised immunity to terrorists who lay down their weapons and hand over hostages.
The toll on the IDF
More than a year after its ground forces first entered the coastal enclave on Oct. 27, 2023, IDF troops continued to engage terrorist forces in targeted raids across the Strip on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Soldiers of the 162nd Division eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat and by ordering airstrikes in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, where the Israeli military is attempting to prevent Hamas from re-establishing itself, the army stated on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, troops of the 252nd Division and Gaza Division operating in the southern and central Gaza Strip eliminated several gunmen and destroyed terrorist infrastructure, the IDF said in the statement.
The IDF death toll in Gaza since the start of the ground operation there stands at 365, while the figure on all fronts since Oct. 7 of last year is 777.
Also, Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, a member of the Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was fatally wounded during a hostage rescue mission in central Gaza in June; and civilian defense contractor Liron Yitzhak was mortally wounded in the Strip in May.