Defense Minister Yoav Gallant toured the Salah al-Din Road in the Gaza Strip today (Tuesday) and noted that "the feeling that we are on the way to stopping is incorrect - without a clear win we will not be able to live in the Middle East."
During the tour of the Gaza Strip together with Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Amir Baram, the Minister of Defense stressed the importance of maintaining the "humanitarian axis" for deepening the achievement in the north of the Gaza Strip and focusing military efforts in the Khan Yunis area.
Gallant met the reserve fighters of the 646th Brigade and thanked them for their activity in combat. "A lot of appreciation for what you do, for being able to operate for three months while the women and children are at home and continue fighting. And recognition, both for the fallen and for the fighters."
According to him, "There is no task more worthy than the task we are doing now. "Israel was attacked in a brutal, cruel way, to discourage us from living here. Three months ago it involved the murder of children and babies and the rape of women, something that no country can allow, certainly not the State of Israel."
"If necessary, we will hold for a period of time that we will decide on the ground"
The Minister of Defense noted the importance of a complete decision in the war. "There is a double need to win the campaign, the first, is to exact a price and make sure that those who live near the Gaza Strip can do so. But the more important thing - if you do not end with a clear decision such as an event where there are about 1500 victims and kidnapped, you cannot live in the Middle East, because tomorrow someone else will come. And so we are determined to achieve the goal."
He also emphasized to the reserve soldiers, "You are on the corridor, the meaning of this matter is that your two sides will soon take place operations of a different kind."
Gallant referred to the fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, "From the north, we destroyed 12 Hamas battalions. It's not that all the terrorists are dead, but the framework in which someone can pick up binoculars, report back, mortars are coming down, and from here the Major General maneuvers a force table - it doesn't exist."
According to him, "Terrorists remained the order of magnitude of a few thousand out of 15 or 18 thousand that were in the sector. A large part was eliminated and another part fled to the south. This means that in this place, tactically, what we will do operatively, is operations that are a fire attack, maneuvering entrances, and special operations, And if necessary, we will hold on the ground for a period of time that we will decide. But the goal is to exhaust the enemy, kill him, and achieve a reality in which we control the area."
"We are isolating the Khan Yunis area"
Gallant also referred to the fighting in the south of the Gaza Strip, "the reality is different, in the area of Khan Yunis and its surroundings we are carrying out a cross-stage effort, it has nothing to do with the process. It is focused on what is above the tunnels where senior Hamas officials are hiding, at great depths, so we are already reaching them by all means and this is already happening.
"We are isolating the Khan Yunis area and the effort will continue as an intensified effort. Your course of action changes as a function of what we have accomplished and the assessment of the situation. We are not giving up, it's not that we are stopping activity now, because there is a wrong feeling here that I hear from many places."
"The results will be clear. We end this campaign when Hamas does not function as a governing body and certainly not as a military framework that sends troops and now continues to strengthen, it will take its time.
"We will start a process of preparation in the north"
Finally, the minister mentioned the northern front. "At the same time, unfortunately, there are other threats, the first and most prominent of which is what is happening in the north, and for this issue, we will begin a process of preparation and we are constantly with an eye on binoculars and finger on the trigger regarding what is happening in the north."