In an interview with the American Arabic channel Al-Hurra on Friday evening, IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that Israel had succeeded, using precise intelligence and ammunition, in killing Sinwar's associate, Rawhi Mushtaha. This is a senior Hamas official whom the IDF announced was attacked last November in a ground compound.
Three months later, the era of daily declarations by the IDF Spokesperson is over
The interviewer asked what Hagari would say about the fact that 40% of the missiles launched by the IDF are stupid missiles. The IDF Spokesperson replied: "This is an incorrect claim. It is important to emphasize this. We use precision munitions in accordance with international law. We have precise intelligence and were able to kill Ahmad Ghandour and the profits of Mushtaha underground. We are also hitting Nasrallah's places in Lebanon with precision. Our enemies know that."
During the interview, Brigadier General Hagari was asked about achieving the goals in the war: "So far we have killed about 9,000 Hamas terrorists. We killed military commanders, destroyed infrastructure that Hamas had built under hospitals, from which they carried out acts of terror and fired missiles at us. Hamas established an entire rocket manufacturing industry there. He set up all this under hospitals and under roads and homes so that we wouldn't attack him and so that civilians would continue to be human shields." According to him, it is the Gazans who "pay a heavy price because of the presence of the terror machine established by Hamas. We need to bring 136 abductees back home."
Dozens of terrorists detained at Kamel Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip (archive), photo: IDF Spokesperson
Hagari was later asked if Israel would establish a security zone to prevent Palestinians from approaching the border fence. "We will have to see how we create the new defense zone so that there is no longer a threat to us. Before that, we must dismantle Hamas," Hagari replied.
The IDF Spokesperson also responded to the question of whether Israel would allow residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes: "I called on the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to go south to safer places. We in the State of Israel operate in accordance with international law. The residents will undoubtedly be able to return to the northern Gaza Strip when circumstances permit. There are terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip who launch rockets at Israel, so we must fight terrorism and make sure that all the circumstances are appropriate. When there is no terror, conditions will be ready for the return of the Palestinian residents. There is a common mistake – there is no intention for the State of Israel to expel the residents. We will live alongside the Palestinian residents."
Gazans evacuate from al-Bureij in the central Gaza Strip (archive), photo: AP
Against the backdrop of the hearings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Hagari was asked how Israel would respond to those who say that the military is attacking innocents, as happened in the accidental killing of the three abductees in Sejaiya. "Every person killed is a great tragedy and every innocent Palestinian civilian killed is a tragedy," the IDF spokesman said. Hamas' modus operandi is to hide among the civilians because that serves it. The deaths of civilians in Gaza serve Hamas around the world. Who builds tunnels under schools and hospitals and kindergartens? This is unparalleled in the world. Hamas operatives move in civilian clothes and we try to get away from the civilians."
Northern Front
Asked about the relative quiet in the north, the IDF Spokesperson explained: "Peace and calm have always been the Israeli aspiration, Nasrallah acts differently for the residents of Lebanon. He decided on October 8 to join the war alongside Hamas and he is doing it for Iran, we must not forget that. Who pays the price? Residents of southern Lebanon. And the danger is that all over Lebanon will deteriorate into this."
Regarding the possibility of expanding military activity in the north, Hagari said: "Nasrallah built the Radwan unit along the border with Israel over the years, he wanted to do to us what Hamas did on October 7. Nasrallah established the Radwan intelligence unit for this purpose of attacking us. We will work to destroy it. He did so while endangering many Lebanese Shiites, and not only."
Documentation of the attack in southern Lebanon, photo: Arab networks
Regarding the question of what can be done to prevent a war in the north, the IDF Spokesperson said: "I think it's very simple. Nasrallah must stop the fire and withdraw all his forces, so that there will be no terrorist near the border with Israel. Not in civilian clothes and not in the various lies and deceptions that Hezbollah is now doing as it lies to its citizens. He has to go back, he and his terrorists, otherwise they will get more coffins. Israel will not allow an attack like October 7 from Lebanese territory.
"Instead of Lebanon paying the price for the adventures of Nasrallah and Iran, then the State of Lebanon should bear its responsibility and work to ensure that Lebanon distances itself from these events and maintains its growth, the right of all citizens in Lebanon, Gaza and Israel to live in peace, without an Iran that is trying through the Houthis and Hezbollah to harm everything."
"We want Iran to be deterred, we want Lebanon to flourish, for Gaza to return to what it was, and for there to be an initiative that this region will be better and safer, and that anyone who wants destruction and destruction will be wiped out."
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