Defense Minister Yoav Gallant provided a situational assessment for the public while in the war room today (Monday), explaining the IDF's achievements but also warning that there are still hard days of fighting ahead.
After praising the work of the IDF and all its soldiers and officers and stressing how the government is taking the job of returning northern residents to their homes seriously, Gallant then listed the accomplishments of military operations so far.
First, he addressed the IDF's and Israel's success in eliminating almost all the top Hezbollah commanders and many mid-level ones:
"In one week, you can say that Nasrallah is alone at the top in many ways. Radwan forces suffered the mortal blow of the elimination of their whole leadership - sector commanders, brigade commanders, and staff commanders headed by [Ibrahim] Aqil. We took entire units out of commission ... as a result of activities which were in the beginning of the week where very many terrorists were hurt."
Then he addressed the IDF's success in attacking Hezbollah's most potent strategic weapon - its rocket arsenal:
"I think that this day is the crown jewel. On this day, in effect, we reached a situation where tens of thousands of rockets, precise and other missiles were taken out of commission...what was built for 20 years...is being ground down by us and this action is a very impressive one."
He ended by cautioning against complacency: "The enemy intends to fire on us in many places around the country and what this means is you need to warn and Israeli citizens in all locations must heed the instructions of Rear Command. This is something that's very important and very central."