Israel is marking three months Sunday since Palestinian terrorists attacked on October 7, killing 1,200 people; wounding several thousand more; abducting nearly 250 hostages; and launching a war that has seen millions of civilians on both sides displaced.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that Israel had succeeded in dismantling Hamas’s terror infrastructure in the northern third of Gaza, and was now focused on the central and southern portion of the territory. Palestinian sources — controlled by Hamas — say that some 22,000 people have been killed. Of these, a large proportion are terrorists; Israel estimates that it has killed about 8,500 terrorists in combat, meaning the ratio of civilians to combatants killed is relatively low.
Hagari also issued a statement in which he commemorated the day — and issued a stern warning to the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon not to provoke Israel into a second war front.
In a statement, Hagari said:
On October 8th, Hezbollah — Iran’s proxy in Lebanon — joined into the war started by Hamas, when Hezbollah began attacking Israel from our border in the north.
Israel has been responding and will continue to respond — forcefully — to Hezbollah’s aggression.
Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into an unnecessary war — for the sake of Hamas.
Hezbollah is seeking an escalation despite the unwanted destruction it could bring to the people of Lebanon — in addition to the unnecessary suffering it’s already bringing to the people of southern Lebanon — and for what? For the sake of Hamas.
Hezbollah is risking the future of the region — all for the sake of Hamas.
…
The diplomatic window may be short, but it’s still open.
To those dragging the region to an unnecessary escalation, our message is clear:
The people of Israel, the people of Gaza, the people of Lebanon, and indeed the entire region — deserve a future of peace, progress and prosperity — and not the death and destruction that Hamas and Hezbollah seek.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets and anti-tank missiles at Israel since the Hamas terror attack, and Israel has responded by attacking the sources of fire. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been mocked for refusing to commit his forces to a more aggressive attack, but Israel has amassed over 100,000 troops at the northern border and has threatened a devastating response. Nasrallah repeated his threats after Israel eliminated the deputy leader of Hamas in a targeted strike in Beirut last week.
In Gaza, Israel’s senior military leaders joined local troops in a situational assessment of the fighting against Hamas in the city of Khan Yunis, where Hamas terrorist leaders are thought to be hiding, possibly using over 120 Israeli hostages as human shields.
In a statement to the troops, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said:
Deep appreciation, this is a complex operation, I think that the combination both of the pace and handling urban warfare, the idea of securing the area, exploring underground, we want to reach areas above ground, spread out as well underground. We will achieve significant and quality results, and you have a very significant advantage over those fighting against you. There is no force in the entire Gaza Strip like yours, not personally, not institutionally, not in equipment, not in capabilities, not in training. So go ahead and push forward.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also issued a statement (translation via Government Press Office):
Three months ago Hamas committed a terrible massacre against us.
My government directed the IDF to go to war to eliminate Hamas, return our hostages and ensure that Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel.
The war must not be stopped until we achieve all of the goals.
We will not give Hamas any immunity whatsoever, and we will fight until we restore security in both the south and the north. Until then, and to that end, everything must be put aside and we must continue with united forces until absolute victory is achieved.
Efforts to release the hostages continue, though Hamas has refused to negotiate any longer unless Israel ends the war, which is not likely to happen. Families of some of the hostages visited officials Saturday in Qatar, which has acted as an intermediary.
Israel has lost over 500 soldiers in the war thus far, of whom 176 have been killed since the Gaza invasion began in late October.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
