Israel is shifting the offensive to the southern Gaza Strip after announcing that it has completed the mission to destroy Hamas infrastructure in the northern Gaza Strip. According to Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari Hamas no longer operates in an organized manner in the north, but sporadic fighting and rocket fire are still possible from this area towards the Drunken State because there are still soldiers who are “untrained and without commanders”.
SouthHagari explains that Israeli forces will act differently than in the north, where entire neighborhoods have been destroyed by bombings and ground fighting. The IDF spokesman emphasized that 8,000 Hamas fighters have been killed since the conflict began.
THE Refugee camps now under attack by the militarysays Hagari, are full of armed men, and “an underground tunnel city” has been discovered beneath Khan Yunis in the south.
The forecast: “We will fight until 2024”
“We will fight in Gaza all year round, that's for sure,” Israeli Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi assured at a meeting at the Israel Defense Forces Central Command, Haaretz reports.
2024 will be “a challenging year,” said Halevi, also referring to the conflict with Hezbollah on the northern border. It was the Lebanese Shiite militias who decided to start hostilities, and the IDF “forces them to pay an ever-increasing price.” If there were to be a war with Lebanon, we would be able to handle it “excellently,” he assured.
Gallant: “The war will not end until all the hostages are freed”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, meanwhile, met with representatives of the families of the hostages and assured them that military activities in Gaza will not stop until all the people kidnapped by Hamas are released. The fighting “will increase pressure on Hamas and help free the hostages,” Gallant said, according to his office, quoted by Haaretz.
“Hamas developed cruise missiles thanks to Iran”
Meanwhile, Israeli army soldiers in Gaza City have discovered technical equipment that would demonstrate Hamas's ability to build cruise missiles, a capability it was previously unaware of and which it received thanks to Iran. During a tunnel raid, soldiers from the Nahal Brigade and special forces found “components that show that terrorists from the terrorist organization Hamas learned to operate and build precision components and strategic weapons under Iranian guidance,” the IDF claims. They showed images of what appeared to be the rocket engine and warhead of a cruise missile developed by Hamas.
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