Gallant: IDF using new methods to deal with tunnels, preventing Hamas abusing humanitarian corridor

TOI   9 November 2023, 8:45 pm  

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant repeats in a press statement that Israel will not stop the fighting against the Hamas terror group in Gaza until the at least 239 captives held in the Strip are returned.

He notes the dozens of kids abducted and held by “animals,” vowing: “We won’t stop the fighting until we get them back. What father stops looking for their children? I see them as my own kids.”

Gallant claims that Hamas members hiding in tunnels under Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital are hearing the IDF’s operations in the area, feeling them draw near, “and shaking with fear.”

He again vows Israel will get to all the terrorists who took part in the October 7 Hamas massacres in southern Israel, saying this could take a month, a year, or even years if needed.

Turning to the northern front, Gallant says Hezbollah has been “trying to harm us as well, suffering blow after blow.”

He warns that the Air Force pilots are ready and waiting orders, with an “eye to the north.”

Calling the war “the most justified that Israel has ever fought” in its 75 years of independence, he says it is a fight “against evil, against those who wanted to publicly display the murders [on October 7] to drive us out of our land.” He says he has spoken with fighters who told him they’ll do “everything” to achieve victory.

He hails the importance of the IDF reserves, as well as the military industry employees and others working for Israel’s security establishment in the ongoing war.

He vows Israel will rebuild and restore the communities near Gaza ravaged on October 7 and evacuated days later.

“Thousands of volunteers from all strata of society are helping the farmers near Gaza,” he says. “They know that agriculture, settlement and security are one and the same. Therefore,” he promises, “we will rebuild the communities, we will seed the fields and we will return to life — to the routine of life” in those areas ravaged by the Hamas massacres.”

One reporter notes that IDF soldiers were seen calling out in Hebrew to people evacuating northern Gaza via the humanitarian corridor today, apparently out of concern that hostages were being moved by their Hamas captors.

Gallant says the IDF is employing unspecified methods to ensure Hamas fighters and Israeli hostages aren’t among the tens of thousands of people evacuating. “We take everything into account. First, we want all the Palestinian [noncombatants] to leave Gaza City. That is important so that we have freedom of action [against Hamas]. We don’t want to harm them. Those who don’t head south are placing themselves in danger.

We have methods… to ensure that those who leave are those who are supposed to leave, and that we get our hands on all the rest.”