The war enters its 17th day. IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari delivered a statement to the press this morning (Monday) where he said that the families of 308 IDF fallen and 222 captives were informed.
The Spokesperson addressed events in the Strip, saying “we are continuing to attack all the time in the area of the Strip. In the last day we struck hundreds of terror targets, including tunnels containing Hamas terrorists, dozens of operational commands, military areas, and military positions. As part of the preparation for the next stage, raids were conducted during the night searching for any information we can get regarding the captives.”
He also said that the IDF has over 1000 terrorist bodies and prisoners. “This number attests both to the character of the fighting and the heroism of the soldiers, civilians, and security response teams, who operated under an enormous offensive against bloodthirsty murderers who came to harm us.”
14 Trucks of Humanitarian Aid Entered the Strip, All Were Checked
Hagari addressed the issue of humanitarian aid, saying: “We introduced 14 trucks with water, medicines, and food into the southern Gaza Strip. As opposed to the first group, these humanitarian trucks were checked by our forces. All other supplies, fuels are not entering the Gaza Strip and we are keeping an eye out to make sure Hamas doesn’t take equipment from UNRWA.”
"In the north, we eliminated more squads,” Hagari said, “All in all, 8 terrorist squads who tried to fire anti-tank missiles and rockets over the last day. Since the beginning of the war, over 20 squads were eliminated on the ground, and in response to the latest shooting incidents, we struck Hezbollah infrastructures. We will continue to strike at any fire towards Israel.”
Families of 308 Fallen Soldiers and 222 Captives Were Updated
He also addressed the issue of the missing and captives, saying “We provided notice to the families of 308 fallen IDF soldiers and 222 captives. This number is updated and changed in accordance with estimates, but also because there are not a few foreign citizens, who took time for us to categorize them, we are in touch with all the families of the missing thanks to IDF officers. We will continue to operate in every way possible to bring the captives back home safe.”
In response to reporter questions, the Spokesperson said “The IDF’s operational readiness is improving and tightening. At the end of every day there is a strike. As we speak there is a flight striking dozens of points where we understand the terrorists are gathering and organizing in preparation for the next stages of the war and our role is to reduce those threats, and therefore the more time we are given, the more we use it to improve our readiness and our capabilities to carry out the maneuver better.”